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"Vintage: A Ghost Story is a powerful, emotionally charged novel, exploring what it means to be young and different in a world that rarely accommodates the individual. Often bittersweet, the story examines how our choices haunt us, sometimes to frightening degrees. More than a ghost story, Berman has created a coming-of-age tale that rings true, showing us the dreams and dreads of youth.
Whether describing the worldly or the otherworldly, Berman’s style
is as comfortable and sharp as a fine suit. With an eye for detail Berman
has woven an ornate fabric from threads of lust, terror, loss and joy, creating
the kind of story that never goes out of style."
Lee Thomas, Stoker-award winning author
"A witty, shuddersome and extraordinary
book that haunts with its charms."
Holly Black, author of the Modern Faery Tale series
"Steve Berman has created a group of fully realized characters in Vintage, while delivering a ghost story that surprises at every turn. A read full of shivers."
Gregory Frost, author of Fitcher's Brides
"Steve Berman's first novel Vintage is a skillful brew of
Goth fashion, gay teen alienation, a sexually predatory ghost from the legendary
past and an improvised exorcism into which the author has blended a surprisingly
sweet coming-of-age love story."
Rick Bowes, World Fantasy and Lambda Award winner
-- cover by Toby Johnson
Vintage, A Ghost Story
A lonely gay teen bides his time with trips to strangers' funerals and Ouija board sessions, desperately searching for someone to love—and a reason to live following a suicide attempt. Walking an empty stretch of highway on a nautumn night, he meets a strange and beautiful boy who looks like he stepped out of a dream. But the vision becomes into a nightmare when the boy turns out to be the local urban legend, the ghost of a star athlete killed in 1957. Vintage: A Ghost Story is a romantic thriller with a quirky cast of friends, vintage clothing, Valomilk candies.
A Finalist for the 2008 Andre Norton Award!
1/5 of the royalties from Vintage will be donated to charities helping gay teens:10% will be donated to the GSA Network, which assists Gay-Straight Student Alliances in high schools; another 10% donated to the Trevor Project, which works to prevent suicide among gay youth.
I first started working on Vintage way back in 1997. A decade later will see its release. For readers who know me only through reading my short fiction, the novel began as an ode to a goth boy I had a too-brief encounter with in downtown LA. The early manuscript was briefly serialized on website, the Gay Goth Network.
Releasing in March from Lethe Press
Trade Paperback, 208 pages
$13.00
ISBN 1-59021-053-0
