Hellbender - Josh Craven

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Résumé :
It's the summer of 1946, and hell is literally breaking loose in Jade City.
On the surface, Bobby Graywood is a noticeably awkward teen who loves baseball, mows lawns for his neighbors, and is working up the courage to ask out his best girl. However, beneath all that, he suffers a terrible Affliction that forces him to see and experience the worst horrors of humanity.
Meanwhile, there is much afoot in Jade City, where small-town politics, minor league baseball, and a series of cataclysmic events bring together a jigsaw cast of characters. When Newton Hellbender, a darkly recondite preacher, takes the helm at his church, Bobby immediately senses something sinister is smoldering. With his new friend, Jubal Moss, a scarred ballplayer just returned from the war, Bobby is soon caught up in a battle of good versus evil, where failure means death and the wages of victory is the loss of innocence.
Can Bobby embrace his Affliction in order to save those he loves?
The horror is fantastic, with Craven skilled enough to peel away the layers with particularly well-done pacing and… a narrative laden with dark humor. An excellent new novel for lovers of horror and historical-style fiction. -Readers' Favorite (5-star review)