Cant remember the title or author of the book. I don’t even remember the names of the characters. But I do remember the basic premise of the story. The MC moves into a small town after his father had been fired from his job as a an officer. As the family settles, the MC meets two of the other important side character who later become his friends. A girl and a boy about his age. Days later, the MC’s sister goes missing and his friends mention that people often disappear in the town and that the urban legend of (insert title of book) is said to be at fault for these events.
There is big emphasis on a loud and mysterious noise that comes from further out in the town beyond the forest. Something that we learn later to be a groaning machine that haunts the MC every time he hears it. After the disappearance of his sister, which the law enforcement rules out as a run away. There’s a time skip. The MC is in highschool I believe. And he comes into closer contact with the town mayor. A charismatic man described to have a piercing grin.
The MC’s father becomes the town sheriff. The side girl and boy begin to date, though their parents are strongly against it (this will come back to be an important part of the plot after the final reveal of the corruption in the town).
Long story short and SPOILERS ahead. After the death of the side character (girl)’s mother, the teens believe that the letter her deceased mother wrote is crucial evidence to the disappearance of the women in the town. But their plans to recover it during the funeral go wrong. And the girls father is angered with the boys from preventing them to be able to move out of the town safely without the intervention of the mayor.
The boys use clues from the talk in the town about “skinny men” and other “paranormal” stories to figure out where their friend and MC’s sister could’ve been taken.
They find an abandoned mineshaft that references all of their previous findings. And once they enter the horror house, they discover many disturbing truths. That the mayor, the sheriff (and the retired sheriff I believe?) have all the women trafficked into this warehouse like place for their own sexual pleasure. Selling the offspring and naming the children with their first name having the last initial of either the sheriff of the mayor. The boys find their girl friend (and girlfriend) and attempt to leave. But on the way to the exit the MC finds his sister in chains and a swollen belly.
I don’t remember much of what happens after but. I think the MC was cast away from the town for wanting to reveal the truth to them (when most of the adults had already known). I believe the point of producing the offspring was becuase of some accident that the mine workers experienced during their labor that made them infertile, therefor the town couldn’t reproduce. So the previous mayors’ solution was to have this sex trafficking thing where they could reproduce offspring, burn decomposing bodies into fine powder, and sell children and the powder to improve the economic status of the town, and the towns people were okay with that, being able to purchase children themselves to have the family they’ve always wanted.
Some sickening truths weren’t outright stated, but mostly inferred for the reader to put things together.
The MC’s friends were actually related, which is why thier parents were against them dating (both their first names had the same initial).
The MC’s father was in love with his own daughter, which is later revealed when the MC comes to know that a family adopted a child with his first name having the initial of his last name.
The story was overall intriguing and full of mystery. The real horror wasn’t some possible paranormal monster, but rather the cruelty of people who were desperate to keep the status of the town stable at the cost of so many lives and the wellbeing of the women in the town.
Anyway, just wanted to know if anyone else had read it, or seen a podcast about it, I’ve been searching for some time but can’t seem to find anything. lol
by Puzzled_Resource_908