I discovered Chuck Wendig with the Mariam Black series—dark, imaginative thrillers about a badass young woman who can tell when and how you will die with just a touch. That was the beginning. In just a few short years he’s become one of my favorite writers. His towering post-apocalyptic duology, Wanderers and Wayward, belongs on the same shelf with The Stand and Swan Song. His first foray into straight-up, balls-out horror, The Book of Accidents, was terrifying, but it also had heart and humanity. Here’s a bit from my review:

“Most characters are flawed to greater or lesser extent, and some manage to be heroic despite those flaws. The villains, and make no mistake there is some true, harrowing evil in this book, are never cardboard cutouts. They have backstories, and past trauma of their own. I think that’s one of the themes of The Book of Accidents—that evil creates more evil, and trauma creates more trauma, and it takes effort and heart and love to break that cycle. Love, particularly the familial kind, can be every bit as powerful as evil.”

Black River Orchard, Wendig’s forthcoming novel, is a return to horror, and it might be even better.

The novel is set in Harrow, a small Pennsylvania town, with an apple orchard of just seven trees. The apples from that orchard are special—a rich red, nearly black, with a flavor that’s intoxicating, even addictive. In this case, “addictive” is literal, because the apples make one feel better, stronger, more confident, more in control. Unfortunately, there’s a dark side to that addiction, to eating these apples, and it soon begins to consume Harrow, to tear the very fabric of the town to shreds. What starts as a mystery involving something that roils to the surface of the river that runs through town, blossoms, like a poisoned flower, into a riveting, heart stopping battle between good and evil for the soul of the entire town.

As with The Book of Accidents, Wendig excels here at introducing a wonderful, varied cast of characters. He takes the time for you to get to know them, but all the while he’s setting his wheels into motion, connecting one to another like the roots of an apple tree. None of his characters are one-dimensional—they are loving and caring, but they are also difficult, confrontational, and obsessive. When the apples begin to work their dark magic on them, I found myself rooting for them to resist, to fight the good fight, and cheering when some of them did.

Because evil almost always has an antecedent, Wendig is also telling a generational story, with chapters that go back centuries. I loved these parts of the novel—they give it depth and verisimilitude. They give the evil a name and a backstory.

If you’re a fan of body horror, which I am, Black River Orchard goes to places that may haunt your dreams, and make you think twice about picking up an apple.

If you’ve followed Wendig on social media, you know that he has an interest and knowledge in heirloom apple varieties. He uses that knowledge to great effect here, weaving it into the fabric of the novel, making apples themselves another character.

So, too sum up: Black River Orchard is a masterful work of horror from an author working at the top of his game. It releases September 26, and is available for pre-order now. Don’t miss this one.