The Three: A Novel

Four simultaneous plane crashes. Three child survivors. A religious fanatic who insists the three are harbingers of the apocalypse. What if he's right? The world is stunned when four commuter planes crash within hours of each other on different continents. Facing global panic, officials are under pressure to find the causes. With terrorist attacks and environmental factors ruled out, there doesn't appear to be a correlation between the crashes, except that in three of the four air disasters a child survivor is found in the wreckage. Dubbed 'The Three' by the international press, the children all exhibit disturbing behavioural problems, presumably caused by the horror they lived through and the unrelenting press attention. This attention becomes more than just intrusive when a rapture cult led by a charismatic evangelical minister insists that the survivors are three of the four harbingers of the apocalypse. The Three are forced to go into hiding, but as the children's behaviour becomes increasingly disturbing, even their guardians begin to question their miraculous survival . . .

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, May 2014: The "facts" are these: four planes crash almost simultaneously in different parts of the world; three children survive, against all reason. When one victim's ominous final voicemail message makes headlines, the religious and out-of-this-world conspiracy theories are abound. Sarah Lotz masters a chorus of distinct character voices as she tells a thrilling, disturbing story in the guise of a nonfiction oral history. The "author" is a character herself, presenting interviews, chat transcripts, book excerpts, and news stories. Lotz commits so fully to each character's perspective that we can never quite determine which is the telling the “truth”--if any. Prepare to be surprised, mesmerized, frustrated, spooked, and utterly entertained. Remind yourself occasionally that it's not real, but maybe play it safe and avoid reading this book on a plane.--Robin A. Rothman

From Booklist

Around the world, at almost the same time, four passenger airplanes plummet to the earth. There are no survivors, apart from three children (on three separate planes) and a woman who soon dies but not before leaving a recorded message that warns listeners to “watch the dead people.” The young survivors, soon dubbed The Three by the press, become worldwide sensations, even as some begin to suspect something is not quite right about them. Theories about The Three start to spread: they’re harbingers of doom, says one theory, the embodiments of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; no, says another, they were chosen for survival by our reptilian alien overlords. As it turns out, no one has any real notion of just how important and dangerous these children really are. The author’s use of the oral-history format, with its shifting voices and points of view, is a stroke of genius: the reader is in a state of near-constant confusion at the beginning, which is slowly replaced by unease and then dread as the various commentators start to see the bigger picture. A very creepy, very effective novel. --David Pitt

Stephen King

"The Three is really wonderful, a mix of Michael Crichton and Shirley Jackson. Hard to put down and vastly entertaining."

Lauren Beukes, author of The Shining Girls

"Lotz is a ferociously imaginative storyteller whose twisty plots will kick the stairs out from under you. She's a talent to watch."

BookPage

"A spellbinding tale of science fiction, religious fervor and media madness that makes us wonder who, exactly, are the monsters."―The Washington Post A "fascinating and deeply creepy novel . . . [Lotz] spins a tail of disaster and fanaticism that is both entertaining and scarily realistic. The Three is the real deal: gripping, unpredictable and utterly satisfying."

USA Today

"This absorbing novel seems at times like a descendant of Lost: an irresistible premise involving a plane crash, a superb feel for the uncanny . . . Across a clever range of forms, including Skype interviews, tape recordings and transcripts from Internet forums, the truth slowly emerges. The Three is nicely researched and hard to put down."

The San Francisco Chronicle

"Lotz does an excellent job of building suspense...THE THREE provides plenty of assurance that Lotz is a new horror writer who can inject some much needed originality and gusto into the genre."

About the Author

Sarah Lotz is a screenwriter and novelist with a fondness for the macabre and fake names. She lives in Cape Town with her family and other animals.

Reviews

News