Pearl
There’s something strange about Walter Kopple’s farm. At first it seems to be his grandson, who cruelly murders one of Walter’s pigs in an act of seemingly senseless violence. But then the rumors begin—people in town whisper that Walter’s grandson heard a voice that commanded him to kill.
And that the voice belongs to a most peculiar creature: Walter’s pig, Pearl. Walter is not sure what to believe. He knows that he’s always been afraid of the strangely malevolent Pearl. But as madness and paranoia grip the town and the townspeople descend on Walter’s farm with violent wrath, they begin to discover that true evil wears a human face.
An Excerpt from “Pearl”
Jeff looked over his shoulder back to the hidden pigpen.
Pearl was all he could see. Pearl. Sitting on his ass like a person might, his front hooves limp at the sides of his belly, his head was cocked slightly to the side, his pink ears straight high above his head. His bad eye looked dark, hidden, but his good one was fixed on Jeff.
In it, Jeff saw an intelligence that scared him.
A half smile appeared under the pig’s snout, or maybe it was just the way his lips naturally curled up at their ends.
Jeff fingered the latch. Pearl watched him. Staring. Assessing. Planning?
Jeff pulled his fingers away. A streak of shame ran down his back, like he’d come close to letting something very bad out of the pen…
Praise for Pearl
“Daring readers should find this tale of a malevolent telepathic pig to be a memorable experience. . . . The novel shares the same racing narrative that made Bird Box hard to put down and is Malerman’s most accomplished work outside of the Bird Box series. ”
Booklist
(starred review)
“A perfect, fast-paced slasher filled with violent, cinematic action sequences . . . Malerman delivers with another completely different yet equally crowd-pleasing and awesome horror novel that is not to be missed. ”
Library Journal
(starred review)
“A strange, un-put-down-able thriller . . . part twisted fairy tale, part animal rights protest, part PTSD drama, and part Triumph the Insult Dog, the novel never runs out of unsettling doors to open.”
Kirkus Reviews
