BOOK EXCERPT: Heather Marie’s YA debut, THE GATEWAY THROUGH WHICH THEY CAME
Happy book birthday to Heather Marie, whose debut YA novel The Gateway through Which They Came releases today! I’ve been hearing about Gateway for a long time, and I’m looking forward to finally getting my hands on it—the premise is really interesting and I’ve heard lots of good things from prepub reviewers. And Heather is a lovely presence on Twitter, one of those writers who’s fun, enthusiastic, and always ready to support and encourage others.
I’ve got a great excerpt to share, but first—have you seen the book trailer? It’s really cool; Heather’s longtime friend, Vicious Vanity FX artist Nicole Chilelli, did the makeup and put a ton of work into directing and editing it. You can see the finished product right here, along with behind-the-scenes interviews with Heather and Nicole and some fascinating footage of Nicole transforming the lead actress into the walking dead. I love a creative book trailer, and this one is definitely among the most memorable I’ve seen!
OKAY: on with the show. Here’s the Gateway blurb and excerpt for you:
To seventeen-year-old Aiden Ortiz, letting the dead walk through his body to reach the other side comes with the territory.
Being a Gateway isn’t an easy job, but someone’s gotta send Bleeders where they belong. Heaven. Salvation. Call it whatever you want. Dead is dead.
But when his search for Koren Banks—the girl who went mysteriously missing seven months ago—leaves him with more questions than answers, he finds himself involved in something far more sinister and beyond his control.
With the threat of the Dark Priest’s resurrection, and his plan to summon his demon brothers from hell, Aiden is left to discover his identity before the Dark Priest’s curse infecting his blood consumes him, and before the world as he knows it succumbs to the darkness of hell on earth.
Here’s an excerpt from the book that sets up the mystery of Koren Banks, the missing girl Aiden can’t stop thinking about:
EXCERPT
I can’t bring myself to look her in the eyes, afraid of saying something I’ll regret. With my back to her, and my heart sinking into my stomach, I say, “I told you, Mom, she’s gone. I haven’t talked to her since she left.” The thought of Koren is still raw after what Linda told me earlier today.
Mom doesn’t respond right away, as if absorbing my words.
She knows how much it hurts when she mentions Koren. She doesn’t mean anything by it, but it’s more her worried-mother-concerned-about-her-son-hanging-out-with-a-troublesome-girl kind of a thing. Koren Banks and her parents picked up and left without a word before the end of the previous school year. One day she was there, chewing on her pencil in the desk beside me like she always did when she was lost in thought. Her bright blue eyes focused on the calculation on the white board, the heel of her foot tapping silently under the table, each tap like a number in her head.
These were little things not many would notice when it came to Koren, but me, I noticed everything. Every nervous tic, every perfect flaw, every expression. If you grew up with her the way I did, you’d notice these things, too. But before I knew it, she was gone. No warning, no explanation. Just an empty desk that kept with it the small engraving of her initials in the upper right hand corner. K.M.B. Those three initials were the only thing left of the girl I couldn’t possibly forget.
I can sense my mother hovering behind me. Her fragile hand grips my shoulder, which sags under her touch. It takes everything in me not to pull away, or to let her see the pained expression on my face.
Mom doesn’t approve of Koren. The truth is: Mom used to be close friends with her parents. They’d all known each other since they were in high school. Our moms were pregnant at the same time. Damn near gave birth together. It was like they’d planned it out perfectly. That’s how close they were, but one day that all changed. Koren’s dad changed. He distanced himself from everyone, forcing his wife and daughter to do the same. One day they were the family we spent every Saturday with for fifteen years. The next, they’d become shadows. Lifeless. Resistant to human interaction.
Koren was the last of her family to let go. And when she did, they left town completely. It only made my mom believe nothing good could result from my affection for a girl whose life had become a mystery. There were too many secrets forming when before there were none. Something strange happened with Koren’s family, I just don’t know what.
***
Sound good? Make sure you check out the other posts on the Gateway blog tour—Heather’s making the rounds this week, sharing the playlist, doing interviews, and sharing a “stick figure teaser scene” that sounds AWESOME! (Follow her on Twitter for all the latest updates.)
And here’s a little more about Heather Marie:
Heather Marie lives in Northern California with her husband, and spends the majority of her time at home reading. Before she followed her dreams of becoming a writer, Heather worked as a hairstylist and makeup artist for several years. Although she enjoyed the artistic aspect of it all, nothing quite quenched her creative side like the telling of a good story. When the day had come for her to make a choice, she left behind her promising career to start another, and never looked back.
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