An extraordinary novel about the quiet and not-so-quiet horrors of war. Roxane Gay

Stephen King meets Tim OBrien in John MilassThe Militia House,a spine-tingling and boldly original gothic horror novel.

Its 2010, and the recently promoted Corporal Loyette and his unit are finishing up their deployment at a new base in Kajaki, Afghanistan. Their duties here are straightforwardloading and unloading cargo into and out of helicoptersand their days are a mix of boredom and dread. The Brits theyre replacing delight in telling them the history of the old barracks just off base, a Soviet-era militia house they claim is haunted, and Loyette and his men dont need much convincing to make a clandestine trip outside the wire to explore it.

Its a short, middle-of-the-day adventure, but the men experience a mounting agitation after their visit to the militia house. In the days that follow they try to forget about the strange, unsettling sights and sounds from the house, but things are increasingly . . . not right. Loyette becomes determined to ignore his and his marines growing unease, convinced that its just the strain of war playing tricks on them. But something about the militia house will not let them go.

Meticulously plotted and viscerally immediate in its telling,The Militia Houseis a gripping and brilliant exploration of the unceasing horrors of war thats no more easily shaken than the militia house itself.