Blue Haven

March 25, 2022
Blue Haven is an ultra-luxury, ultra-exclusive residential tropical paradise, and lonely twenty-something Aloe Malone arrives hoping for some kind of revelation, or at least inner peace. It is so exclusive--Aloe can only afford it because she just won the lottery--that there are only four other people living there; everyone is terrifically friendly, and Aloe finds herself drawn into their camaraderie quickly. Flashes of unease and horrific visions hint at something under the perfect surface, and when her housekeeper finds a journal belonging to a previous resident of Blue Haven--whom the staff deny ever knowing--it all begins to unravel. Neither Blue Haven nor Aloe is what she thought it was, although the truth is not quite as sinister as Aloe's visions initially indicate. Rehashing well-traveled ground about the potential positives of virtual reality and cynical possibilities for its abuse, Blue Haven is a lightweight thriller about the unraveling of a brilliant mind after significant trauma (the death of her child), and innovative but ultimately desperate therapeutic measures.

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Starred review from October 3, 2022
A lottery win has enabled introverted diner waitress Aloe Malone, the protagonist of this mind-bending thriller from King (Vanishing Hour), to buy into Blue Haven, “the world’s most lucrative beachfront community,” whose location is a secret. After agreeing to Blue Haven’s strict limits on personal tech and contacts with the outside world, Aloe was sedated before waking up in what seems to be paradise. She has a concierge always on call, restaurants feature celebrity chefs, the ocean’s temperature is regulated to fit her tastes, and an innovative device allows Aloe to sunbathe without risking sunburn or skin cancer. She even emerges from her emotional shell in the company of the other residents, who include a hunky former pro football player. But despite this, Aloe has flashes of unease, which increase after she finds a diary left behind by the former occupant of her home. As the action builds to a jaw-dropping reveal of the truth behind Blue Haven, King makes buy-in to her premise easy by dint of carefully thought-out characterizations and solid prose. This author’s creative imagination yields a story that’s both suspenseful and moving. M. Night Shyamalan fans will be enthralled.

Starred review from June 15, 2022
In King's suspense novel, a newly wealthy woman buys a condo at an exclusive overseas development only to find that her new home is hiding troubling secrets. Aloe Malone had a challenging life, including abandonment by her mother, time in foster homes, and work at her aunt's dingy diner. Things changed when she won the lottery and bought a place in Blue Haven, the world's most exclusive beachside housing development. The experience of moving, however, was rather odd: She was rendered unconscious while traveling there, to keep its location secret, and upon arrival, she finds only five other residents. Although Blue Haven boasts the world's tallest skyscraper, it's a ghost town. Her concierge, Amir, is welcoming, though, and the other residents are also happy to see her; they include an eccentric retired couple, a muscled 25-year-old named Westley, and a former opera singer named Bibs. They have amazing dinners on the beach: "Aloe loved the ambiance, cast somewhere between Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and an episode of Survivor." But when she tries to phoning her grandmother and others, no one picks up. A diary she finds under her bed, written by a former resident, tells a chilling story that suggests something at Blue Haven is terribly amiss. King's smart thriller starts as an enticing trouble-in-paradise drama, but it soon blossoms into something more complex--an unexpectedly engaging psychological quagmire with SF elements. As Aloe's mental state deteriorates, more is revealed about her identity and about Blue Haven, leading to a twist that the author handles with dexterity, and which makes the story's scientific aspects hard to resist. King also excels at portraying how innovation, when taken to an extreme, can take a heavy toll on human relationships. Along the way, the work also touches on intriguing ethical issues. A psychological thriller that's full of surprises and confronts the dangers of artificial happiness.

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