The Midnight Game

A group of intersectionally diverse teens are brought together in a creepy old schoolhouse and subjected to various malevolent manifestations of evil by a demon-summoning scheme called the Midnight Game in this simmering horror novel by Murphy (Last One to Die). Ellie, Mei, Reece, Hugo, Toni, and Callum met on the horror internet forum Deddit before agreeing to meet up IRL for the first time to summon the Midnight Man, who is based on an urban legend. Their task sounds simple: call for the Midnight Man at 12 a.m. and don’t let him catch you before he disappears at 3:33 a.m. But after they complete the summoning ritual, terrifying events abound. Separated from one another, some of the teens die in horrible ways. But is it the work of the Midnight Man, or are there more prosaic if gruesome forces at play? The intermittently eerie story alternates between the six teens’ perspectives as well as posts from Deddit, coalescing in a jam-packed read that eschews nuanced characterizations for plentiful hair-raising scares. Ages 12–up. (July)