Twelve-year-old Horace Hump isn’t your average schoolboy. While other kids dream of video games or football matches, Horace dreams of sugar. Chocolate, gumdrops, chewy toffees - he lives for sweets, hoards them like treasure, and worships the ancient vending machine at the end of the school’s forgotten hallway. But this isn’t just any vending machine. It's old. It's weird. And sometimes, it gives out candy that glows. When Horace unwraps a mysterious chocolate bar pulsing with strange energy and hears a whisper - “The future is sweet … but at a cost” - his obsession takes a sinister turn. What begins as a sugar-fuelled adventure quickly spirals into something darker, as Horace discovers that the candies from the vending machine might be changing him… literally. Now, he’s stuck in a sticky mess of secrets, transformations, and a hunger that might never be satisfied. As the line between delight and danger blurs, Horace must figure out what the machine truly is - and what it wants from him - before it’s too late. Perfect for fans of Goosebumps , Coraline , and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , this quirky, chilling, and candy-coated tale will delight readers of all ages… and make them think twice before their next snack.