Rustbelt Gothic

A novel by Paul Jessup.

PREORDER - This book is available October 20th, 2026. 

Coppercreek is barely a century old—a child, as far as towns go, born in an age of steel and steam. It wasn’t founded by Puritans; it never had a witch hunt; and no one had ever been hanged within the city limits. And yet, there is something wrong in Coppercreek. It’s in the air. It has seeped into the ground. It haunts the trees. 

The locals call it Silver Jenny, and it is stealing the faces of their children. 

Bear has studied horror all her life, and she knows the rules. Isolated town, cut off from the rest of the world: check. Townspeople wary of outsiders, even one of their own: check. Stupid coming-of-age rituals, which—now that she’s all studied up—are clearly old pagan rituals: check. 

No self-respecting final girl would ever walk into a situation like this. 

And yet, here is she, standing on the porch of her parent’s house. Back in the town she fled years ago. Bound to—by the very rules she’s knows in her bones—run into the one person she hurt the most, the one she still loves so fiercely. Bear knows better. 

~ PRAISE ~

“Paul Jessup is the ghostpoet of weird, writing words of unease that rattle like bones and whisper in dark corners.”
—Lavie Tidhar, author of A Man Lies Dreaming