★Named as a best new book by Tor.com, Chicago Review of Books, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn

Hunter Warden just wants some peace and quiet. He wants to watch unboxing videos and be lulled to sleep by the monotone voices and smooth talking YouTube hosts. He wants his parents that are always working to either totally leave him alone or be around for once. After a few beers, Hunter decides to get away from it all and go for a run in Falter Kingdom.

When you run the gauntlet at Falter Kingdom, a tunnel next to a park on the outskirts of suburbia where local high school kids go to drink and smoke, one of two things can happen — nothing or you catch a demon.

The cold spots, locked doors, scratches on the wall, and disappearing laptop immediately alert Hunter to the fact that a demon is haunting him. He knows the signs, he's seen the videos of people that are possessed, and everyone knows someone that has had to get an exorcism. Hunter knows that he should get rid of it, but he can't help but enjoy the company of "H," despite this demon's sinister intentions.

 

Michael J. Seidlinger is the author of a number of novels including The Strangest, The Fun We’ve Had, and The Laughter of Strangers. He serves as Electric Literature‘s Book Reviews Editor as well as Publisher-in-Chief of Civil Coping Mechanisms, an indie press specializing in innovative fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Falter Kingdom is his first YA novel. He lives in Baltimore, MD.

 

"Falter Kingdom follows Hunter Warden, a senior in high school who catches a demon and decides to keep it despite its malicious intentions. Ultimately the spirit is an unlikely guide, helping him to overcome the dislocation and disaffection he feels with moving on after graduation." —Publishers Weekly

One of Tor.com's Best New Releases of August

"Seidlinger’s riveting book has ‘unpacked’ the classic Holden Caulfield character we know and love and given us a newly complicated misfit to root for.Here we see the boundaries of good and evil, love and hatred, self and other dissipate as the increasingly lovable demon takes possession of us." —Garrard Conley, author of Boy Erased: A Memoir

One of the Chicago Review of Books Best Books of August

"Seidlinger continues his quest to become a literary chameleon, diving into new genres and remixing them into something wholly his own. His is a kingdom without borders." —Joshua Mohr, author of All This Life

One of Vol. 1 Brooklyn's Best Books of August

"High school is a time of endless exorcisms, and Michael J. Seidlinger captures the demon-expelling days of senior year in Falter Kingdom with tenderness and honesty. As in any high school, there is someone determined to hold onto his demon as long as he can, and Seidlinger wisely places that demon-embracer at the center of this defiant, innovative novel."
—Idra Novey, author of Ways to Disappear