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Read The Latest News From Isaac Thorne
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Check out information about Isaac Thorne's latest appearances, news, and releases.
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On Sept. 21, 2022, Isaac Thorne's new novel Hell Spring exited its preorder phase and became widely available to ship from retailers everywhere. In addition, readers who preordered the book directly from IsaacThorne.com will be receiving shipment notices soon if their books have not already shipped.
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"It's been a long road," Isaac says. "But Hell Spring has finally arrived. I couldn't be more excited to get this story out into the world."
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The book has achieved respectable reviews from outlets like Booklife by Publishers Weekly. "...the mix of sorrow and shame powering these stories lends substance to the scenes of horror," the reviewer writes. "The shocking moments deliver serious jolts."
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Similarly, Drew Rowsome of My Gay Toronto Magazine wrote, "It is disorienting, grotesque, absurdly funny and oddly hot…."
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"This is a story I've been wanting to tell for some time now," Isaac says. "It was partially inspired by an actual flood event here in Middle Tennessee in 2010. However, I knew that I wanted this to be a period piece. I wanted to set it in a time before cell phones and the Internet, as well as an ostensibly more religious and superstitious time.
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"As I started to research 1950s Tennessee, I discovered articles about a nasty flood that occurred in my region on the first day of spring in 1955," he continues. "That cinched it for me. That flood, time period, and setting became the skeleton around which I packed the flesh of Hell Spring."
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When asked why the creature in Hell Spring assumes the form it does, Isaac says that it was primarily because Marilyn Monroe was the biggest sex symbol of the day and the "Golden Dreams" pinup might have been her biggest scandal in those years.
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"Marilyn Monroe is an icon," he adds. "She seemed like a natural fit."
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Isaac also says the fact that there's so much attention being paid to 1950s celebrities and mentalities in the Zeitgeist now is primarily coincidence.
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"Oh, there might be a little bit of social commentary in there that's relevant to both that era and today," he says. "But the choice of the creature resembling Marilyn at the same time as Joyce Carol Oates's Blonde was arriving in a film adaptation and Elvis was getting all kinds of acclaim is totally coincidence. I started writing this novel back during the lockdown days of the COVID-19 pandemic. I had been researching it long before then. The creature's human form was decided way back in that process."
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There's more substance to the novel than the weather, the creature, and its setting, though. According to Isaac, he also attempted to adapt his style, which already leans toward literary horror, to one more common to earlier decades in prose.
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"That won't sit well with every reader," he adds. "I wouldn't expect it to. But I tend to ignore trends and write the story I want to read. In this case, I wanted a story that immersed me in this small-town hell night in 1955. It's the most intentional story I've ever written."
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So what's next for the little town of Lost Hollow? Isaac says he's already working on that.
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"Yes, the next novel is also set in Lost Hollow," he says. "I'm not going to say more than that right now, though."
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Hell Spring is available now from retailers everywhere. Orders directly from IsaacThorne.com will ship with free evil bunny stickers and Hell Spring bookmarks.
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