The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess

Possession is an addiction. Marino offers horrors both existential and visceral. From a stunning opening, the sense of dread just builds and builds. -M. R. Carey, author of The Girl with All the Gifts. Odd and dark and fascinating. Not quite like anything I've ever read before. A strange, compelling, late-night page-turner. It kept me reading way past my bedtime. -T. Kingfisher, author of The Hollow Places.

Format: Hardback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 21 October 2021
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

Marino is a horror novel that delves into both existential and visceral themes. From the very beginning, the sense of dread steadily intensifies, creating an atmosphere of unease that lingers throughout the story. Author M. R. Carey describes it as "odd and dark and fascinating," noting that it is unlike anything he has ever read before. The novel is a strange, compelling, and late-night page-turner that kept readers reading well past their bedtime.

The protagonist of the novel is Sydney, a woman who has spent years burying her past and building a better life for herself and her young son. She has a respectable marketing job, a cozy house filled with reclaimed and sustainable furniture, and a loving boyfriend who accepts her flaws and loves her unconditionally. However, everything changes when Sydney opens her front door to find a masked intruder knocking her unconscious.

When she wakes up in the hospital, she recounts a harrowing story of escape, involving dashing out a broken window and running into her neighbors' yard to call the police. However, the cops tell her a different story. The intruder is now lying dead in her guest room, murdered in a way that looks intimately personal. Sydney cannot remember killing the man, and no one believes her.

Back home, as horrific memories resurface, an unnatural darkness begins whispering in Sydney's ear, urging her to return to her old addictions and a past she has buried in an attempt to create a better life for herself and her son. The darkness grows stronger, transforming into something unimaginable and revealing terrible cravings of its own.

As Sydney searches for the truth among the wreckage of her past, the unquiet darkness continues to grow, changing into something that defies comprehension. The novel explores themes of addiction, trauma, and the consequences of buried secrets, leaving readers with a sense of dread and unease long after the last page is turned.

Weight: 304g
Dimension: 159 x 339 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780316629485