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Steve Zell

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Wizrd Kindle Edition

by Steve Zell (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 11 ratings

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Pinon Rim: more than just a hole in the ground, it's a gateway to hell.

It was a town that died with a powerful ancient secret. Now, Pinon Rim is ready to live again...and remember. Fourteen-year-old Bryce Willems is the new kid in the old boomtown. With his intense, brilliant painter father and inquisitive, budding stepsister, he's beginning to appreciate the desert charms of his new home.

Then he stumbles onto an abandoned mine called Wizrd-the resting ground of a vengeful Indian spirit that has found no rest; a presence that grants you everything you want and then takes away everything you love; a place where Bryce, the loyal son, will struggle to save his family, and must fight to stay alive.

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

St. Martin's Paperbacks
Publication date

December 17, 2013
File size

1299 KB
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Enhanced typesetting

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this uneven, but ultimately effective first novel, 13-year-old Bryce Willems and his 10-year-old stepsister Megan move with their parents to Pinon Rim, a once booming Arizona mining town in the midst of a "renaissance" caused by the influx of artists like Bryce's father. But strange things are starting to happen in the sleepy community: a Navajo boy is found drowned, an old man and his dog go berserk, killing a sheriff's deputy. Then Megan, exploring a cave behind the Willem house, inadvertently unleashes the full fury of a powerful ancient spirit of the underworld. Bryce learns the Navajo legend of the spirit and also discovers that the spirit's wrath and not the failure of the Wizard mine, made Pinon Rim a ghost town a century before. He must find a way to stop the cycle before history repeats itself. The novel's first half drags, burdened by too many characters and too much exposition, so that the ominous events that are meant to build suspense are nearly buried in verbiage. Nonetheless, all the laboriously spun threads furiously unwind in a hair-raising, fast-paced climax that makes the rest worthwhile. Zell has a sure touch when presenting Navajo lore, and his young characters are exceptionally well drawn and engaging.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA?A seemingly quiet little town harbors all of the favorite YA hobgoblins?possession, ancient curses, daring teens willing to risk all, and a semi-ambiguous ending that allows readers to breathe a sigh of relief that it's finally over, or imagine the mayhem just around the corner, as they please. Bryce Willems arrives at Pinon Rim with his artist father; stepmother; and younger stepsister, Megan, who envisions herself as a competent spelunker, which leads to trouble, and of course, those creepy, drippy, dark caves are such a perfect horror setting. Readers can feel the evil flowing out toward them even before Zell begins to describe it. Bryce and his friends are reasonably good portraits of typical young teens, but Megan as demon-seed is more problematic. This is not a great book, but it is an enjoyable one, and a step to offer to YAs ready to venture beyond Pike'n'Stine. If only the story were as terrific as the cover art!?Cathy Chauvette, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Fourteen-year-old Bryce and his sister Meg have moved to the small Arizona town of Pinon Rim, where their father hopes to regain his lost artistic inspiration. The area has a long history, with regular cycles of wealth and destruction. Bryce sees immediate similarities between the newly prospering art colony and the booming gold mine town of the last century--eerily, even the faces in old tintypes look familiar. Something caused the old Pinon Rim to explode in violence, and Bryce senses another explosion coming soon. It's all due to a mysterious Spirit that periodically tries to take over, using an innocent human as a catalyst. All this is rather murky, but the author's narrative skill keeps the pages turning. Still, the final confrontation is too confusing, too many questions remain unanswered, and the price of winning is too high to satisfy readers of this first novel.
- A.M.B. Amantia, Population Action International Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

First novel, filled with slow-building horror set in Arizona. A once booming center for gold mining, the ghost town of Pinon Rim, whose population a century ago faded overnight, has been reinvigorated by an arts colony. Among the newcomers to the colony are 14-year-old Bryce Willems, who lives with his painter father Trevor, Bryce's new stepmother, Cathleen, and his younger stepsister, Megan, whose poor eyes demand that she wear one black lens. Odd things suddenly are happening in Pinon Rim. A dog goes mad and makes a graveyard for dozens of small, bloody animals in its owner's front yard, and the owner also goes mad and tries to shoot the sheriff. But--is the dog mad or merely a stuffed, dead thing its owner only thinks is marauding? A ten-year-old Navajo boy is found drowned in the nearby creek, apparently having been caught in a flash flood on the reservation and then floated five miles to Pinon Rim. And at a place where no birds sing Meg has discovered a lost entrance to the WiZrd mine--a cave to which she takes Bryce for a rather creepy inspection. Meanwhile, a ghost child only Megan can see hangs around the schoolyard imploringly, and at times she has to cut her way through menacing older kids with an eight-inch knifeblade. It seems that a century ago all the children in Pinon Rim died, perhaps of diphtheria. Bryce in the meantime falls for Connie Bowman, whose family has a ghastly local history. Slowly, in fact, the town from a century ago comes to life, and Rose Bowman is again burned alive as a pariah and scapegoat. At the same time, an ancient blue-and-white force from the cave--the Wizard!--invades the living, and even Megan, Cathleen, and Trevor--like the mad dog- -are sucked empty by it. WELCOME TO HELL a torn banner cries on Front Street.... We've met this force before, but Zell's western motif adds freshness. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

"A perfect 50 out of 50 - this author knows his stuff and delivers great stories." "The author's ability to draw strong characters must have given him a legion of fans already. I expect him to be the next James Dashner ("The Maze Runner") if he's not already."- Feathered Quill Book Awards Judge's Comments

"Hair-raising...Fast-paced...with exceptionally well-drawn and engaging characters."-- Publishers Weekly

"Filled with slow-building horror."-- Kirkus Reviews

"The author's narrative skill keeps the pages turning."-- Library Journal

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00GVSAD66
Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Paperbacks (December 17, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 17, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1299 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 336 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #3,054,246 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #15,838 in Ghost Fiction
- #60,958 in Horror (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 11 ratings

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Steve Zell

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A kid who spent many days exploring abandoned hotels and stores in then ghost town, Jerome, Arizona, Steve Zell always loved to tell stories, draw scary pictures, and sing. Later, he became an animator and digital animation tools instructor for the LA area animation and FX studios and, as a singer, became the "Voice of Doom" for Baywatch. Steve was the first interdisciplinary studies graduate from the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he studied studio art, vocal production, drama, journalism, and chemistry. He was an early member of the Tucson Invisible Theatre Company, and the cartoonist for The Tombstone Epitaph, a town he later combined with Jerome, Arizona, and with Bodi, California, to create the setting, Pinon Rim, for his first novel, WiZrD. His family's frequent summer trips to his grandmother's home in Del Mar, California in the 60s, provided the setting for Running Cold.

A UA "Wildcat for life" and former desert rat, he now lives with his wife and daughter in the slightly more liquid climate of Portland, Oregon, where he began the partnership between Intel and Dreamworks|SKG, as well as the Intel Audio Alliance whose members included Billy Bob Thornton, Graham Nash, George Massenburg, Michael Boddicker, Nathaniel Kunkel, Allen Sides, Rory Kaplan and other audio pros. He participates in community theater, spends way too much time on the computer - and...is always on the lookout for a cool ghost town...

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

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Virginia

EXCITEMENT BUILDS! tweens and adults both will love this book

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book was recommended to me after I described what I liked to read to a friend (who reads a lot!). I am sooo happy I took her advice. This was the first book for my new Kindle. I am completely hooked on using an e-reader now. Kindle should pay this author for making the experience so cool.

Wizrd gets more and more exciting as it goes on. It is very nicely paced and the action keeps the pages turning. I love how the author describes things. He writes better than JK Rowling, seriously! And I love her writing in her first 3 books. It must be his characters and how we see through their eyes. We like them and they feel REAL. Like what a real kid would think. I'm not sure if the author was relating parts of his own life or people he knew but he really has the kids down in their thoughts and personalities. I've started his next one, Running Cold. Just as good if not better!

2 people found this helpful

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Sheila Deeth

Great pacing, great scares, great characters and place

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2019

Blending Anasazi mystery, Navajo legend, and Stephen-King-style horror, WiZrD by Steven Zell is a terrifying teen adventure, with horror always just beneath the surface of a very convincing reality. In the hardback version, the protagonist is just coming of age, confusion over his changing body forming a background to the trials of a rapidly changing world... because he's just moved from the big city, and the town he ends up in is neither young nor old—it looks like a place just coming to life, but it hides a scary cycle of terror and death.

The novel moves smoothly between different points of view, creating sympathy for characters before it starts to change them, leaving the reader always trying to guess who or what might survive. It’s a tale of generous friendships, hidden histories, and shifting allegiances. A father’s love of art, a mother’s love of others, a boy’s need for love and a sister’s need for her brother… the perfectly imperfect family becomes real and relatable. Then the world, step by step, river by cave by graveyard, falls apart.

WiZrD starts with a bang, slows down, speeds up, then sprints to a haunting conclusion, leaving the reader breathless. It’s a powerfully scary tale and I’d love to read more by this author.

Disclosure: I met the author and borrowed the book, but now I need to buy my own copy.

2 people found this helpful

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A Reader

WiZrD is GrEaT!

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2005

From the title "WiZrD", I assumed I would be reading a fantasy book. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this is a horror novel set in modern day Arizona, includes a cast of humans (alive, dead, and undead), and incorporates colorful, actual legends from both the Navaho and Anasazi cultures. The book gave me many of the positive impressions I had while reading "It" by Stephen King, e.g., teenagers battling supernatural forces, characters you care about, and some spine-tingling imagery. However, unlike "It", "WiZrD" builds, from the start, to a thoroughly fitting and imaginative ending. Zell has a real talent for creating a large cast of characters, each of whom are unique, each fitting like a puzzle piece into the overall story, and each contributing to the eerie climax. In general, I was very impressed with this book and highly recommend it. Zell shows great storytelling skills that I hope will only improve in his next work.

4 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

One Of A Kind - Eerily Believable

Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2002

I read this book when I was young and read it again recently. It was even better. I have read many books and none have given me the feeling of this one. The review that calls it "slow building horror" is right on the mark. Completely engrossing and unsettling. Here is a VERY short description. Bryce moves to an isolated old boomtown. Ancient legends, town history, and an old indian woman who "sees" things all take part in unfolding the truth of a horror that Bryce sees is gaining power as events in town get stranger. Although the novel is aimed toward young adults, the plot and idea of this book would be interesting for anyone. Also, if you read this, is it just me or does it seem that Steve Zell makes a lot sexual references that are sort of creepy and off and definitely don't go with the book? When I read it I was trying to see what the relevance of some were and just couldn't see any even though they are blatant and numerous. That was the only thing about the book that I didn't like. Email me at scoulo1@lsu.edu if you agree because I really am curious to know if I wasn't the only one.

One person found this helpful

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bkb@netdotcom.com

Mind Boggling Awesome Book!

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 1999

I started reading this book two days ago it sweep me off my feet i could'nt help but read! all i did was read! THe only thing i wish would of happened is Everything would of went good helldarado night in the graveyard! It was amazing how much of your own imagination can take place and actully see what they looked like! I loved the book and hope Steve Zell makes more just like it!!!
Brandon, 14/m/ohio

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Wizrd Kindle Edition

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