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Immersion
The town of Jonah’s Reef has never felt like home to Leroy, but it’s where his family lives, where people tolerate his strangeness, and life carries on with little fuss. But when a group of intruders set camp on an old field at the edge of town life takes a dark turn.
Leroy’s not sure who he can trust.
He’s not sure he can be the hero his town needs.
And the boy he’d once been in the cellar isn’t about to forgive him for holding hands with devils.
Elemental Series #12
The hardcover version contains two bonus stories not included in the softcover edition.
Leroy’s not sure who he can trust.
He’s not sure he can be the hero his town needs.
And the boy he’d once been in the cellar isn’t about to forgive him for holding hands with devils.
Elemental Series #12
The hardcover version contains two bonus stories not included in the softcover edition.
172 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
1 person is currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Lee Thompson
26 books186 followers“Lee Thompson knows his horror-noir. He fuses both genres together in the turmoil of terror, tragedy, blood, guilt, and lost chances at redemption.”–Tom Piccirilli, author of THE LAST KIND WORDS
Lee Thompson is the bestselling author of the Suspense novels A BEAUTIFUL MADNESS (August 2014), IT’S ONLY DEATH (January 2015), and WITH FURY IN HAND (May 2015). The dominating threads weaved throughout his work are love, loss, and learning how to live again. A firm believer in the enduring power of the human spirit, Lee believes that stories, no matter their format, set us on the path of transformation. He is represented by the extraordinary Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary. Visit Lee’s website to discover more: www.leethompsonfiction.com
Some of my favorite authors: Clive Barker, Donald Westlake, Peter Straub, Stephen King, Greg Gifune, Lee Thomas, William Faulkner, Robert Dunbar, John Gardner, Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, John Connolly, Jack Cady, Tom Piccirilli, Brian Hodge, Douglas Clegg, Jack Ketchum, Lee Child, James Lee Burke, and Cormac McCarthy.
"10 out of 10 Stars... GOSSAMER: A TALE OF LOVE AND TRAGEDY will blow you away my friends. It is that good." -- Peter Schwotzer/Famous Monsters of Filmland.
"WHEN WE JOIN JESUS IN HELL is as crazy as its tormented protagonist. Hard as nails.” – Jack Ketchum
"The voice of the deputy feels authentic: brooding, soulful, haunted. In fact, there’s a heartfelt quality to the whole grim book. Even some of the most grisly moments manage to be poetic and full of emotion, and the author’s literary influences echo loudly. At times, the mood evokes Piccirilli or Braunbeck or Gifune combined with Sherwood Anderson."-- Robert Dunbar, author of WILLY, THE PINES, and THE SHORE
“Thompson’s voice is his own — strong, hypnotic, and unsettling. Nursery Rhymes 4 Dead Children is a bleak fucking book, and therein lies its danger. So beautifully-constructed is Thompson’s prose, that the reader is often caught off-guard, mesmerized by a turn of phrase or a descriptive passage, until the book grabs you by the balls and rips them right off, breaking your heart and your psyche in the process.” — Brian Keene, author of GHOUL, DARK HOLLOW and THE RISING.
"I’ve said it many times and believe it more everyday, Lee Thompson is not only the next big name at Delirium Books but in the genre." – Shane Ryan Staley at Darkfuse Publications.
"The Dampness of Mourning is a riveting Thriller..." Midwest Book Review.
"Lee Thompson’s prose is electric!" — Bob Freeman, author of DESCENDANT.
"Like a dark Twilight Zone meets Alfred Hitchcock Mystery." -- Lee Thompson, author of NURSERY RHYMES 4 DEAD CHILDREN.
http://leethompsonfiction.com
Lee Thompson is the bestselling author of the Suspense novels A BEAUTIFUL MADNESS (August 2014), IT’S ONLY DEATH (January 2015), and WITH FURY IN HAND (May 2015). The dominating threads weaved throughout his work are love, loss, and learning how to live again. A firm believer in the enduring power of the human spirit, Lee believes that stories, no matter their format, set us on the path of transformation. He is represented by the extraordinary Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary. Visit Lee’s website to discover more: www.leethompsonfiction.com
Some of my favorite authors: Clive Barker, Donald Westlake, Peter Straub, Stephen King, Greg Gifune, Lee Thomas, William Faulkner, Robert Dunbar, John Gardner, Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, John Connolly, Jack Cady, Tom Piccirilli, Brian Hodge, Douglas Clegg, Jack Ketchum, Lee Child, James Lee Burke, and Cormac McCarthy.
"10 out of 10 Stars... GOSSAMER: A TALE OF LOVE AND TRAGEDY will blow you away my friends. It is that good." -- Peter Schwotzer/Famous Monsters of Filmland.
"WHEN WE JOIN JESUS IN HELL is as crazy as its tormented protagonist. Hard as nails.” – Jack Ketchum
"The voice of the deputy feels authentic: brooding, soulful, haunted. In fact, there’s a heartfelt quality to the whole grim book. Even some of the most grisly moments manage to be poetic and full of emotion, and the author’s literary influences echo loudly. At times, the mood evokes Piccirilli or Braunbeck or Gifune combined with Sherwood Anderson."-- Robert Dunbar, author of WILLY, THE PINES, and THE SHORE
“Thompson’s voice is his own — strong, hypnotic, and unsettling. Nursery Rhymes 4 Dead Children is a bleak fucking book, and therein lies its danger. So beautifully-constructed is Thompson’s prose, that the reader is often caught off-guard, mesmerized by a turn of phrase or a descriptive passage, until the book grabs you by the balls and rips them right off, breaking your heart and your psyche in the process.” — Brian Keene, author of GHOUL, DARK HOLLOW and THE RISING.
"I’ve said it many times and believe it more everyday, Lee Thompson is not only the next big name at Delirium Books but in the genre." – Shane Ryan Staley at Darkfuse Publications.
"The Dampness of Mourning is a riveting Thriller..." Midwest Book Review.
"Lee Thompson’s prose is electric!" — Bob Freeman, author of DESCENDANT.
"Like a dark Twilight Zone meets Alfred Hitchcock Mystery." -- Lee Thompson, author of NURSERY RHYMES 4 DEAD CHILDREN.
http://leethompsonfiction.com
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 1, 2015
‘The walls blurred and darkness deepened and a demon made of night screamed.’
I’ve had Immersion sitting on my shelf for quite some time now and I’ve got to say I never picked it up purely because I wasn’t overly enamoured with the front cover, stupid boy, I never fucking learn. This is Lee Thompson, caliginous and playing with your mind as he does best, your feelings, you are never quite sure if it’s real, if it’s thought, nightmare or crazed delusions. And I love it, it’s one of those reads I could put down, pick it up a week later and be completely gripped all over again.
'My reflection....
Something stirred beyond it, a dark patch over it's shoulder like a raven ruffling its feathers, gleaming against the golden counterweight as the grandfather clock tolled the hour.'
Leroy lives in Jonah’s Reef, he’s enjoying an affair with the married Keri and arranges to meet her at midnight but she never turns up. Yet she does turn up, dead. Focus goes to the visitors at Hansen Field, the Church of a Thousand nights, like people from another time, ghosts of long dead settlers.
’I saw my reflection in shattered pieces scattered across the floor. It said, This is your fault. You’ve immersed yourself in lies and selfishness and pain.’
Death follows Leroy round like shadow in the moonlight, heading for the unwanted visitors in the field, mind stumbling but clarity comes from Immersion and that’s what he must do.
Yes, I do just recommend this novella, Lee Thompson portrays the damaged goods of life better than anyone.
Also posted at http://paulnelson.booklikes.com/post/...
I’ve had Immersion sitting on my shelf for quite some time now and I’ve got to say I never picked it up purely because I wasn’t overly enamoured with the front cover, stupid boy, I never fucking learn. This is Lee Thompson, caliginous and playing with your mind as he does best, your feelings, you are never quite sure if it’s real, if it’s thought, nightmare or crazed delusions. And I love it, it’s one of those reads I could put down, pick it up a week later and be completely gripped all over again.
'My reflection....
Something stirred beyond it, a dark patch over it's shoulder like a raven ruffling its feathers, gleaming against the golden counterweight as the grandfather clock tolled the hour.'
Leroy lives in Jonah’s Reef, he’s enjoying an affair with the married Keri and arranges to meet her at midnight but she never turns up. Yet she does turn up, dead. Focus goes to the visitors at Hansen Field, the Church of a Thousand nights, like people from another time, ghosts of long dead settlers.
’I saw my reflection in shattered pieces scattered across the floor. It said, This is your fault. You’ve immersed yourself in lies and selfishness and pain.’
Death follows Leroy round like shadow in the moonlight, heading for the unwanted visitors in the field, mind stumbling but clarity comes from Immersion and that’s what he must do.
Yes, I do just recommend this novella, Lee Thompson portrays the damaged goods of life better than anyone.
Also posted at http://paulnelson.booklikes.com/post/...
June 19, 2012
A shadow has come to the town of Jonah's Reef, a caravan of strangers, bringing with them whispers of weird worship. The locals turn their eyes away, keeping their judgments to themselves. Only the preacher's daughter, Keri, dares approach them, dares join hands with them. And no one has the courage to protect her.
Except Leroy. Born to the town, Leroy isn't quite right. Leroy sees things. His reflection speaks to him in dangerous lines, words of violence and doubt. In IMMERSION, Leroy must confront the shadows alone while the boy he once was whispers failure in his ear. Does his love burn hotly enough? Can he immerse evil in the cleansing flame, or will he fall beneath the smothering weight of the dark?
Quote:
"This is love. It is fierce"
On his quest, Leroy witnesses the darkest monsters unleashed from the hearts of men, and uncovers a truth more surprising than his strange reality. Once again, Lee Thompson presents a tableau of inner conflict, with characters riddled with flaws and weakness, the true battle, one for redemption. Leroy, a simple man, doubts himself and dreads the stalking demons of his childhood. Soaked in the blood of his father's butcher shop, he fears the violence bubbling under his gentle surface. Leroy is an earnest, but possibly unreliable narrator, and showcasing one of Thompson's trademarks, the reader cannot be sure where he crosses from reality to fantasy.
IMMERSION burns hot and fast at just over a hundred pages. I continue to be impressed with Thompson's storytelling. This is Thompson's first book outside his Division Mythos (the second due out later this year from DarkFuse), but in terms of theme, IMMERSION's characters play in the same arena, full of guilt, loneliness, regret, and pain. Despite this, the author continues to create new, wholly formed characters, very much part of their own stories and surroundings.
In the end, the question IMMERSION asks is, does love trump hate? This novella isn't for those who want things spelled out in bold letters, but for those of us fond of subtleties and who like to make up our own minds, IMMERSION is an excellent way to spend an evening.
Except Leroy. Born to the town, Leroy isn't quite right. Leroy sees things. His reflection speaks to him in dangerous lines, words of violence and doubt. In IMMERSION, Leroy must confront the shadows alone while the boy he once was whispers failure in his ear. Does his love burn hotly enough? Can he immerse evil in the cleansing flame, or will he fall beneath the smothering weight of the dark?
Quote:
"This is love. It is fierce"
On his quest, Leroy witnesses the darkest monsters unleashed from the hearts of men, and uncovers a truth more surprising than his strange reality. Once again, Lee Thompson presents a tableau of inner conflict, with characters riddled with flaws and weakness, the true battle, one for redemption. Leroy, a simple man, doubts himself and dreads the stalking demons of his childhood. Soaked in the blood of his father's butcher shop, he fears the violence bubbling under his gentle surface. Leroy is an earnest, but possibly unreliable narrator, and showcasing one of Thompson's trademarks, the reader cannot be sure where he crosses from reality to fantasy.
IMMERSION burns hot and fast at just over a hundred pages. I continue to be impressed with Thompson's storytelling. This is Thompson's first book outside his Division Mythos (the second due out later this year from DarkFuse), but in terms of theme, IMMERSION's characters play in the same arena, full of guilt, loneliness, regret, and pain. Despite this, the author continues to create new, wholly formed characters, very much part of their own stories and surroundings.
In the end, the question IMMERSION asks is, does love trump hate? This novella isn't for those who want things spelled out in bold letters, but for those of us fond of subtleties and who like to make up our own minds, IMMERSION is an excellent way to spend an evening.
May 29, 2012
Insofar as there exists these subgenres of horror fiction, I think Lee Thompson is beginning to consistely create a whole new category, or maybe just a long-forgotten one: intellectual horror. IMMERSION is a wonderful example, a horror story wrapped in psychological and religious end papers, with a significant dose of self-actualization and philosophical reasoning. Where does reality begin and unreality end, or are the two so intertwined that we can't answer the question? Are his characters mad or is the world around them coming apart?
When approaching Lee's work, you must willingly suspend your disbelief and surrender to his world. His stories, particularly his Division mythos, are anything but straightforward and they don't read like anything you've read in a long time. (See also: Greg Gifune, Sandy DeLuca, Cate Gardner, and Michael Louis Calvillo.)
There is no A + B = C with Lee's stories. The reader is an active participant. The variable is you.
When approaching Lee's work, you must willingly suspend your disbelief and surrender to his world. His stories, particularly his Division mythos, are anything but straightforward and they don't read like anything you've read in a long time. (See also: Greg Gifune, Sandy DeLuca, Cate Gardner, and Michael Louis Calvillo.)
There is no A + B = C with Lee's stories. The reader is an active participant. The variable is you.
May 16, 2012
I'm the author so of course I'm biased. Immersion's a dark, surreal, spiral into madness though and that's gotta count for something.
July 27, 2012
This is a weird psychedelic horror story that had me scratching my head at first wondering what the heck was going on? As you read the tale you get two interpretations on events that are occurring, one by the protagonist Leroy, and one that is told seemingly in Leroy's head and where the text is displayed in italics so you know that events are occurring in two different ways through Leroy's perception. But which one to believe? So that had me confused trying to figure out what was the right reality. Sound trippy? it was. But you get a payoff that helps explain why things are as trippy as they seem. And the payoff was a cool idea and I ended up liking the story even though I was confused at first. Stick with it and it'll pay off. This was good stuff!
May 21, 2021
About halfway through I almost did not continue because the story was getting pretty graphic and violent. The second half started and the story evened out so it wasn't as heavy handed. The ending did leave me with a few questions about the monsters in the tent and about the love between the characters. Lee Thompson's stories are visceral and dark so depending on your mood can be a little disturbing but worth the peek inside his mind of darkness
* Spoiler alert *
For the end of the story to stop the darkness I think Leroy should have sacrificed himself to save the town. That way he could be with Keri. There is nothing left for him in his life.
* Spoiler alert *
For the end of the story to stop the darkness I think Leroy should have sacrificed himself to save the town. That way he could be with Keri. There is nothing left for him in his life.
Want to read
September 15, 2014I believe this is a unique item. The book is a "mini" hardcover, with no dust jacket. The binding appears to be a red leatherette. I called Thunderstorm Books to ask about the book and they stated only a couple were produced.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews