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Matthew Keville

Hometown Kindle Edition

by Matthew Keville (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

119 ratings

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Shadows walk in the autumn mist.

It's the Fall of 1994 in the small milltown of Belford, New York. The leaves are turning, the kids are going back to school, and the heat of Summer is giving way to a cool, misty season. It happens every Fall.

Only this Fall, people are disappearing into that mist. Some people are found torn apart, some people are found dead for no reason, and some people aren't found at all. Other people see strange things in the mist: ghosts and campfire stories.

There's something out there in that mist. Something old. Something that has slept for a long time, but has now woken up hungry. Maybe the people of Belford could resist it, but as the terrible Fall wears on, more and more of them start...changing. Acting bizarre and violent. In the end, only a small group of teenage defenders are left to make their stand.

Print length

771 pages
Language

English
Publication date

August 1, 2014
File size

1386 KB
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Matthew Keville wrote his first short stories in first grade, when the books on the shelves didn't have the stories he wanted. The stories have been his constant friends since then, and they've carried him through some hard times. He grew up in a small town where you either leave at eighteen or live there forever. He elected to leave at eighteen. Now he lives in New York City where everyone is only working as a waiter or bus driver or stockbroker until they make it on Broadway. This makes him different and special, because he's only working as a paralegal until he makes it as a writer. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00MD38X2O
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 1, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1386 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 771 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #618,375 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4,192 in Occult Horror
- #6,385 in Occult Fiction

Customer Reviews:
119 ratings

About the author

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Matthew Keville

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Matthew Keville is a writer of horror and urban fantasy who tells stories of the terrors lurking in the small-town dark and the wonders hidden in the secret places of the City.

Matthew wrote his first short stories in first grade, when the books on the shelves didn't have the stories he wanted. The stories have been his constant friends since then, and they've carried him through some hard times.

He grew up in a small town where you either leave at eighteen or live there forever. He elected to leave at eighteen. Now he lives in New York City where everyone is only working as a waiter or bus driver or stockbroker until they make it on Broadway. This makes him different and special, because he's only working as a corporate compliance analyst until he makes it as a writer.

Customer reviews

5 star		59%
4 star		23%
3 star		12%
2 star		2%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Catriona Lovett

I Was Shocked, Scared, Angry -- and Then I Cried

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2021

Verified Purchase

There's a great evil growing in the small town of Belford.

A group of seniors begin to suspect that the sudden uptick of strange disappearances, sudden deaths, and savage murders are more than coincidence. But, they're outsiders: bullied and looked down on by other kids and singled out unfairly by teachers. The authority figures they turn to dismiss their concerns, if they'll even listen. They are on their own.

I loved this book, and I usually don't care for novels where teens are the central characters (high school is about 45 years in my rearview). But, who can't relate to kids who try to fight a supernatural enemy alone while all the adults are either hostile or going crazy?

Michael Keville has great insight into the issues that young people ordinarily deal with in high school, especially if they have differences that set them apart. I haven't cared so much about an ensemble cast of characters since Stephen King's The Stand. It astonished me to learn that it's the author's first novel.

There's violence, sexual violence, swearing, and stuff out of nightmares. There's also frank discussion of disturbing real-life themes. This horror fan recommends Hometown for mature teens and adults of all ages.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

A small mill town

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2018

Verified Purchase

has a secret history of recurring blood and mayhem. In 1994, a group of high school students confront the entity behind these atrocities with catastrophic results. Most of the characters here are teenagers with issues ranging from drink to drugs to sex to abusive behavior. The characterization is good, but there are so many it occasionally becomes difficult to keep track of who is who. I liked the way the history was worked into the story - paraphrases and commentary on old newspaper articles.

6 people found this helpful

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Ben

Small town, big terror

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2015

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Hometown is a great first novel from Matthew Keville that captures the essence of growing up in a small town, particularly the one in upstate NY in which he and I grew up. (Full disclosure, we went to high school together.) The horror genre gives him an opportunity to explore the simmering tensions just beneath the apparently quaint surface: the poverty and loss of industry, the historical vs. the modern, the cool vs. the rejects, the mansions vs. the trailer parks, and the haves vs. the have nots. The novel asks us, what if what if all of the darkness buried beneath the picket fences was let loose? What if some catalyst initiated an unstoppable chain reaction of all that we have collectively repressed and oppressed?

Two main features stood out to me as excellent in this novel. The first is character development. It was occasionally difficult to pick the book up after a long day because I had grown to care about the characters, and the tension of the action was sometimes too much after after a long day! Occasionally, I just couldn't bear to see my favorites going through so much, which is the mark of a very good developing writer indeed. The characters were nuanced, especially the "good" characters, and I liked them on a personal level. I felt I knew them. The "bad guys" were utterly despicable.

The other excellent feature -- for me -- is the landscape of the town itself. It isn't going too far to call the town a character in this book, and it has that feel of something alive. I was vividly taken back to the place where I grew up, as though the town reached out and pulled me back. In that sense, this book exactly expresses the idea of Freud's uncanny or unheimlich: the familiar that turns to terror as it mixes with the unfamiliar. "The call is coming from inside the house," as it were. That is this book to a "t." We have met the enemy, and he is us.

This is the most fun I've had reading in a while. I will very much look forward to watching Keville hone his craft in further novels, and will be on the lookout for his next book.

13 people found this helpful

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Erin Truxell

Great horror story

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2020

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If you can get past the teenagers and get to know them they are essential to the book. They do everything typical terms do and perhaps a bit more. It is a book of horror that runs around and has for hundreds of years. People die, disappear
and old haunts come to life. Who will love and who will die or will it be the whole town. Head on over to Belford N.Y.., join the fun. Stop by the high school. You will.spend a good bit of time there. Most of all enjoy a very readable book.

One person found this helpful

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Lynn Craycroft

Helpless thru the whole book…..until the end

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2021

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I made alot of tears thru this book. Quite frankly an exhausting read. I kept hoping for the end to come soon…. Couldn’t handle so much tragedy. Story was great and different, characters were very real and believable. Totally unputdownable!

One person found this helpful

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james

an anti-capitalist allegory ?

Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2019

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on one level this is just a YA horror story but is just ok. On another reading it could be an allegory about how capitalism - the Mill - devours and kills entire populations and how its evils have to be challenged in the same way that good challenges evil generally. On the other hand maybe its just wishful thinking on my part ?

3 people found this helpful

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Diane Drouillard

Hometown.....

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2020

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This is the first book by this author that I've read...I have to say I really enjoyed the story. The characters were believable and the story didn't feel rushed or one dimensional like a lot of books today do. If you enjoy paranormal then you will definitely enjoy this.. It has a real Stephen King feel to it...
I can't wait to read more from Matthew Keville.

One person found this helpful

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late night reader

A good read

Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book was decent. Characters and scenery are great. Would have liked more backstory about the entity like from the grandpa or the Indians. Got repetitive at some points when I think including more backstory would have rounded out book better. If you like horror stories I would read this book.

One person found this helpful

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Mister Madel

Netter Versuch

Reviewed in Germany on December 18, 2019

Verified Purchase

Man kann zwiegespalten über diese Geschichte sein.. einerseits fand ich die Umgebung der Stadt und auch die Legenden sehr spannend.
Andererseits ist das ganze viel zu strukturiert und ausufernd.

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