Growing Things and Other Stories

A chilling anthology featuring nineteen pieces of short fiction from the multiple award-winning author of the national bestseller *The Cabin at the End of the World* and *A Head Full of Ghosts.*. In *The Teacher* , a Bram Stoker Award nominee for best short story, a student is forced to watch a disturbing video that will haunt and torment her and her classmates’ lives. Four men rob a pawn shop at gunpoint only to vanish, one-by-one, as they speed away from the crime scene in *The Getaway*. In *Swim Wants to Know If It’s as Bad as Swim Thinks* , a meth addict kidnaps her daughter from her estranged mother as their town is terrorized by a giant monster . . . or not. Joining these haunting works are stories linked to Tremblay’s previous novels. The tour de force metafictional novella *Notes from the Dog Walkers* deconstructs horror and publishing, possibly bringing in a character from *A Head Full of Ghosts* , all while serving as a prequel to *Disappearance at Devil’s Rock*. “The Thirteenth Temple” follows another character from *A Head Full of Ghosts* —Merry, who has published a tell-all memoir written years after the events of the novel. And the title story, *Growing Things* , a shivery tale loosely shared between the sisters in *A Head Full of Ghosts* , is told here in full. From global catastrophe to the demons inside our heads, Tremblay illuminates our primal fears and darkest dreams in startlingly original fiction that leaves us unmoored. As he lowers the sky and yanks the ground from beneath our feet, we are compelled to contemplate the darkness inside our own hearts and minds. Growing things — Swim wants to know if it’s as bad as swim thinks — Something about birds — The getaway — Nineteen snapshots of Dennisport — Where we all will be — The teacher — Notes for The Barn in the Wild — ***_*** — Our town’s monster — A haunted house is a wheel upon which some are broken — It won’t go away — Notes from the dog walkers — Further questions for the somnambulist — The ice tower — The society of the monsterhood — Her red right hand — It’s against the law to feed the ducks — The thirteenth temple — Notes — Acknowledgments — Credits