Set in 1905, Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi tells the story of a group of boys at an orphanage in Delaware County, Pennsylvania in 1905. Under the care of a group of priests, the boys at St. Vincent’s Orphanage live a life of farm work and religious teaching. Underneath this seemingly peaceful pastoral setting, there is something much darker at play. The boys are physically and emotionally abused by their caretakers, suffering painful punishments and neglect when they fail to obey.

It’s more trauma on top of what many of the boys have already experienced, with many of them living in or facing dire circumstances before being brought to the orphanage. That’s especially true for Peter, who watched his father kill his mother before committing suicide in front of him. Peter barely escaped their burning house alive, and now as he nears adulthood, he is torn between life as a priest and life with the pretty girl at a nearby farm.

Peter’s plans for the future are irrevocably changed when a group of men brings a mysterious stranger to the orphanage one night. The men are the local sheriff and his deputies, and their prisoner who has committed heinous crimes is acting strange enough that the sheriff is seeking the aid of a priest.

Despite every attempt to save him, the prisoner dies. Upon death something is released, something old and evil, and the boys of St Vincent’s are completely unprepared for it. It takes root in some of them and lines are drawn in the sand very quickly as the boys split into groups; them and us.

As things start to turn violent, Peter and the next eldest boy, David, must look after the other boys when a horrific attack on the adults leaves them as the only defence from evil like nothing they’ve seen before.

Can a group of young boys survive an ancient evil that even the priests couldn’t stop?

Boys in the Valley is a brilliant horror book that pushes all the right buttons and will hold your attention throughout. I worried at the start of the book when Fracassi introduced the setting and characters that this was going to be a very slow-paced book. Thankfully, it was just him setting the scene with a thoroughness that would add to the tension later on. I stuck with the book, and I am so glad that I did because it is one of the best horror stories I have read.

For me, a horror story needs to have a great story along with the right amount of blood, gore and violence. I’m reading a book, not watching a horror movie or playing a hack-and-slash video game; there needs to be something more than just blood and gore. I also need to feel the horror, not to the point where it freaks me out, and I’ll have nightmares. I just want to feel the creepiness, the darkness that the author is trying to sell me. Theological horror has always been a favourite of mine, and this ticked all the boxes for me. 

Not only that, but I knew Boys in the Valley was a winner when I was reading a scene where one of the characters turns to look at the evil boys, realising that they aren’t just acting weird and that something is very wrong, that his life might be in danger – and caught myself holding my breath in sync with the character in anticipation of their actions.

Boys in the Valley is a dark horror novel that capitalises on the idea of the innocence of children and juxtaposes it with extreme violence. The two are not supposed to mix, and the wrongness of the situation just adds to the horror as events unfold. Please be aware that while this works towards the atmosphere of the book, there are scenes that are quite disturbing, and it’s worth checking the content warnings to be on the safe side before picking this one up.