Invisible
Fences (Novella Series #19)
by Norman Prentiss
• Click here to read a free excerpt
• Click here to read an interview with the author
About the Book:
Do you see the point of the story, Nathan? We all cut parts of ourselves
away, but we never lose them. Things stay with us—souvenirs with memories
attached. We can't always choose what to keep, what to throw away.
Nathan's parents devised cautionary tales for him and his sister—gruesome
stories about predatory cars racing along the "Big Street" at one
end of their neighborhood, or dope fiends lurking in the woods behind their
house and ready to plunge hypodermics into the skin of foolish young trespassers.
These stories served their purpose during Nathan's gullible childhood, essentially
constructing an invisible fence around the yard and keeping the boy close to
home where he'd be safe.
Such barriers are not so easy to discard in later life. As an adult, Nathan
no longer believes his parents' stories, and yet they still confine him. He
lives cautiously, avoiding serious relationships, avoiding risk. But despite
his efforts, something from his parents' cautionary tales threatens to creep
beneath that invisible border…and the enclosed yard might not be as safe
and secure as it always seemed…
About the Author:
Bram Stoker Award Winner Norman Prentiss lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and works as a high school English
teacher and part-time editor. His fiction has appeared in Tales from the Gorezone, Damned Nation, Postscripts, the Shivers anthology series, and at the Horror Drive-In website. His poetry has appeared in Writer Online, Southern Poetry Review, and Baltimore's City Paper. Invisible Fences is his first published book.
Praise for the Book:
"Cemetery Dance's short novel program yields another gem with
this sobering story about the imaginary barriers of fear we place around our
life circumstances as we grow up… Carefully crafted prose… a lucid
reflection on life's inevitable burden of fear and fractured memory."
— Booklist
"Prentiss writes with an assured voice, weaving a tale of building disquiet. . . Invisible Fences is dark and atmospheric, a quick read that lingers long after the final sentence is read. It marks another excellent entry in the Cemetery Dance library, and an impressive debut for its author."
— Blu Gilliand, Dark Scribe Magazine
"This is a chilling tale as Norman Prentiss provides a profound look at the child inside the adult whose fear is palpable while the audience wonders if it is externally real or internal psychosomatically real."
— The Baryon Review
"Prentiss handles a story that could have been melodramatic or slight
and instead infuses it with a quiet dignity and an admirable style. If you're
missing the work of the late Charles E. Grant, you'll find what you're looking
for here."
— Richard Dansky, Green Man Review
"Norman Prentiss' debut is a haunting tale of reminiscence and regret, of how things thought laid to rest long ago still lurk at the bottom of our souls. His prose is smooth, nearly flawless, and his narrative voice invokes a Gothic, literary tone. Best of all, the chills lie solidly in the strength and substance of the story, rather than something tacked on in pastiche at the end... The chills are there, but they are subtle, part of the characters and their existence, rather than an affected trope. This is the mark of a writer who will enjoy a long, successful career and critical acclaim."
— Kevin Lucia, Shroud Magazine
"Beautiful, creepy, and haunting. A dark literary gem from an exciting
new voice in the horror field."
— Douglas Clegg, New York Times bestselling author
"Invisible Fences is an elegant, elegiac story about life and death and all points in between. And after. The everyday detail is the stuff of fine novels and the imagery real poetry. A moving and troubling piece of work that you won't easily forget."
— Ed Gorman
"Norman Prentiss writes with subtle power. He resonates well with the
quiet horror of Charles L. Grant, and the nostalgic terror of Bradbury."
— Thomas F. Monteleone, bestselling author of The Blood of the Lamb
and The Eyes of the Virgin
"Beautifully composed and rich in symbolism, Invisible Fences leaves the
reader considering the boundaries—safe and not so safe—that we impose upon
ourselves ... and on others. Prentiss's story will be talked about for years."
— Tim Lebbon, New York Times bestselling author
"I read Invisible Fences in one sitting while waiting for a power
outage to end: I had a flashlight parked on my shoulder and when, a few hours
later, I was finished reading, the flashlight was all but dead, the power outage was still
underway, and I was smiling. Norman Prentiss's first book is wonderfully engaging,
beautifully written, refreshingly surprising and completely unputdownable. If
you were once a child, if you have secrets you've never told anyone (perhaps even yourself), or, hell, even if you don't have such truly secret secrets,
and if you value writing that's crisp and confident and, often, brilliant, you
will also be pulled into Invisible Fences—power outage or not."
— T.M. Wright, author of A Manhattan Ghost Story and The
Eyes of the Carp
"With Invisible Fences, Norman Prentiss has created a poignant,
heartbreaking and deeply unsettling story about the most terrifying ghost of
them all: memory. It's a startlingly effective and intelligently written novella
that forces us to look at the many ways in which we favor self-deception as
a means of avoiding the ugly truth about ourselves, and also perfectly illustrates
the sad and inevitable divide that time opens between children and adults. A
wonderful piece of work from an immensely talented author."
— Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Currency
of Souls, Midlisters, and The Turtle Boy
"Eerie, haunting, tragic, poignant—Invisible Fences is
all of this and more. Simply put, Norman Prentiss has written one of the best
novellas I've read in a long, long time. A fantastic debut."
— James Newman, author of Midnight Rain, The Wicked, and Animosity
“Invisible Fences is as disturbing, heart-felt, and gut-wrenching a novella as I have ever encountered. Norman Prentiss will put you through the wringer with this one, and—trust me—you will be grateful for it. A superb accomplishment.”
— Gary A. Braunbeck, author of Coffin County and Far Dark Fields
"Norman Prentiss is a multi-faceted writer and Invisible Fences
is a multi-faceted work of fiction. Part nostalgic coming of age saga, part
ghost story, part psychological puzzle, part metaphorical fantasy. Add it up
to 100% originality and sheer reading entertainment... I sincerely believe that
it will be one of the most talked about—and critically praised—books
in the horror field. "
— Mark Sieber, horrordrive-in.com
Published in two states:
Hardcover Limited Edition of 750 signed and numbered copies bound in full-cloth and Smyth sewn ($30)
Traycased Hardcover Lettered Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies bound in leather
and Smyth sewn with a satin ribbon page marker ($175)
Lettered Edition Status:
The deluxe Lettered Edition of this book is currently with our traycase manufacturer who will begin building the traycases as he catches up on the projects we've sent him. We will update this page as the Lettered Edition progresses through production. Thank you for your patience.
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 Dark, Haunting, and Beautiful
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06/22/2010 - by brownie from Riverside, CA US
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Invisible Fences: Book Review
Grade: A
…It’s been awhile since I’ve had a book that was compulsively readable. The last few books I’ve read were all good, but they lacked that feeling of "I don’t want to stop reading this". With them, I’d put the book down after some time and have a snack, or watch a little T.V. Then I’d return to them, only then to have to try to return to the story.
That’s not the case here with Invisible Fences. Before reading it the only words I’d read that had been written by Norman Prentiss were in CD’s latest Shivers anthology, Shivers V. His story, “The Albright Sextuplets”, immediately stood out from the pack. Prentiss’s words were clear and concise, yet have the ability to burrow into your mind and stay there. His brand of horror is special—it’s not the immediately forgettable horror you find in most of the mainstream media today.
So when I started Invisible Fences, I was about to eat lunch, or at least have a quick bite to eat. There were several times were I came close to putting the book down to do that—but I never did. The tale grabs you and refuses to let go until it ends. It’s been awhile since something’s done that to this reader in a long time.
I would go over the plot, but I’d risk giving things away. As a reader you should go into the book knowing only that you’re going to be amazed. (I know I was.) Even in the novella format, the characters jump off the pages. You feel as if you share a mind with them—Prentiss obviously excels at psychological horror. When I say that, I mean that most of the book’s action happens within the character’s minds. Great authors let their readers into their character’s heads; that’s exactly what he does here, he gets into your head with a fantastic tale of grief and the mind’s darkness.
So should you get this book? Well the limited edition is sold out at the time of this writing, and I know most people can’t afford the extra-crunchy lettered edition. Still, if there’s any book you need to hunt down on eBay, it’s this one. Find an ARC. Borrow a copy from a friend. Heck, steal a copy from a friend, just get this book! Cemetery Dance, if you’re reading this and you have a book that can go into a second printing, it better be this one...
-Vicente
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