Available Formats
When We Talk to the Dead: A Novel
By (Author) Ian Chorao
Crooked Lane Books
Crooked Lane Books
25th November 2025
14th October 2025
United States
General
Fiction
Hardback
320
Width 139mm, Height 209mm
The island was abandoned years ago-but something dark was left behind, and it's waiting for those bold enough to return. Perfect for fans of Iain Reid, this slow-burning horror novel will sweep you out, and like a churning ocean, before you realize, it will pull you under its turbulent spell. The island was abandoned years ago-but something dark was left behind, and it's waiting for those bold enough to return. Perfect for fans of Iain Reid, this slow-burning horror novel will sweep you out, and like a churning ocean, before you realize, it will pull you under its turbulent spell. A remote deserted island off the coast of Maine holds dark memories and disturbing secrets for the family who once lived on its rocky shores. Though nineteen-year-old Sally de Gama remembers nothing about the accident that took place on Captain's Island and destroyed her family when she was a little girl, she suffers from intense anxiety, pervasive bouts of dissociation, and gruesome nightmares. All Sally knows is that her mother hasn't spoken since the accident that took the life of Sally's twin sister. Following the tragedy, her family fled and never looked back. When her mother suddenly dies, Sally and three college friends travel to the island-for her friends it's an adventure to a strange, abandoned place. For Sally, it's a desperate bid to recover some of her memories and understand what really happened to her family. But when memories begin to return, Sally is overcome by grief and rage that threaten to plunge her into madness-a madness that is fed by a malevolent presence stalking them on the island.
Praise for When We Talk to the Dead:
You said there was something off about this place, one of Ian Choraos characters says to another, and theyre right. Youd think a group of hipster undergrads returning to ones long-abandoned house on a cursed island would know better than to mess with a Ouija board and shoot horror shorts for their social, but no. When We Talk to the Dead is a fun, old-school dark ride. So were totally lost Yes, yes we are.
Stewart ONan, bestselling author of The Speed Queen and The Night Country
Ian Chor o is a writer and psychotherapist in private practice in Brooklyn, New York. He lives with his wife, who is a filmmaker and professor; they have two children. Like his main character he appreciates that the space between feeling and creation, realty and imagination is often ambiguous at best. This is his first book of horror.