Scream Like a Prayer by S.H. Mansouri
Something is wrong with Sammy McCammon.
He can feel it.
They know it.
An immersive, story-driven novel that places you in Sammy’s footsteps, moving between memory, belief, and perception as his world begins to shift, and the truth reveals itself with unsettling force.
Reviews and Blurbs
The action sequences are visceral and hallucinatory, building toward a genuinely shocking climax and an ending that will linger with readers long after the final page. — Kirkus Reviews
The strain between what Sammy considers reality and what is mere hallucination (what he refers to as “echoes”) is a delicious tug of war that makes for a delightfully dark mystery—one that is equal parts violent and heartachingly honest.
— BookLife Reviews (Editor’s Pick, Publishers Weekly)
A perfect capsule of growing up, or trying to, in 1985. Except this 1985 is seeping blood, and blood, and more blood.
-Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times Bestselling author of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
Scream Like a Prayer is a knockout possession novel, haunted by twisted family secrets and lurking violence, replete with all the bright and feverish terrors of childhood.
-Josh Rountree, author of The Unkillable Frank Lightning
Read the First Chapter
Continue the Story
Set in 1985, Scream Like a Prayer follows eleven-year-old Sammy McCammon as his world begins to shift in ways he cannot explain. What starts as strange experiences soon deepens into something far more troubling, as the boundaries between what is real, imagined, or something else entirely begin to blur.
As tensions grow within his family and the weight of belief, fear, and expectation closes in, Sammy is left to make sense of forces he cannot fully understand. Told through a voice that captures both innocence and unease, the story unfolds gradually, drawing you deeper into its mystery until everything comes into focus in a powerful and lasting way.
What is really happening, and who is Sammy, really?