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WORK TITLE: Bad Man
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(y): Dathan Kahn Auerbach
BIRTHDATE: 1984
WEBSITE: www.1000Vultures.com
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1984.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and novelist.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Dathan Auerbach began writing under the name 1000Vultures with a story titled “Footsteps,” which he posted to the Reddit NoSleep website. He continued the story as a horror series that eventually became his self-published novel Penpal. “Although self-published, the book was no mere vanity project, but a well-crafted, quietly disturbing account of crimes against children—crimes recollected, and ultimately understood, in adulthood,” wrote Washington Post contributor Bill Sheehan.
Auerbach, who has lived in the American South for much of his life, noted in an interview for the Signature Reads website that he had never thought much about being a writer until he “found the right venue,” which was the Reddit website that featured contributors’ stories. “I read tons of those stories before I felt the itch to write one myself,” Auerbach noted in the interview. He added: “The community was so supportive all around (still is, by the way), that the biggest fear I had was that no one would care about what I submitted. I figured that was a risk worth taking, and so I did.”
Auerbach found a publisher for his next novel, Bad Man: A Novel, which tells a story about a young boy who goes missing and the brother who will not give up searching for him. At fifteen years old, Ben is overweight, has a bad leg, and is generally a troubled teenager. One day he takes his half-brother Eric, who is only three years old, to the grocery store in the Florida Panhandle. Nothing seems out of the ordinary until Eric drops his stuffed rhino, Stamp, in the restroom toilet. Ben is cleaning Stamp when he takes his eyes off of Eric for a moment. When he turns to find his brother, Eric is gone. Five years later, Ben finds himself working in the same grocery store that he and Eric were at when Eric disappeared.
Ben’s life, which was not that great to begin with, has been in ruins ever since Eric disappeared. Although almost everyone else has given up on ever finding Eric, Ben continues to look for his brother. Ben’s stepmother, Deidre, is still in mourning all these years later, while Ben’s father and the family are in such dire financial straights that they can barely afford to live in the family house. Working in the grocery store, Ben begins to form some friendships with his fellow workers, including the elderly Beverly, who is the store’s baker, and Marty, a wild young boy who has a mother with an addiction to drugs and an abusive boyfriend.
Meanwhile, Ben continues to feels that there is something wrong. He is especially wary of his cruel boss, Bill Palmer, who appears to Ben to be shady. Ben also finds other people at the store and in general who seem mysterious in some ways. “Yet the protagonist is an unreliable sort himself,” noted USA Today contributor Brian Truitt, adding: “He begins to distrust his own memories as the situation around him spirals out of control, though Ben’s righteous compulsion keeps one engaged in his mission.”
Ben is being watched by a local policeman named James Douchaine, who has been pestered by Ben over the years about Eric’s disappearance. Then Ben gains new hope that Eric will be found after one of his coworkers tells Ben that he saw Eric a few months earlier. Ben’s hope, however, is bolstered by a manic obsession as he begins to suspect that some of his coworkers at the grocery store may have played a role in Eric’s disappearance. Eric and his new friend Marty begin another search for Eric but soon come to suspect that they may be uncovering secrets that others want to keep hidden.
“Auerbach is magnificent with atmosphere, able to conjure dread from a huge array of normally nonthreatening places,” wrote Daniel Kraus in Booklist. A Kirkus Reviews contributor remarked: “An unreliable protagonist and a nebulous finale may put some off, but credit Auerbach for keeping readers on the edges of their seats for the whole ride.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, July 1, 2018, Daniel Kraus, review of Bad Man: A Novel, p. 30.
Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2018, review of Bad Man.
Publishers Weekly, June 11, 2018, review of Bad Man, p. 43.
USA Today, August 21, 2018, Brian Truitt, “Boy Vanishes in Chilling Thriller Bad Man,” p. 5D.
Washington Post Book World, August 13, 2018, Bill Sheehan, “Dathan Auerbach Got His Start as a Horror Writer on Reddit. Now He’s Back with Bad Man.”
ONLINE
Dathan Auerbach website, http://www.1000Vultures.com (October 14, 2018).
Signature Reads, https://www.signature-reads.com/ (August 8, 2018), “An Interview with Dathan Auerbach, Author of Bad Man.”
author 300 cleancrop.jpg
DATHAN AUERBACH
In 2011, I started posting to the NoSleep subreddit under the name 1000Vultures. What began as a single story called Footsteps soon grew into a series, and thanks to the support of my readers, that series became the novel Penpal.
I've lived in the South for pretty much my whole life. Heavy air and asphalt fields. Miles of road stretching through old farms and rocky lots that maybe used to be for something. Folks who are close despite the sprawl of it all.
It's where I think of when I think of anywhere at all. Because there's just so much that can happen in those vacant expanses. In the spaces between the cities and the people who live inside of them.
I write about bad luck and worse people.
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Dathan Auerbach/Photo: © Jamie Stephens
EDITOR'S NOTE:
Dathan Auerbach was born in the southern U.S. and has lived there for most of his life. In 2011, he began posting a series of stories to a forum dedicated to horror. After a Kickstarter campaign that raised over 1000% of its goal, he was able to release the revised and expanded versions of his story as the novel Penpal.
We got the chance to interview Dathan Auerbach, author of Bad Man, about his experiences in becoming a writer, finishing his book, finding inspiration, and more.
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Bad Man
by Dathan Auerbach
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SIGNATURE: Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into writing? When did you
know you wanted to be a writer?
DATHAN AUERBACH: Dumb answer, but I think I knew I wanted to be a writer as soon as I started writing. Like most everyone, I grew up reading comics and novels, watching TV and movies. For me, the best part was always talking to friends afterwards, being shown what I’d failed to see for myself, talking about why one thing happened instead of another, arguing about what might come next. And of course, going on endlessly about how I would have done something better.
I never thought about being a writer, though. Not until I found the right venue. Back in 2011, the subreddit r/NoSleep was tiny but still full of great stories. It was probably a lot rougher around the edges then, but I don’t think that was a bad thing; it felt real sometimes. More often than not, maybe. I read tons of those stories before I felt the itch to write one myself. The community was so supportive all around (still is, by the way), that the biggest fear I had was that no one would care about what I submitted. I figured that was a risk worth taking, and so I did.
About halfway through that first story – “Footsteps” – I realized that I loved writing. I didn’t have any thoughts or aspirations or dreams attached to that sensation. It was just a feeling. But sometimes that’s all it takes.
SIG: How long did it take to finish your book? How has it changed since you first began
writing it?
DA: Bad Man took me about three years to finish. It actually started as part of a short story collection I wanted to write. The core of the story was always the same. Most of the beats are the same. And some details aside, the current ending is the one as what’s in the very first draft."When you spend too long trying to finesse, whether it’s phrasing or story, you might actually just be shining shackles."
TWEET THIS QUOTE
I’ve lost some characters along the way. I had this really great janitor in the story for a long time. Unfortunately, he didn’t really do much except entertain me, so I had to fire him from the book.
Other characters have stepped aggressively out of the background where they once lived. There’s a police officer in the book who’s integral to so many things that happen I can’t imagine it any other way. I’ll read the book and think, “Well, yeah of course he is. Just look.” But then I remember that he didn’t use to be, that originally he loomed more in one of the character’s mind than he did in the story itself.
SIG: Do you have any specific or strange writing rituals that get you into a groove?
DA: Never really thought about it, and now I’m way more aware of myself than I wanna be. Turns out I do have some rituals that I’ve only just become aware of. First, you wanna drink some (read: tons of) coffee. Next, open your laptop and hope that Windows hasn’t encountered a fatal error. Since it has, you’re gonna want to reboot and have more coffee. After you get the Word doc opened, you find your place and try to make sense of the notes you left for yourself. Meanwhile, fire up Spotify and shuffle your playlist. For me, it’s mostly music without vocals. A lot of synthwave stuff that I find good for writing – Carpenter Brut, Perturbator, Occams Laser, Dynatron. Or more chill tunes from people like Kyo Itachi or DRWN..
Once everything’s all set, go ahead and take a break.
SIG: Which three books would you bring with you to a deserted island?
DA: I’m gonna try to answer this without being cute about it. So, I won’t say something like The Essential Ellison or The Collected Works of the Entire World. I’ll try to pick standard type books.
First, I’d take House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. This is a puzzle disguised as a book, something that manages to physically represent its themes and contents through its presentation. It’s maddening, confusing, weird, and unnerving. It’s a work of art. I think I could return to this book over and over again to find new things even if I wasn’t looking for them.
Watership Down by Richard Adams would be in the same bag. It’s the right combination of whimsy and weight for me. The society, customs, lore, and characters are so deeply interesting that you can’t help but extend the tale beyond what’s provided, even though it wants for nothing. My dreams about what might have come before and after the story will be good company. Its heart will come in handy when mine falters.
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. I know it might seem like I’m throwing this on the list to seem deep, but here comes the twist: I’m bringing it because I think my understanding of it is too shallow, and now I’ll have nothing but time. I know the gist, of course. I see the journey of the soul. But poems are very challenging for me. I often find them hard to understand, compositionally and syntactically. I’m just not good at reading them. But there’s a profound beauty in this one that I can already see, even with my dim abilities. I’d like the opportunity to see it more clearly.
SIG: In your opinion, has there ever been a movie adaption better than the original book?
DA: Of course. There are probably hundreds, right? They’re very different mediums, and some stories will always thrive more in one or the other. I guess it depends on the story you’re trying to tell and how you’re trying to tell it.
Most recently, I think the first book of the Southern Reach series Annihilation worked better as a movie. Even setting aside some of the narrative differences, I think you needed those visceral and jarring visuals as part of the depiction of that world and what happens in it. It was one of those times where I found myself going, “you know what? My imagination is not better than what I’m being shown right now.”
SIG: Which three authors would you invite to a dinner party and why?
DA: Tough one. Mostly because I don’t really like dinner parties.
Scott Snyder would be fun to talk to. He wrote (among tons of other things) the New 52 Batman, which I loved. I think he really understands and respects who that character is; or at the very least, he showcases what happens to make Batman and his whole existence compelling to me – his unrivaled skills as a detective, the nuances of his weaknesses. I’d love to hear him talk about his approach and what he thinks about other runs.
Cormac McCarthy because I think he’s a genius. Tone and atmosphere are two of the most important things in literature and also two of the most difficult to set. McCarthy is an absolute master. The descriptions themselves are often beautifully written, but his language is also performative. You feel the brutality of the environment through the curtness of the sentences themselves. I think that’s amazing. Also, it might make it easier for me to tell what he thinks of my dinner party.
Finally, H. P. Lovecraft gets an invite because cosmic horror is just so incredibly dope, and he’s its architect. Fear explored through the incomprehensible is such treacherous and unstable ground to write on that I think it’s a wonder it ever took form at all. Still, despite all that he built, it’s said that Lovecraft never believed in himself. I struggle with the same thing, as I’m sure many people do. While I like to picture him continuously trying to lead the conversation in the insane direction of mental gateways to nightmare dimensions, truly I think the contrast between his storytelling sensibilities and the literary dispositions of the other guests (and myself) would probably make for a profoundly interesting and bizarre conversation. Plus, his outrageous and horrible views on race would distract from the fact that I forgot to prepare food for my own shindig.
SIG: Do you have any advice for young writers?
DA: I’m a little hesitant to tackle this question, because I feel like I still need advice. What’s that thing about the blind leading the blind? “When the blind lead the blind, everything’s fine”? That might not be it.
I guess one piece of advice I’d offer to new writers would be that you shouldn’t be afraid to scrap your work, that it’s okay to gut your own stuff. I know how hard it can be to let go of something you’ve toiled over, whether it’s a chapter or even a page. How disheartening it can be to cast it off. But when you spend too long trying to finesse, whether it’s phrasing or story, you might actually just be shining shackles. Of course, it’s hard to know when that’s the case, but look for it. Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is acknowledge that you’ve missed the mark and try to hit it again. It’s not always a great feeling, but it’s not as daunting as it seems. There are lots of words out there; try some new ones.
SIG: What is your favorite thing that you have received in the mail?
DA: If we’re talking about things in general, then probably a 7” called A Million Scars by the band The Riffs. Me and a couple buddies had been in what I’ll call a long, friendly throat-cutting grind to find a copy. There were only 500 pressed, so we were always working with garbage odds. I found one in decent condition on eBay and thought I had it in the bag, but some deranged apparent billionaire wouldn’t back off, so that copy slipped away. I did finally score one for myself – found it buried in some massive lot listing on eBay and talked the seller into peeling it off for me. Good stuff. The cherry on top, though? That moneybags madman? Turns out that had been one of my buddies, a verified nonbillionaire who had to pay double because we’d been bidding against each other on that first copy. Sometimes second place feels better.
If we’re talking about things in the mail from fans or readers, I don’t really get much of that. There is one standout, though. A few years ago, a middle school teacher assigned my first book Penpal to his class and had his students write an extra chapter. He showed me some of them. Pretty cool stuff, ideas about where the story might have gone or background tales about things unseen in the original tale. There were a couple submissions, though . . . Look, Penpal leaves a lot to the imagination. A lot of things are implied. These kids, I guess, wanted more detail, so they served it up themselves. Unnerving stuff. Definitely a favorite.
Book World: Dathan Auerbach got his start as a horror writer on Reddit. Now he's back with 'Bad Man.'
Bill Sheehan
The Washington Post. (Aug. 13, 2018): News:
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Full Text:
Byline: Bill Sheehan
Bad Man
By Dathan Auerbach
Doubleday. 400 pp. $26.95
---
In 2012, Dathan Auerbach published a striking debut novel called "Penpal." Comprised of linked stories that initially appeared on the internet site Reddit, the completed novel was released under Auerbach's personal imprint, 1000Vultures. Although self-published, the book was no mere vanity project, but a well-crafted, quietly disturbing account of crimes against children - crimes recollected, and ultimately understood, in adulthood. The book made a significant ripple in the horror community, leading now to the mainstream publication of Auerbach's larger, darker, more ambitious second novel, "Bad Man."
Like "Penpal," "Bad Man" tells a story of damaged and endangered children. It begins when 15-year-old Ben, the troubled, overweight protagonist, accompanies Eric, his 3-year-old half brother, on a routine trip to a grocery store. There, in a seemingly mundane setting filled with fellow customers and store employees, Eric vanishes.
"Bad Man" is an unsparing account of the endless aftermath of that disappearance. In the primary narrative, which begins five years later, Ben has just graduated from high school. His stepmother is an emotional wreck, and his father struggles to hold things together during a severe economic downturn. Meanwhile, Ben, wracked by guilt, searches obsessively for the brother he believes is still alive. All three remain frozen by tragedy until Ben goes to work as an overnight stock boy in the very store from which Eric disappeared.
Once Ben's work on the graveyard shift begins, his search takes on a renewed urgency. A stuffed toy belonging to Eric mysteriously reappears. A defaced version of Eric's missing persons flier shows up in Ben's locker. Drawings of enigmatic stick figures suddenly proliferate, and a fellow employee claims to have glimpsed Eric in a nearby stretch of forest. Urged by these various "clues," Ben follows his obsession through assorted hazards to a resolution that is both satisfying and unexpected.
"Bad Man" is an atmospheric and unsettling novel, but not a perfect one. The plot, seen largely through Ben's limited point of view, can be murky and difficult to follow. Certain elements - one of which involves shadowy events at a place called Blackwater School - are insufficiently developed. Yet the book works. Auerbach's portrait of an after-hours grocery store - as benign a setting as one could imagine - takes on an aura of almost Gothic menace. Most importantly, his ability to convey the grief, guilt and sense of loss that fuel Ben's fixation gives the book a resonant emotional center. With just two novels, Auerbach has established himself as a significant figure in the post-King generation of horror writers. It will be interesting and instructive to see what dark places he takes us to next.
---
Sheehan is the author of "At the Foot of the Story Tree: An Inquiry into the Fiction of Peter Straub."
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Sheehan, Bill. "Book World: Dathan Auerbach got his start as a horror writer on Reddit. Now he's back with 'Bad Man.'." Washington Post, 13 Aug. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A550088310/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=86ab66a7. Accessed 30 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A550088310
Boy vanishes in chilling thriller 'Bad Man'
Brian Truitt
USA Today. (Aug. 21, 2018): Lifestyle: p05D.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/
Full Text:
Byline: Brian Truitt, Columnist, USA Today
Dathan Auerbach's pitch-black "Bad Man," a horror thriller that preys on familial fears, is a study of the lonely existence of a social outcast whose life turns on one tragic day in his childhood.
Auerbach keeps the reader on unsettling ground with this nihilistic tale (Doubleday, 400 pp., ****) about a hard-luck north Florida youngster named Ben and his obsessive efforts to find his brother Eric.
At 15, Ben lost sight of 3-year-old Eric for a few fateful minutes in a local grocery store, and the little guy vanished. Overweight and physically hampered by a bum leg (the result of a childhood accident), Ben is still looking for Eric five years later when he gets a job working nights at that same grocery on the stock crew.
His family needs the money, though neither of his parents approves, especially his stepmother, Deidra, who pines and sings for her lost little boy 24/7.
The store gives Ben a real sense of companionship that he's been missing most of his life - he grows close to a bunch of co-workers, from aging baker lady Beverly to wild child Marty, whose own backwoods family includes a drug-addict mom and her abusive boyfriend.
But his work also is a haven for darkness: a monstrous cardboard baler lives up to its dangerous potential, Eric's beloved plush rhino Stampie mysteriously shows itself, Ben's shady boss couldn't be any less helpful, and symbols start appearing that seem to have a connection with Eric's disappearance.
Auerbach cleverly weaves in the horror trope of creepy kids amid a vibe that's best described as Stephen King meets "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" in a Harris Teeter.
Ben is surrounded by enigmatic figures who are just as much a part of the mystery as what happened to little Eric, yet the protagonist is an unreliable sort himself. He begins to distrust his own memories as the situation around him spirals out of control, though Ben's righteous compulsion keeps one engaged in his mission.
That's pretty important considering how insidiously disturbing "Bad Man" gets: Hope is defined in one passage as "an anesthetic," "a sneaky narcotic" and "the one horror that lives in us."
Despite some gallows humor and the occasional male bonding, the novel is wickedly effective in creating a feeling of doom. Coping with a missing child is, luckily, something most people will never experience. But Auerbach paints a chilling portrait in which it's easy to imagine the pained confusion of a father, the haunted longing of a mother, and the never-ending guilt and innocence lost of a boy forever changed by a moment of irresponsibility.
Despite late plot twists that make the story unnecessarily convoluted, "Bad Man" delivers an unexpected gut punch and saves its darkest deeds for an unnerving end.
CAPTION(S):
photo Jamie Stephens Jamie Stephens
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Truitt, Brian. "Boy vanishes in chilling thriller 'Bad Man'." USA Today, 21 Aug. 2018, p. 05D. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A551222615/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=cb91c148. Accessed 30 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A551222615
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Print Marked Items
Auerbach, Dathan: BAD MAN
Kirkus Reviews.
(June 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Auerbach, Dathan BAD MAN Blumhouse Books (Adult Fiction) $26.95 8, 7 ISBN: 978-0-385-54292-0
After a young man loses his little brother, he searches for him desperately while working as a stocker at a
grocery store.
This nasty little slice of Southern gothic is Auerbach's (Penpal, 2012) second novel, following his popular
Reddit-fueled, self-published debut. This time, he lands at Doubleday's horror-heavy Blumhouse Books
imprint. A prologue finds Ben and his 3-year-old brother, Eric, in a grocery store in a desolate stretch of
North Florida--and just as surely as he was there, Eric disappears. Five years later, Ben is a wreck, a heavy,
slow adolescent who's partially lame from a childhood accident. His father is largely absent, and his
stepmother is crippled by grief. Out of desperation, Ben gets a job as a stocker at the very store where his
brother vanished. What follows is a heady, puzzling, and oddly gripping exercise in depicting a small town
as a macabre place filled with everyday horrors ranging from a child's stuffed animal to a gruesome
industrial accident. Ben is under the thumb of the shop's cruel manager, Bill Palmer. He also has coworkers,
a strange cast that includes his buddies Marty and Frank, the bakery's misanthrope, Miss Beverly,
and a cashier named Chelsea. Also keeping one eye on Ben is local policeman James Duchaine, whose
motivations are hard to discern. Through it all, Ben remains buoyed by hope, about which Auerbach writes:
"It doesn't fix anything. It just numbs and reassures, until it can consume the desperate for the sake of its
own brilliant incandescence. And as hope comforts us, it becomes easier and easier to forget that it too was
in the jar that Pandora carried. It's the one horror of the world that wasn't loosed when she opened the lid.
It's the one horror that lives in us."
An unreliable protagonist and a nebulous finale may put some off, but credit Auerbach for keeping readers
on the edges of their seats for the whole ride.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Auerbach, Dathan: BAD MAN." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A540723441/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0b568bb9.
Accessed 30 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A540723441
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Bad Man
Publishers Weekly.
265.24 (June 11, 2018): p43.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Bad Man
Dathan Auerbach. Blumhouse, $26.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-385-54292-0
Auerbach follows his first novel, 2012's Penpal, with a dark and disturbing horror thriller set in the Florida
Panhandle. One day, 15-year-old Ben takes his three-year-old brother, Eric, to a local grocery store, where
Eric drops his stuffed rhino, Stampie, into a restroom toilet. While Ben is cleaning Stampie, Eric vanishes.
Five years later, Ben is working as a night Stocker in the same store that Eric disappeared in and remains
intent on finding his brother. When a coworker informs Ben that he saw Eric months earlier, Ben's
obsession becomes manic and he begins seeing others--including his manager, the old woman who runs the
bakery, and a coworker--as potential conspirators. Readers will be reminded of the young Stephen King (the
store's baler, for example, evokes King's industrial laundry press machine in "The Mangier"), but the story
unravels at the conclusion, with one too many strained sequences. The novel's rich imagery suggests
Auerbach is capable of doing better next time. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Bad Man." Publishers Weekly, 11 June 2018, p. 43. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A542967293/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=fbe5cafe.
Accessed 30 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A542967293
9/30/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1538338886820 3/3
Bad Man
Daniel Kraus
Booklist.
114.21 (July 1, 2018): p30.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Bad Man.
By Dathan Auerbach.
Aug. 2018.320p. Doubleday/Blumhouse, $26.95 (9780385542920); e-book, $12.99 (9780385542937).
Ben was 15 when he lost his 3-year-old brother, Eric, at a local grocery store--one moment Eric was there,
the next he wasn't. Five years later, Ben still papers his small town with flyers, keeps bothering the
unhelpful detective on the case, and, in a move that disturbs his family, gets a night-stocker job at the very
grocery store where Eric vanished. Ben confides in fellow stocker, Marty, and together the two of them
begin to loosely prod into places better left unprodded. If you think The Shining set in a grocery store,
you're not far off; instances of the uncanny (Eric's lost toy showing up out of nowhere) are mixed with a
bevy of suspicious, sometimes unnerving personalities: the snooty manager, the grizzled baker, Ben's
grieving mother. Red herrings and loose ends abound, and some readers will find the book lacks focus. But
Auerbach is magnificent with atmosphere, able to conjure dread from a huge array of normally
nonthreatening places. This is a horror author to watch very, very closely.--Daniel Kraus
YA: This is a slam-dunk for YA readers, who will respond to the teen protagonist, the crappy minimumwage
job, the younger brother, and more. DK.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Kraus, Daniel. "Bad Man." Booklist, 1 July 2018, p. 30. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A547745814/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=78e6bb3b.
Accessed 30 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A547745814