On May 15, 2023, Isaac Thorne was notified that his 2022 novel Hell Spring placed as a finalist in the Horror category for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The full list of winners in each category was announced on the same date. River of Ashes by Alexandrea Weis and Lucas Astor (Vesuvian Books) won the Horror category. Hell Spring joined the list of Finalists in the category, which included all of the following:
- Come One, Come All by E. Gilliland (Bayou Wolf Press)
- Hell Spring by Isaac Thorne (Lost Hollow Books)
- The Tooth Fairy by Davide Tarsitano (Davide Tarsitano)
- Through the Surface by Juliet Rose (Above the Rain Collective)
- Wyatt Earp: Hollywoodland by Brian Donnelly, Illustrated by J.C. Grande (Mythographer’s Workshop, LLC)
“It’s always fun to be recognized,” Isaac says. “Hell Spring is a challenging novel, even for readers who are more accustomed to literary horror fiction. Intentionally so. As such, it’s not really possible to predict to whom the book will speak. The fact that Next Generation Indie Book Awards saw fit to include it in the list of Finalists indicates to me that the novel found an audience with their judges, and I’m happy about that.”
The Next Generation Indie Book Awards is in its seventeenth year of operation. According to its About page, “…the Next Generation Indie Book Awards was established to recognize and honor the most exceptional independently published books in 80+ different categories, for the year, and is presented by Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group in cooperation with Marilyn Allen of Allen Literary Agency (formerly the Allen O’Shea Literary Agency).”
