The Man of Wind and Moss

Praise for Alex Gonzalez

“The Man of Wind and Moss is a dark demented delirious delight. Alex Gonzalez is unstoppable and readers are about to discover the finest and wildest horror novel of the year.” —Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

“It’s no surprise that the author of rekt has crafted such a uniquely contemporary take on folk horror, but that doesn’t make reading The Man of Wind and Moss any less thrilling. This book thrums with youth and urgency and Zillennial angst, but it’s rooted in deep, ancient menace.” —Nat Cassidy, USA Today bestselling author of When the Wolf Comes Home and Mary

“Alex Gonzalez is the bard of modern toxic masculinity, a macabre Bob Dylan who just went electric with The Man of Wind and Moss, a noxiously awesome Big Chill, a millennial Evil Dead, a Modelo Negra folk horror that burns bright with so much self destructive rage it could light up the entire borough of Brooklyn.” —Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Devil Inside

“It took 25 years to enjoy the woods again after The Blair Witch Project, now comes The Man of Wind and Moss to drive me back out again. Alex Gonzalez has created a smart and truly scary work of folk horror, added a heaping dose of Southern Gothic, and threw in just a dash of Sazon and Puerto Rican seasoning. A modern, dark and powerful story that is sure to haunt you well after you put it down.” —Ann Dávila Cardinal, award-winning author of Hear The Dead and The Storyteller’s Death

“Gruesome in all the right ways, The Man of Wind and Moss is a wild ride that never lets up. A brutal horror story with a tender heart.” —Kylie Lee Baker, author of Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

“The Man of Wind and Moss is a terrifying, thrilling, nightmare show of a novel, and I loved every page of it. Gonzalez has made magic out of folk horror, disaffected youth, intergenerational conflict, and witchy dealings. This is one to read with the lights on and far from the dark, spooky woods.” —Joshua Phillip Johnson, author of The Bloodless Queen

“An unsettling clash between modern lives and something far older lurking in the trees. Equal parts eerie, and entertaining, this book is a reminder than nature always has the last word.” —Luke Smitherd, author of I’ll Quit When I’m Dead on The Man of Wind and Moss

“The Man of Wind and Moss is a foliage-studded nightmare. The consequences that befall a best friend group as Gonzalez tackles loneliness, jealousy, and social and cultural detachment are nothing short of devastating. My eyes will evermore search the trees.” —Meg Ripley, author of Necrology

“Gonzalez is a talented author who delivers solid character development and sharp writing about grief and guilt, but what sets this novel apart is its unflinching brutality. It’s tough to read a book filled with horrific accidents and vicious murders, but Gonzalez makes the price of entry worth it with his sharp assessment of human nature. He highlights our gluttony for pain; explores how algorithms can pull people, like a strong underwater current, to terrible places; and shows, unforgettably, how the internet can desensitize us to atrocity.” —The New York Times Book Review on rekt

“Like clicking links online, Gonzalez’s world is addictive, compulsive, and impossible to leave—precisely because it could be our own.” —Booklist, STARRED REVIEW for rekt

“Perhaps my favorite horror read so far this year, delivering a timely cautionary warning for the digital era and establishing Gonzalez as a talented author who has important stories to tell.” —Locus Magazine for rekt

“Gonzalez fearlessly plumbs the depths of our present and future online hell and the result is a visionary book that is at once pensive, rollicking, and truly, bone-deep unsettling.” —Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts on rekt

“As dark as 3 a.m. despair, rekt is the depraved, bleeding edge of the genre, combining the intimate, personal dread of Paul Tremblay with the merciless grotesquerie of Eric LaRocca.” —Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Road of Bones and The House of Last Resort

“rekt goes past the ‘dark web’ and into online corners that pose a threat to life and sanity. Oddly enough, it also makes me want to visit these corners. A great exploration of the dangers and seductions of the internet.” —Poppy Z. Brite, author of Exquisite Corpse

“There are two versions of you: Before you read Alex Gonzalez’s rekt and after you read it. Like Danielewski’s House of Leaves and Palahniuk’s Haunted, rekt feels like a spiritual successor to those masterpieces with the frightening ability to actually harm the reader—to eviscerate them with such a singular style, such masterful prose, and such utter mercilessness. This is a bleak, vicious, and harrowing examination of grief, internet lore, and one young man’s descent into the depths of depravity.” —Eric LaRocca, Bram Stoker Award-nominated and Splatterpunk Award-winning Author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

“A nihilistic annihilation of the senses, a David Fincher-directed Faces of Death for the digital age, a novocaine 120 Gigabytes of Sodom by a debut de Sade that leaves the reader uncomfortably numb. This book takes just as much from you as you take from it.” —Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters on rekt

“A terrifying eruption of voyeuristic internet bloodlust into the physical realm.” —Beth Morgan, author of A Touch of Jen on rekt

“Masterfully captures every f*cked up thing undulating in the subconscious, collective dark of the internet. If you’ve ever been that kid digging deeper and deeper to shock yourself into feeling something—read this book, traumatize yourself all over again, it’s a great time!” —Em. X Liu, author of The Death I Gave Him on rekt