Being 12 years old and moving from elementary to middle school can be an awkward time for everyone. Growing up is made even more strange when you are haunted by ghost-like doppelgangers of yourself and your friends, like main character Bobby Dalton is in “Déjà View: A Kid Nightmare.”

The book is West Islip author Michael Thomas Perone’s newest release, and has recently been awarded first place in the Spring 2024 BookFest Awards in the category of Young Adult - Literary and Coming of Age. “Déjà View” additionally won third place in the 2024 Firebird Book Awards in the category of Coming of Age.

While Perone wrote stories since he was a child, he began writing books for fun in the early 2000s.

“After a while as the years went past, I felt some of those stories were too good to be locked in a drawer,” shared Perone. “I did not want to be one of those people that when they die, people find their novels and manuscripts never published.”

His debut novel “Danger Peak” was then published in 2022, followed by “Déjà View,” his fresh take on coming of age, in October 2023.

In “Déjà View,” Bobby Dalton does not want to grow up. As he moves from elementary school to junior high and the ‘80s become the ‘90s, his friends start drifting away and joining other cliques. Out of desperation, Bobby convinces his friends to bury a time capsule to commemorate the end of the 1980s. Bobby then starts being haunted by ghost-like doppelgangers of his friends, himself, and others, which he calls Déjà View. He must figure out if these visions are real, or if he is fully losing his mind to survive his childhood.

“When you are growing up, it seems that the people in your life are becoming other people. Your friends seem different, your family suddenly feels strange, and you wonder what you have in common with them. You yourself are going through puberty and becoming a different person,” explained Perone. “But in my book, the people in Bobby’s life are literally becoming other people. The metaphor about growing up has a sci-fi twist.”

To keep up with the author’s book releases and all things Michael Thomas Perone, visit www.michaelthomasperone.com.