Place Beyond, The - Softcover

Lohner, Ryan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782799125 ISBN 13: 9781782799122

Verlag: John Hunt Publishing, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

A futuristic parallel universe filled with unimaginable technology. Rebels fighting against its tyrannical government who’ll do anything to crush the rebellion. Three friends trapped searching for a missing classmate have only a week to find him and escape before being in the new world kills them. Outnumbered and alone, they need to discover who they can trust and what friendship and love really mean, fast. And one final question to answer…Are you sure you're in the right universe? An absorbing debut novel from an exciting new voice in YA fiction, for fans of classic science fiction adventure, coming of age romance and strong female characters.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Ryan Lohner studied Creative Writing at Fairleigh Dickson University, before undertaking a Master's degree in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University. He has interned at Marvel Comics, the Conjuring Arts Research Centre's private library of magician's effects, and run a popular YouTube Channel. The Place Beyond is Ryan's debut novel. He lives in Sparta, New Jersey.

Ryan Lohner studied Creative Writing at Fairleigh Dickson University, before undertaking a Master's degree in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University. He has interned at Marvel Comics, the Conjuring Arts Research Centre's private library of magician's effects, and run a popular YouTube Channel. The Place Beyond is Ryan's debut novel. He lives in Sparta, New Jersey.

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The Place Beyond

By Ryan Lohner

John Hunt Publishing Ltd.

Copyright © 2017 Ryan Lohner
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78279-912-2

CHAPTER 1

Matt's first impression of Berkland was not a promising one. The town lay nestled in the heart of southern New Jersey, close to the legendary Pine Barrens. He'd never heard of them himself before moving here, but his parents had made such a big deal about it that he figured he should do some research. It turned out that the place was a hotbed of supernatural theories, the most famous being the Jersey Devil, the supposed product of a poor family from the colonial days cursing its thirteenth child. There was also a whole assortment of other weird tales, including loud booming sounds that were supposedly heard echoing from deep within the woods, alongside sightings of bizarre animals. What was missing though, oddly enough, was any real proof.

Creepy stories surrounding the places he lived was nothing new to Matt. His parents, Steve and Amy Orticus, were both writers for Unknowns, the kind of magazine typically called a trash rag. Frankly, even that was probably being polite. Their bread and butter was anything to do with the strange and unexplainable: alien abductions, missing links, mad scientists, and all manner of other craziness regularly featured in Steve and Amy's stories, just begging to be sneered at by the masses. In his younger, gullible years, he had eaten the stuff up, but he'd long since grown out of that blissful, unquestioning phase. Now he didn't believe a word of it, but as for his parents, he wasn't quite sure. They were certainly enthusiastic enough about following up the stories, but he had noticed a definite reluctance to discuss their work in any detail with him. He didn't let it bother him anymore. Those articles put food on the table, and that was as far as he cared about them.

Berkland was next up on the weirdness trail; a regular tourist trap, preying on the strange souls desperate for a taste of the preternatural for themselves. A few trips into town had shown Matt that cheap and tacky souvenirs popped up everywhere, and business was always good. After all, he thought, there was no end to people who wanted to be fooled.

He gazed out at the patch of the Barrens that bordered the town. Nothing he could see was any different from any other forest. In fact, it looked perfectly inviting to his eyes. There were times, when he was just a kid, they had lived in areas like this, places trespassing on the doorstep of the wild. Matt couldn't help grinning as he remembered days spent tramping through dense woods, stumbling across an old hut, or a cave, maybe just the remains of someone's camp, and letting it fire up his imagination; running home for dinner, full of stories of aliens camping out or vampires hiding from the light of day.

The grin slid off his face as swiftly as it had arrived. But all too soon they would be off to a big city somewhere – covering the mayor's evil plot to slip mind control drugs into the water or whatnot, and he would find himself in yet one more school, trying to make friends again with kids he had nothing in common with and longing for the next move that would take him back to the land he preferred. At least Berkland was country. That much he could be grateful for. This time, though, the rural quiet didn't ease his mind the way it usually did. This time, he was worried about something quite different.

Matt was adopted. Steve and Amy had been completely open about this since he was old enough to understand the concept. As for Matt, as far as he was concerned, Steve and Amy were his parents. They were the ones who had loved him and seen him through everything. It was them who sat up with him when he had his chest infections and couldn't breathe. They were the ones who picked him up and comforted him when he fell. He had no interest at all in seeking out the two people who biologically held that title. However, for some reason, he was in the minority. Matt couldn't even remember all of the times classmates and teachers, even people meeting with his parents who he hardly knew, insisted he should want to know more about his biological parents: meet with them. No, being adopted was not the problem, the real issue was that his skin was just enough darker than his mom and dad for it to be instantly noticeable, and people did notice. Often, Matt thought to himself, the people who were quickest to notice were not the nicest individuals. He'd lost count of the number of remarks he'd endured about it. Initially, he'd thought it would get easier. It never had. He couldn't pinpoint exactly when he'd started expecting comments from people, but this lowered expectation of humanity had served him well more times than he would have preferred.

To make things worse, he was starting high school, which would have been hard enough in a familiar community. Now he was at Berkland High, home of the Devils football team, the Crimson gymnastics team, and, it seemed, every sort of team designed purely to remind him how physically inferior he was. Matt had never been fat, but he'd never been any kind of Adonis either. He'd tried working out, but it never stuck. If he'd been in a fairer mood, he might have considered that there were far more students like him than the ones he was worrying about, but the truth was they weren't likely to soothe his nerves either. They all had their own groups and he brought nothing new to the table except what his parents did, which he was always too embarrassed to bring up anyway. As bad as he felt his family situation and physical weakness were, revealing that his parents were pretty much national laughing stock had never once struck him as any kind of good idea.

The move was happening the next day, a Sunday, meaning he was going to be thrown right into the maw on Monday. He'd never quite figured out if getting it over with immediately was better or worse than having time to sweat over stuff.

They had done this so often, they had the logistics down pat. By late Sunday night everything was set up. His parents' prized work computers had been installed in their new office, and his bed was laid out in his new room, where he tossed and turned with anticipation for quite a while, before finally succumbing to a fitful sleep.

The next day started well, with homemade waffles for breakfast. The fine feeling of his favorite food in his stomach lasted just until he met his teacher, Mrs. Lynch who, wreathed in false geniality, led him through into his homeroom. Matt stood there, not really listening, as she mouthed the, by now, familiar speech about how everyone should make him feel welcome. He glanced disinterestedly around the room, his gaze coming to rest on the uncomfortable-looking desks and sadly outdated television in the corner. Next came the painful and pointless exercise of introducing himself to anyone who looked possibly receptive. This garnered the usual flurry of polite "Hellos," and nothing further, leaving him awkwardly standing there, not sure what to do next.

Having played her part, Mrs. Lynch headed off and, encouraged by her absence and the growing silence, people got uncomfortable enough to ignore him again and resume the discussions he'd interrupted. Conversation seemed to center around who had seen what freaky occurrence over the summer, and dissolved into a blur of absurdity that he couldn't penetrate. This, too, was all part of the familiar routine, but even Matt had to admit that the typical goings on at Berkland lent things a whole new flavor of weird. He glanced around, trying not to look as awkward as he felt. The buzz of conversation around him...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: John Hunt Publishing
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1782799125
• ISBN 13: 9781782799122
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 264
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar