The Curse of Hester Gardens

We Need to Talk about Kevinas if written by Jason Reynolds and Tananarive Due meetsModel Homeby Rivers Solomon in an innovative twist on the haunted house novel: about a mother desperate to protect her sons from the twin specters of gun violence and otherworldly menace in their public housing project.

Nona McKinley raised three boys in the Hester Gardens section of Medford, Michigan, an impoverished community divided by those who follow their faith in God and those who turn to crime to survive. With her drug dealer husband behind bars and her eldest son shot to death at eighteen, Nona has devoted herself to ensuring her other children escape their brothers fate.

Her second son Marcus is on the right path. He’s a valedictorian heading to an Ivy League school. He can get out.

But then, strange things start happening to Nona and other residents: mysterious footsteps are heard when shes alone, people have phantom encounters in the streets, unattended appliances go off at all hours. Even more concerning is the state of Nonas living sons. Her youngest, Lance, is hanging around with a bad crowd, and Marcus becomes moody and secretive. Sometimes he even seems to act like a different person entirely.

Nona has her secrets too. Her affair with the married church pastor has been weighing on her conscience, but thats not the only guilt haunting her. She fears that someoneorsomething is seeking revenge for an act she made in a moment of weakness to protect her family. And now everyone in Hester Gardens must pay the price . . .

Tamika Thompsonis author ofThe Curse of Hester Gardens. A former journalist and producer, she is also author ofUnshod,Cackling, andNaked, which is the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner for Horror, as well as author ofSalamander Justice. Her work has appeared in several speculative fiction anthologies as well as inInterzone,Prairie Schooner,The New York Times, andLos Angeles Review of Books, among others. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she hosts her own blog and newsletter,Tamika Talks Terror. Visit her online attamikathompson.comor on social media @tamikadthompson.

• Publisher: Erewhon Books
• Publish Date: March 31, 2026
• Pages: 448
• Language: English
• Type: Hardcover
• EAN/UPC: 9781645663195
• Dimensions: 8.5 X 6.0 X 1.4 inches | 1.1 pounds
• BISAC Categories: Horror, Popular Fiction