Sunny Pines

In this audacious but disjointed novella cowritten by Burke (Sour Candy), Ray Garton (Death Hunt on Ervoon), Glen Krisch (Little Whispers), and Bev Vincent (The Dark Tower Companion), childhood friends Connor, Miguel, and Jelica reunite after two decades apart when all return to the burned-down remains of Sunny Pines, the trailer park where they grew up, to ensure that the park’s evil heart has truly been laid to rest by the recent fire. The park, however, has other ideas and fights back in the forms of familiar ghosts. Now the trio will either survive together or each lose themselves separately to Sunny Pines. The authors evoke a wonderfully grungy atmosphere and take bold swings in placing both ugliness and tenderness at the heart of their story, but the choppy narrative structure, which jumps back and forth between past and present, detracts from the whole. The result reads very much like four authors all vying for the reigns, robbing the story of cohesion and making the ending in particular feel both sudden and unsatisfying. This doesn’t quite stick the landing. (Mar.)