Author Guest Post with Jack Lowe-Carbell: Arlya

Arlya, a small town in Southern Ontario, is rocked by a gruesome crime. Four friends must work together with Detective Dylan Grey to find a pattern, a bike, a clue, and a sister before it is repeated.

Welcome to the March 5th stop on the blog tour for Arlya by Jack Lowe-Carbell with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, more guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

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Author Guest Post

I thought I would take this space to talk about my favourite novels that I read over the last year that inspired me as I wrote my own. I have talked about my novel, Arlya, so much it seems that I was happy to see I could choose to speak about others and the work they have accomplished. I am so new to this world, I hope one day someone will mention me in their lists.

The Angel Maker by Alex North. Alex North is unbelievably smart in his writing. It is so clean and easy to digest, but also incredibly clever. This novel helped me in my understanding on how to put together pieces of a mystery, how to leave the reader guessing and wanting more. It is dark, scary, and an all around great story. I love all three of his novels, and I can’t wait for more. 

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. This novel brought me to rubble. Rubble I tell you. It was very helpful in understanding how to write the delicate intricacies of a friendship and how two separate lives can coexist and push and pull on each other like the tides. It was beautiful, masterfully written, and absolutely gut-wrenchingly sad. I am hesitant to recommend this as it is incredibly difficult to stomach.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. This book also nearly destroyed me. I called in late to work to finish it. I saw the movie at TIFF a few years ago but never read the book. Good lord. I showed up to my shift like I had just experienced the worst day of my life. It’s poetic and profound and everything that I would like to write. This taught me how to write about love, and pain, and the numbness that comes with loss. Do yourself a favour, read this book alone and savour the emotion, it is rare to have something make you feel so much.

I am currently reading The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab and I just wanted to mention them because I think they are unbelievable. Please read the Darker Shades of Magic trilogy also, so imaginative and wonderful and fun.

Thank you for reading this rant, I appreciate it, I hope you also read my book, Arlya, which is available everywhere. A story of love, loss, and horror in a small town, keep writing, keep reading, it is a wonderful world in these pages.

About the Book

Arlya
by Jack Lowe-Carbell

Published 11 December 2023
Tellwell Talent

Genre: Thriller
Page Count: 360
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

Arlya, a small town in Southern Ontario, is rocked by a gruesome crime. Four friends must work together with Detective Dylan Grey to find a pattern, a bike, a clue, and a sister before it is repeated.

James and his three best friends, Owen, Tommy, and Mike, have just finished school for the summer. The plan is the same as every other year: they are going to build the biggest fort yet, deep in the Dhoon Woods. After stumbling across a tiny, seemingly unimportant wooden hut, a series of crimes take place and their plans change.

Arlya falls into itself. Doors are locked, curtains drawn, bikes are put away, strangers invade, and kids are off the street. In the first week of summer vacation, a dark and disturbing family history is uncovered; friends turn on each other; a storm rolls through town; and a monster is hiding just out of sight, smiling its toothy grin and crawling through the corn.

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Excerpt

Dhoon River ran alongside Arlya, sweeping in from the north. It was thirty feet across at the point behind Dhoon Glen, close to six feet deep in the centre. The river slowed along Arlya as though it took on the energy from the town. Lazy and quiet, it gurgled along the sun-bleached rocks, sinking and growing with the seasons. At the end of July, it would be the highest it would ever get, and the deepest. At a perfect seventeen degrees, the boys would float and swim as often as they could.

James slowed to a stop next to the baseball diamond, looking at the wall of trees behind the two bony nets. It would be the perfect place for a horror movie, he thought. One where you would see someone standing behind the first layer of trees. One where you would scan the entire wall and notice a fleck of black behind the deep brown of the trunks. Just out of the corner of your eye. One where you’d look back and see a hand behind the branches and leaves. And the hand would wave its broken wave, its fingers creeping up from a fist like knives from a holder.

“Jimmy,” Owen said.

James looked up.

This was one of the places he never wanted to be at night.

For now, the sun hung fat and full above the tree line. The trees’ limbs reached up, begging for more, praying to the only god they had ever known.

James set off past the faded park, wondering how many kids had been here. How many times had they swung on these swings and slid down this slide? How many of them still came here and remembered what it was like, back when everything was sweet?

About the Author

Jack Lowe-Carbell is a 26-year-old writer living in Vancouver, BC. Arlya is his first novel, and it is based in his hometown, Ayr, ON. Thanks to his dad, who read him horror stories when he was far too young, Jack has always loved the genre. His next novel is a tale of horror based in Garibaldi Provincial Park.

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Giveaway Alert!

Jack Lowe-Carbell will award a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter.

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