Howard Odentz is a lifelong resident of the gray area between Western Massachusetts and North Central Connecticut. He is best known for his young adult and emerging adult thrillers and chillers with a touch of humor. He also dabbles in other genres when the muse strikes.
He often says, “Not every YA story excludes adult readers. In fact, those in their middle years often discover an unexpected depth to my work.”
Nevertheless, readers of all ages will often read well past their bedtimes—intrigued, scared, or both.
DEAD (a LOT)
Book one of the Dead (a Lot) trilogy
Tripp Light's teenage world is suddenly filled with "poxers"—the infected ones, the ones with Necropoxy. In a world gone mad, Tripp and his twin sister, Trina, cling desperately to the last message they received from their parents before the phones—and everything else—went dead:
"Get to your aunt and uncle's farm in the Berkshires any way you can."
Survival demands a level of maturity that Tripp hasn't quite mastered. Still, he and Trina set out with a ragtag group of survivors, including Prianka Patel, the girl Tripp has loved to hate since kindergarten, her autistic brother Sanjay, who communicates through his stuffed dog, Poopy Puppy, and others equally determined to survive.
Will they reach the farm? Will they find their parents? Will they master driving without a license? Nobody knows for sure when everyone is dead...like dead (a lot).
WICKED DEAD
Book Two of the Dead (a Lot) trilogy
The zombie apocalypse just got real.
Zombies rule. Almost everybody in the world has turned into one, thanks to a nifty little disease called Necropoxy. Sixteen-year-old twins, Tripp and Trina Light, however, are among the rare humans who are not only immune to Necropoxy—they're super immune. Even a bite from a zombie won't infect them.
Great, right? Yeah, but…
Researchers are capturing every immune human they can find—and experimenting on them like lab rats.
Just yesterday, the twins and their friends narrowly escaped. Now researchers will do anything to get them back.
That means Tripp, Trina, and their small band of survivors are on the run from zombies, mad scientists, and who knows what else. What's worse, some people in their group are starting to act funny—which isn't funny at all.
This is definitely not how they planned to spend the beginning of their junior year of high school in Littleham, Massachusetts.
Everyone is dead.
Everyone is wicked dead.
DEAD END
Book Three of the Dead (a Lot) trilogy
Zombie apocalypse? Game over.
Sixteen-year-old twins,Tripp and Trina Light, are rare in the zombie apocalypse. Neither the airborne virus Necropoxy nor the bite from one of the dead will turn them.
No wonder crazy scientists, soldiers in helicopters, and scary doctors want to capture them to see what makes them so special.
But are they special anymore? After freeing their parents and others from experimentation, some of their liberated traveling companions are displaying super immunity, as well. Their former captors just don’t know it.
With the key to super immunity in the twins’ hands, they face a difficult choice. Should they keep running, or confront their pursuers with the cure and hope for the best?
Either choice could get them killed. One wrong move in a world filled with Necropoxy, and they’ll hit a dead end.
BLOODY BLOODY APPLE
Every fall, when the orchards ripen and the leaves begin to die, there are murders.
Everyone knows it, and everyone accepts it.
Apple, Massachusetts carves up and spits out a few seeds each year. The whole town approaches Autumn with dread because nobody wants to be a seed.
Now there's a body in the woods, and Jackson Gill, his best friend Newie, and his girlfriend Annie are the ones to find it.
As the third murder of the season ripples through the town—from whispered conversations at home to police interviews and even within the claustrophobic hallways of school—Jackson begins to realize that this year's murders have become personal.
With less than one year until he turns eighteen and can leave Apple forever, he and his friends are forced to confront a truth that nobody wants to face.
No matter what happens, some people can never truly break free of Bloody Bloody Apple.
WHAT WE KILL
Four life-long friends wake in the woods overlooking the highway, without any memory of how they got there.
One has a triangle burned into his forearm. One has lost her pants. One is missing his glass eye. The last is covered in blood.
As images of big, black eyes and the cries of sheep haunt their addled brains, the town fire alarm and police sirens can be heard in the distance.
What is happening to them? What is happening to their pristine town? What's more, why can't they remember any of it?
What . . . what did they do?
BOTTLE TOSS
A beer bottle thrown carelessly at the windshield of a passing car sends the vehicle careening off the road, and the lives of high school seniors Denny Ford, his foster sister Jen McKnatt, and her sometimes boyfriend Brody Erwin, spinning out of control.
Over the next several days as the three experience increasingly bizarre, frightening, and seemingly unrelated events, they are forced to examine the ramifications of their actions and how their lives have been irrevocably altered.
What they've done can never be undone.
After all, it only takes one bottle toss to turn their world cockeyed forever.
LITTLE KILLERS A to Z
26 Short Stories
About the Youngest Among Us
Bad things come in small packages....
EPIC award finalist Howard Odentz has penned 26 disturbingly fascinating horror stories about the youngest predators among us.
From Andy and Boris to Yuri and Zina, this eclectic anthology is filled, A to Z, with psychopaths, monsters, murderers and third graders.
So, turn on the lights, and huddle under your blankets because murder isn't just for grown-ups anymore. Come meet our gallery of little killers.
After all, they're dying to meet you!
A is for Andy Who Watches His Dad
B is for Boris and Rifka and Vlad
C is for Cassie Who Owes Michael Myers
D is for Dan Who Gets Picked for the Pyres
E is for Emmett Who’s Always Behind
F is for Fern Who Has Murder in Mind
G is for Gil All Alone and Unhappy
H is for Hope Gone Ice Fishing for Crappie
I is for Ivy Who Lives on the Cape
J is for Jan on a Fire Escape
K is for Kieran Who Fights in a Ring
L is for Lee Who Wants Only One Thing
M is for Maura Who Builds a Partition
N is for Nancy Who Questions Tradition
O is for Oz Who Has Piss Poor Genetics
P is for Pam Who’s A Wiz With Cosmetics
Q is for Quinn Who’s an Animal Lover
R is for Rae Sent Away to Recover
S is for Stevie Who Must Pay His Dues
T is for Tommy with Nothing to Lose
U is for Uma Who Laughs at a Tumble
V is for Vicky Who Sees the World Crumble
W is for William Who’s Smitten a Little
X is for Xander Who’s Covered in Spittle
Y is for Yuri Who’s Prone to Predation
Z is for Zina Who Suffers Starvation
SNOW
a novella
An epic and sudden blizzard is blanketing Mount Tom Regional High School . . . in October.
A dangerous man is stalking the hallways.
And three teens harbor a secret that may get everyone killed if they don’t figure out how to stop the snow and the man it has brought inside.
BONES
a novella
Cooper isn't doing well in Covered Bridge, Massachusetts.
His mother is filling her days with vodka and orange juice, and his psychotic little sister keeps cutting the heads off her dolls.
His delusional grandfather won't stop staring at non-existent cows in the pasture, and their farm dog is acting meaner than usual.
Everyone blames Cooper for the tragic accident which took his girlfriend’s life. Now a group of slackers from Mount Tom Regional High School are gathering deep in a forest clearing—at the Devil’s Dining Room—eager for the rising of her ghost on Devil’s Night, the eve before Halloween.
Cooper thinks they're all crazy.
Are they?