Not all things in the orchard are safe to pick.

From Vagabondage Press Books’ Dark Alley Press Imprint.

After an unfortunate incident on a Maine apple orchard, precocious teen Scree is left with a father she’s not sure is hers, the chores and raising her flaky brother’s baby. In a noble move to save the child from an existence like her own, she flees to a glitzy resort teeming with young men just ripe for the picking. But even as life with baby becomes all she’d dreamed, Dali-esque visions begin to leach through the gold paint and posh carpets…

Fans of The Haunting of Hill House, The Lovely Bones and Carrie shouldn’t miss Bad Apple—the dark, surreal ride that proves not all things in an orchard are safe to pick.

“I always felt sorry when the customers picked an apple and then tossed it to the ground because it wasn’t “good enough” or had bruises. That poor apple just lay there, lonely and forgotten, future helpless victim of the birds and the insects…”

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“…Bad Apple is great in an engrossing, haunting, Shirley Jackson We Have Always Lived in the Castle way. There’s an immediate real feel of the earth, and emotional need, and a connection between the two which is both familiar and off, but off in a way we all recognize.”

~ Stacy Horn, Cyberville, The Restless Sleep, Waiting for my Cats to Die

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“Shirley Jackson fans, take note: Kristi Petersen Schoonover has crafted a gripping novel that will leave fans of modern horror screaming and cheering.”

~ Lauren Baratz-Logsted, author of The Twin’s Daughter

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“Deeply disturbing in the best way possible. These characters screamed for a witness, and I was helpless against them.”

~  Zombrarian, SciFi Saturday Night

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“Drags the reader in and keeps its claws fastened long after he’s put it down.”

~ Philip Perron, Dark Discussions Podcast

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 “…an explosive ending that literally took my breath away.”

~ Peter Schwotzer, Literary Mayhem

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“This truly is a wonderful tale, completely feminine in the best of ways…an insightful novel.”

~ Robert J. Duperre,  Shock Totem

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“Schoonover is a writer who loves her art and is practiced at it. Bad Apple is not her first novel, and her dedication to excellence in the written word shines here. Descriptions are vivid and tense, reeling the reader into her character’s ever more twisted world.”

~Zinta Aistairs, The Smoking Poet

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