After Blumhouse picked up the original comic for a film adaptation, fans of Something Is Killing the Children have even more good news coming their way. Boom Studios and Crown Publishing Group have announced the first-ever novel set in the world of the popular comic series, set one year before the events of the series to give readers an even better insight into the monstrous and terrifying world of James Tynion IV’s award-winning series.
Something Is Killing the Children: Hope Is a Knife is written by Tynion along with novelist Kiersten White, hitting shelves this fall. Focused on the series’ iconic protagonist Erica Slaughter, the novel’s synopsis is as follows:
As a Black Mask, Erica Slaughter has a very straightforward job: find the monster, kill the monster, then do it all again. But when she arrives in Badwater, Idaho, nothing is simple. She can’t determine whether the horrific death of a twelve-year-old was caused by a bear, a person, or something much worse. Complicating matters is the charismatic doomsday preacher who is quickly leading the small town to the verge of hysteria. If Erica wants to save the surviving children, she has to figure out which kid’s fears might have summoned a monster—and fast.
“Something Is Killing the Children has always been about how we process and react to horror in the world around us, and it has been a thrill to work with Kiersten to use prose to dig into the deepest, darkest parts of Erica Slaughter's psychology,” said Tynion. “I'm so excited for new readers to enter the Slaughterverse through this novel, and for longtime fans to experience an Erica Slaughter story unlike any they've seen before.”
Written by Tynion with art by Werther Dell’Edera, Something Is Killing the Children is one of the most successful original horror comics of all time, keeping pace with The Walking Dead and selling over five million copies worldwide. The series’ success also made Tynion the first writer since Alan Moore to win the Eisner Award for Best Writer three consecutive years in a row.
“Erica Slaughter is one of the most compelling characters in modern horror,” said White. “Writing Hope Is a Knife meant embracing the raw terror and moral complexity of her world—where children’s fears are deadly real and survival demands impossible choices. I’m thrilled to help bring the universe of SIKTC to life in a new form.”
Something Is Killing the Children: Hope Is a Knife hits shelves on October 13, and is available for pre-order now. Check out the cover below:
