On Our TBR

The Sacrifice

by Rin Chupeco

304 pages

Alon, a local teenager, watches a production crew of an American documentary-style reality show set up on Kisapmata (called the "Godseye" by the Americans), an island off the coast of the Philippines rumored to be cursed. Two producers offer to pay them to be the crew's tour guide since other locals have refused to set foot on the island.

Within minutes of their arrival, a sinkhole appears, revealing a mummified corpse entwined within a balete tree growing underground. Rattled, the showrunner explains to Alon the purpose of the show: to investigate the island's legend of a Dreamer god that supposedly grants believers unspeakable powers in exchange for eight sacrifices.

A mysterious journal they find on the island lends credit to the curse and poses a sinister riddle: He who sleeps in the mouth is He who sleeps in the eye. The first to eat, the second to seed, the third to wear, the fourth to birth, the fifth to serve, the sixth to lure, the seventh to consume, the last to wake. The roles of each seem to align with the known sacrifices.

As the crew falls victim to the island's curse one-by-one, Alon must figure out a way to stop the Dreamer before it destroys more than just the island.

  About the Author

Rin Chupeco wrote obscure manuals for complicated computer programs, talked people out of their money at event shows, and did many other terrible things. They now write about ghosts and fairy tales but is still sometimes mistaken as a revenant. They were born and raised in the Philippines and, or so the legend goes, still haunts that place to this very day. Their pronouns are she/they.

This doesn't have to be "The End!" Stay awhile longer, lovely reader.

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