Sweetest Darkness

By: Leslie Lutz

Narrated by: Danny Hughes

Everyone in Gypsum, Texas, knows the Hotel Alvarado changes at night—especially Quinn. A teenage clairvoyant, he’s been having dreams about it...dreams that call him to its dark, abandoned halls.

The hotel is a monument to the town's more prosperous past, when celebrities flocked to the mineral spas and films were shot in the desert. The Great Depression killed all of that, it killed the Alvarado, and frankly it killed Gypsum, too. Now, when the sun goes down, things no longer living stir deep within its creaking depths.

When Quinn braves the hotel's darkness with his best friend June and unrequited love Selena, looking for answers, he gets only one: ghosts aren't the scariest thing lurking inside the Alvarado (although they're there, cold and restless and angry).

No. He's been called by something worse: a predatory, inhuman entity that threatens to wipe Gypsum off the map, along with everyone in it. And wrongly—accidentally—he's let it out. It takes the shape of a handsome young man. It walks. It talks. It laughs. It can even make you laugh. But its appetite for death can never be sated.

Quinn has always had the power to see the future...can he find the power to change it?

©2024 Leslie Lutz (P)2024 Tantor Media

A thrilling YA horror novel that’s for all ages!

Pushed into action in by reoccurring dreams, Quinn, Selena and June are about to find out why, in the middle of the night, they are all standing outside of an abandoned hotel, an unknown force pulling them toward the doors. What they find, and unleash, has potential to bring everything to an end, unless Quinn can harness his gift of sight into a dark and unknown world. It’s a big ask of a 17 year old high school kid who’s trying to make ends meet while dealing with losing his grandma, all the while adjusting to his brother’s new role as surrogate parent.

The Sweetest Darkness is masterfully written – the plot is great, the characters are unforgettable, and Lutz’s writing, as usual, is simply beautiful.