2024 Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel
2023 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel (nominee)
A small town is transformed by dark magic when strange apple trees begin bearing fruit in this new masterpiece of horror from the bestselling author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents.
It's autumn in Harrow, but something is changing in the town besides the season.
Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard grows a new sort of apple: strange and beautiful, with skin so red it's nearly black.
Take a bite of one of these apples and you will you will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But soon your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing - and become darker.
This is what happens when the townsfolk discover the secret of the orchard. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples . . . and what's the harm, if it is making them all happier, more confident, more powerful?
But now the leaves are falling. The days grow darker. And a stranger has come to town, a stranger who knows Harrow's secrets. Because it's harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown.
Genre: Horror
It's autumn in Harrow, but something is changing in the town besides the season.
Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard grows a new sort of apple: strange and beautiful, with skin so red it's nearly black.
Take a bite of one of these apples and you will you will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But soon your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing - and become darker.
This is what happens when the townsfolk discover the secret of the orchard. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples . . . and what's the harm, if it is making them all happier, more confident, more powerful?
But now the leaves are falling. The days grow darker. And a stranger has come to town, a stranger who knows Harrow's secrets. Because it's harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown.
Genre: Horror
Praise for this book
"An essential for horror readers, and buy it for new horror readers - it will convert them instantly." - V Castro
"Dark. Visceral. Creepy. Smart. Deep. So red it's dark brown. Chuck Wendig's Black River Orchard slithers and shines, its dangerous belly full of dark magic and accusations. I've been a fan of Wendig for years, and this is his best novel yet." - Gabino Iglesias
"A gripping story of love and legacies gone rotten, deeply rooted in the landscape and as twisty and gnarled as an ancient apple tree." - T Kingfisher
"This will undoubtedly be heralded as one of the finest horror novels of the twenty-first century." - Eric LaRocca
"A fresh and unexpected horror feat, expertly drawing from the ancient, endless wells of our greatest fears." - Premee Mohamed
"Chuck Wendig is one of my very favorite storytellers. Black River Orchard is a deep, dark, luscious tale that creeps up on you and doesn't let go." - Erin Morgenstern
"Enchanting, exquisite and dark, Chuck Wendig masterfully weaves a new horrifying fairy tale in Black River Orchard." - Cynthia Pelayo
"Creepy and insidious, Black River Orchard whets your appetite and then turns you inside out." - Hailey Piper
"Black River Orchard should come with a warning label: You'll never bite into another apple without remembering this dark, demented, and genuinely frightening novel." - Jason Rekulak
"An epic saga that is at once a propulsive horror novel and a parable, a thriller and a cautionary tale, Black River Orchard is the immensely talented Chuck Wendig at his finest." - Lisa Unger
"Dark. Visceral. Creepy. Smart. Deep. So red it's dark brown. Chuck Wendig's Black River Orchard slithers and shines, its dangerous belly full of dark magic and accusations. I've been a fan of Wendig for years, and this is his best novel yet." - Gabino Iglesias
"A gripping story of love and legacies gone rotten, deeply rooted in the landscape and as twisty and gnarled as an ancient apple tree." - T Kingfisher
"This will undoubtedly be heralded as one of the finest horror novels of the twenty-first century." - Eric LaRocca
"A fresh and unexpected horror feat, expertly drawing from the ancient, endless wells of our greatest fears." - Premee Mohamed
"Chuck Wendig is one of my very favorite storytellers. Black River Orchard is a deep, dark, luscious tale that creeps up on you and doesn't let go." - Erin Morgenstern
"Enchanting, exquisite and dark, Chuck Wendig masterfully weaves a new horrifying fairy tale in Black River Orchard." - Cynthia Pelayo
"Creepy and insidious, Black River Orchard whets your appetite and then turns you inside out." - Hailey Piper
"Black River Orchard should come with a warning label: You'll never bite into another apple without remembering this dark, demented, and genuinely frightening novel." - Jason Rekulak
"An epic saga that is at once a propulsive horror novel and a parable, a thriller and a cautionary tale, Black River Orchard is the immensely talented Chuck Wendig at his finest." - Lisa Unger
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