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The Duplication House
Emily Conlin, missing for twenty years in rural West Virginia, has recently been found alive in the forest, bloody and bedraggled. Now, with the “help” of a down and out novelist, she is finally ready to tell the story…but whose story is it?
The Duplication House is a twisted tale of the constructed self, identity in confined spaces, and all the dark things deep down. Just to let you know, should you decide to stay, there will be screaming.
Critcal Acclaim for Nathan
“Nathan Singer’s The Duplication House is at once a gleefully transgressive psychosexual phantasmagoria of Grand Guignol grotesqueries and a gimlet-eyed postmodern rumination on the creative process. Take a peek inside—I double-dare you.” —Chris Holm, Anthony Award winning author of The Killing Kind and Child Zero
“The hip new grand master of America’s literate underbelly.” —Mike Magnuson, author of The Right Man for the Job
“The master of the literary pulp thriller. Singer’s work has beauty and brutality in a balance no other writer can match.” —Steve Weddell, author of Country Hardball
“Nathan Singer is an urban wordsmith that blisters the pages with language only he can scribe.” —Frank Bill, author of The Savage
“He’s the kind of writer who’ll just destroy you, in all the right ways.” —Benjamin Whitmer, author of Cry Father
“[H]e is the heir apparent to Hubert Selby, Jr. Singer’s electric prose is impossible to walk away from, and will stay with you long after you’ve finished the last page.” — Tasha Alexander , author of A Fatal Waltz
“Singer’s prose is as stark and brutal as the world he describes, but it is also riveting. It carries the kind of redemptive power that reminds us why we read novels in the first place.” — Denver Times
“Nathan Singer is what a writer is meant to daring, unique, original, and insightful.” —Reed Farrel Coleman New York Times Bestselling author of The Devil Wins
“Nathan Singer…the top of the list of America’s best young novelists.” — John Connolly, author of The Book of Lost Things
“Singer’s percussive prose [works] its magic.” — Booklist
“This is a writer with balls bigger than my entire head.” —J.D. Rhoades, author of The Devil’s Right Hand
The Duplication House is a twisted tale of the constructed self, identity in confined spaces, and all the dark things deep down. Just to let you know, should you decide to stay, there will be screaming.
Critcal Acclaim for Nathan
“Nathan Singer’s The Duplication House is at once a gleefully transgressive psychosexual phantasmagoria of Grand Guignol grotesqueries and a gimlet-eyed postmodern rumination on the creative process. Take a peek inside—I double-dare you.” —Chris Holm, Anthony Award winning author of The Killing Kind and Child Zero
“The hip new grand master of America’s literate underbelly.” —Mike Magnuson, author of The Right Man for the Job
“The master of the literary pulp thriller. Singer’s work has beauty and brutality in a balance no other writer can match.” —Steve Weddell, author of Country Hardball
“Nathan Singer is an urban wordsmith that blisters the pages with language only he can scribe.” —Frank Bill, author of The Savage
“He’s the kind of writer who’ll just destroy you, in all the right ways.” —Benjamin Whitmer, author of Cry Father
“[H]e is the heir apparent to Hubert Selby, Jr. Singer’s electric prose is impossible to walk away from, and will stay with you long after you’ve finished the last page.” — Tasha Alexander , author of A Fatal Waltz
“Singer’s prose is as stark and brutal as the world he describes, but it is also riveting. It carries the kind of redemptive power that reminds us why we read novels in the first place.” — Denver Times
“Nathan Singer is what a writer is meant to daring, unique, original, and insightful.” —Reed Farrel Coleman New York Times Bestselling author of The Devil Wins
“Nathan Singer…the top of the list of America’s best young novelists.” — John Connolly, author of The Book of Lost Things
“Singer’s percussive prose [works] its magic.” — Booklist
“This is a writer with balls bigger than my entire head.” —J.D. Rhoades, author of The Devil’s Right Hand
244 pages, Paperback
Published September 26, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 31, 2023
This is a HANDGRENADE
I'm writing this review after just one reading, so don't expect erudition...yet. That will surely be on the table as this work should be well studied by future students of the craft.
It SEEMS to be an easy narrative, similar to many detective/mystery stories, about a girl who went missing and returned to her small town as a traumatized woman. Except 'easy' starts falling apart right away... Questions like how could she be missing if everyone knew where she was? Narrator/author/detective is going to find out! He apparently wasn't doing much anyway...blah, blah, blah...meets the small town hicks, finds the girl, notebook open, pretty straight forward...will they or won't they...? Yeah, now let's throw away all the common tripe and get down to it!
Stick with me now...You think you know where this is going, but you're a clever reader! After the first few chapters, you've noticed the plot arc timing feels out of sync with the remaining pages left. Where will this go? Before you answer, don't try. What the author has in store for you is not what you expect and possibly a whole lot more than you signed up for. (Read the other artist's blurbs on the cover, you should've know something like this was coming!) Dr. Singer is in top form here, and before you know it the initial thoughts and impressions you had are shown up as cheap, hackneyed, and trite.
Are you one of those people comfortable with the thoughts inside your head? Were you ever suspicious about any of the ideas or topics your 'own self' dragged before your 'own self'? Yeah, especially those! Are there 'two wolves in you'? Maybe more? Be warned, you may wan to record a video of yourself to your future self to see if, when it's done, you come away from "The Duplication House" the same person who walked up those stairs.
I'm writing this review after just one reading, so don't expect erudition...yet. That will surely be on the table as this work should be well studied by future students of the craft.
It SEEMS to be an easy narrative, similar to many detective/mystery stories, about a girl who went missing and returned to her small town as a traumatized woman. Except 'easy' starts falling apart right away... Questions like how could she be missing if everyone knew where she was? Narrator/author/detective is going to find out! He apparently wasn't doing much anyway...blah, blah, blah...meets the small town hicks, finds the girl, notebook open, pretty straight forward...will they or won't they...? Yeah, now let's throw away all the common tripe and get down to it!
Stick with me now...You think you know where this is going, but you're a clever reader! After the first few chapters, you've noticed the plot arc timing feels out of sync with the remaining pages left. Where will this go? Before you answer, don't try. What the author has in store for you is not what you expect and possibly a whole lot more than you signed up for. (Read the other artist's blurbs on the cover, you should've know something like this was coming!) Dr. Singer is in top form here, and before you know it the initial thoughts and impressions you had are shown up as cheap, hackneyed, and trite.
Are you one of those people comfortable with the thoughts inside your head? Were you ever suspicious about any of the ideas or topics your 'own self' dragged before your 'own self'? Yeah, especially those! Are there 'two wolves in you'? Maybe more? Be warned, you may wan to record a video of yourself to your future self to see if, when it's done, you come away from "The Duplication House" the same person who walked up those stairs.
February 8, 2024
What would life be like if it didn't contain the human construct of morality? Would you be comfortable with the choices you'd make? The life you'd live? Or would those choices haunt you?
Although I am undeniably a wimp, I tend to enjoy thrillers and never read horror. This, however, is one horror story that kept me engaged and turning pages. It also kept me up a few nights, unable to sleep as my mind turned.
I will avoid spoilers, but there were multiple parts of the book where I felt lost. There was even one point where I went back and reread most of the beginning because I thought I was losing my mind. But the story kept making me return, wanting to find my way, wanting to find answers.
Although I am undeniably a wimp, I tend to enjoy thrillers and never read horror. This, however, is one horror story that kept me engaged and turning pages. It also kept me up a few nights, unable to sleep as my mind turned.
I will avoid spoilers, but there were multiple parts of the book where I felt lost. There was even one point where I went back and reread most of the beginning because I thought I was losing my mind. But the story kept making me return, wanting to find my way, wanting to find answers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews