Part of No One Rides For Free
First published 2022
Jodi is doing something ordinary. She is driving her children to college, heading out across the desert, when The Man climbs into the car. He has no name. He has a gun, a knife, and a bag of things that will not stay in the bag for long. He did not ask permission. He does not leave. What follows is not a chase. There is nowhere to run. The desert stretches out in every direction and The Man controls the car, the road, and everything that happens inside both. Jodi and her children move from fear into something worse than fear. The violence escalates in stages. Each stage is more deliberate than the last. The Man is not random. He is purposeful, and that is the most terrible thing about him. This novella does not look away. It contains graphic sexual violence, torture, and gore. It is written for readers who can hold that weight. The print edition includes an exclusive short story not available in the ebook version, and it is built from the same unsparing material as the novella itself. Judith Sonnet's fiction is direct, physical, and without mercy.
Genres: fiction, crime, horror, adult-fiction, thriller
Vibes: claustrophobic, dark, intense, relentless, unsparing
Tropes: escalating-tension, trapped-protagonist, unstoppable-antagonist
Setting: desert
286 pages · Paperback · Madness Heart Press
Content warnings: gore, graphic-violence, sexual-assault, torture