The Arrivals: A Novel

by Melissa Marr

Overview

The Arrivals is the second novel for adults by internationally bestselling author Melissa Marr. 

Chloe walks into a bar and blows five years of sobriety. When she wakes, she finds herself in an unfamiliar world, The Wasteland. She discovers people from all times and places have also arrived there: Kitty and Jack, a brother and sister from the Wild West; Edgar, a prohibition bootlegger; Francis, a one-time hippie; Melody, a mentally unbalanced 1950s housewife; and Hector, a former carnival artist. 

None know why they arrived there—or if there is way out of a world populated by monsters and filled with corruption. 

Just as she did in Graveminder, Marr has created a vivid fantasy world that will enthrall. Melissa Marr’s The Arrivals is a thoroughly original and wildly imagined tale about making choices in a life where death is unpredictable and often temporary.

The book includes a P.S. section with extra material from the author and a bonus story exclusive to this paperback edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061826979
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/29/2014
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Melissa Marr is the New York Times bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series as well as the adult fantasy novels Graveminder and The Arrivals. When not traveling, Melissa can be found in Phoenix or online at www.melissamarrbooks.com.

Editorial Reviews

Original and quirky, it’s a fun summer read.” — Washington Post

“Marr imbues [The Wasteland] with an unconventional spirit that makes everyone—displaced humans, demons, deluded villain, scary critters (some bound to their own elaborate codes of ethics), and frustrated locals—vivid and surprising.” — Locus

“THE ARRIVALS is wicked, weird, and fun; Marr’s imaginary world feels vividly, almost unsettlingly, real.” — Ben H. Winters, author of The Last Policeman

“You’ll want to definitely saddle up for this one.” — USA Today

From the Publisher

THE ARRIVALS is wicked, weird, and fun; Marr’s imaginary world feels vividly, almost unsettlingly, real.

Ben H. Winters

You’ll want to definitely saddle up for this one.

USA Today

Marr imbues [The Wasteland] with an unconventional spirit that makes everyone—displaced humans, demons, deluded villain, scary critters (some bound to their own elaborate codes of ethics), and frustrated locals—vivid and surprising.

Locus

Original and quirky, it’s a fun summer read.

Washington Post

Original and quirky, it’s a fun summer read.

Washington Post

You’ll want to definitely saddle up for this one.

USA Today

One by one, several “criminals and cutthroats” are pulled from our world into the Wasteland, a mysterious universe that resembles the American Wild West. They have nothing in common except a murderous past, but they band together to battle an avaricious bad guy who exploits the local populace and tries to recruit new arrivals into his band of thugs. YA author Marr (the Wicked Lovely novels) has come up with an intriguing premise, but she never fleshes it out, making this more a promising outline than a novel. Assorted monsters and villains are scattered around, including sort-of vampires called “bloedzuigers,” kind-of dragons called “lindwurms,” and a shadowy group of “trigger-happy monks” whose role in the narrative is never clarified. Cowboy Jack and his sister, Kitty, are interesting leads, but the other characters never spring to life. Readers hoping for a Western spin on Riverworld will be sorely disappointed. (July)

Publishers Weekly

In this novel, Marr's alternative universe is the Wastelands, a place inhabitants believe is probably somewhere between life and death, where the forces of good are rapidly losing their struggle against the forces of evil. The last thing Chloe remembers is falling off the wagon. Now, she's waking up in a strange land that is so full of weirdness she's thinking just maybe she's hallucinating. The people here are varied: Kitty, the former saloon girl who can both fight and cast spells; Kitty's handsome, tough older brother, Jack, the leader of a small band of decent but flawed people who are resisting the temptation to give in to evil; Edgar, a former rumrunner from the Prohibition era who loves Kitty but understands she can't be boxed in; the strange and seemingly ditzy Melody, who is straight out of the 1950s; and Francis, a man who has done every drug imaginable and has ended up stranded, like everyone else, in the Wastelands. Chloe is the newest of the Arrivals, which is what newbies are called. Each time someone in the Wastelands dies, another one appears to take his or her place. Except, of course, when that person comes back to life, which is what happens some of the time. If an Arrival stays dead after six days, then they've moved on. Where, no one knows, but Jack sure hopes it's a better place, and, face it, just about anything is better than the Wastelands, an unforgiving countryside where strange animals roam and the people who band together to serve the evil Ajani are out to destroy or convert the Arrivals. Now, Jack and the other Arrivals have formed an allegiance with a creature known as Garuda to kill Ajani and make the Wastelands safe. But they find the final battle they face holds no easy answers. Marr creates an absorbing world that draws in readers, but the ending feels rushed and tacked onto what is otherwise an engrossing tale.

Kirkus Reviews