The Delusion (The Delusion Series Book 1)

2018 Christy Award winner!By March of Owen Edmonds?s senior year, eleven students at Masonville High School have committed suicide. Amid the media frenzy and chaos, Owen tries to remain levelheaded?until he endures his own near-death experience and wakes to a distressing new reality.The people around him suddenly appear to be shackled and enslaved.Owen frantically seeks a cure for what he thinks are crazed hallucinations, but his delusions become even more sinister. An army of hideous, towering beings, unseen by anyone but Owen, are preying on his girlfriend and classmates, provoking them to self-destruction.Owen eventually arrives at a mind-bending conclusion: he?s not imagining the evil?everyone else is blind to its reality. He must warn and rescue those he loves . . . but this proves to be no simple mission. Will he be able to convince anyone to believe him before it?s too late?Owen?s heart-pounding journey through truth and delusion will force him to reconsider everything he believes. He both longs for and fears the answers to questions that are quickly becoming too dangerous to ignore.ReviewGrade 7 and up-On the surface, Owen is a typical high school student at a small-town school in Texas. He runs track, has a pretty girlfriend, and is set on starting college in a few months. Yes, it?s a little strange that he inherited a chunk of land from grandparents he never met, but it?s not that strange?not like the fact that 11 students at Masonville High have committed suicide in a single school year. Things get stranger still after Owen drinks from an old well in the woods on his property. He wakes up seeing chains and shackles wrapped around the people of Masonville, but they seem oblivious to their bindings. Hateful words like die, suffer, and rage are graffitied throughout the town, but only Owen sees them. And then there are the Creepers?hideous, demonlike creatures that Owen starts to see everywhere, playing with the emotions of the shackled. A war between good and evil is taking place in Masonville and Owen is the only one who can see the truth. This is Christian fiction with a horror twist. Only followers of Christ are somewhat immune to the Creepers, and Owen struggles with the idea that God may be real in spite of all the bad things happening around him. This isn?t an easy, instant conversion tale. The ending is slightly over the top, but sets readers up for a second book.VERDICT Recommended for libraries where teen Christian Fiction is in demand. -- School Library JournalGallier, a popular speaker and advocate for Christian values, captures the unseen world of sin through the eyes of high school student Owen in her debut novel. Small-town Masonville High only recently opened but has been plagued by suicides?12 and counting. The community is on edge, and on the day of the 12th suicide, Owen wanders into the woods and meets an old man pulling water from a seemingly ancient well. After drinking the well water with the man, Owen begins to see chains and chokers around the necks of many of his classmates, and even his own mother. But he also witnesses others who have no chains and seem to glow with light. His determination to understand the nature of these visions and help those whom he sees being plagued by ?Creepers? brings him through a labyrinth of emotions and discoveries about himself, others, and how sinful behavior (lying, stealing, cheating) can pollute a community. In Owen, Gallier has nicely captured the mixture of naïveté and overwhelming self-awareness typical of high school students. Gallier?s impressive debut will make readers reconsider social boundaries and the negative power of judging oneself and others. -- Publishers WeeklyA small town is the center of a fierce spiritual battle in this debut novel. In fact, Masonville, Texas, is a veritable horror show: The local high school is plagued by an out-of-control suicide epidemic.Living with a negligent, alcoholic mot