"Rowe is one of those writers who can swing from the eloquent prose of a Peter Straub to the brutality of a Richard Laymon" (Monster Librarian).

Everyone knows that sixteen-year-old Mikey Childress is "different." A target for bullies since he was a small boy, everything Mikey does attracts abuse: the way he walks, the way he talks, the way he looks. Everyone knows he's not like the other boys in the rural town of Auburn—the boys who play hockey, who fight, who pursue girls. Only his friend Wroxy, a girl almost as isolated as he is, can even guess at the edges of his pain, or the depths of his yearning for love.

But even the people who hate Mikey couldn't dream of how many secrets he has, or how badly he could hurt them if he wanted to.

Until the night Mikey is pushed beyond endurance by his abusers. The night he makes a pact with dark forces older than time to have terrible vengeance on his enemies. The night he inadvertently opens a doorway that should never, ever have been opened, and unleashes something into the world that should have remained damned.

"October is the best of Rowe's writing yet: a traditionally-styled tale, with some surprise twists." —Monster Librarian

"Rowe's tale of teenage anguish and loneliness is an exquisitely told cautionary tale, rich in visceral images of horror and the erotic." —Vince Liaguno, editor of the Bram Stoker Award–winning Unspeakable Horror

"Rowe's talent shines through in this terrifying story of social persecution, black magic, and desire gone horrifically wrong." —Lee Thomas, Lambda Literary Award– and Bram Stoker Award–winning author