First published 2026
A restless spirit follows his former lover, searching for signs that his death matters to her. Meanwhile, teenagers stumble upon a device claiming to forecast the happiest moment each person will experience. Elsewhere, a woman discovers that a hostile man from her night out appears in every photograph taken of her. Drunk townspeople venture into dark woods to hunt clowns that have been frightening their community. Chris Vanjonack weaves these tales across multiple realities where the dead linger and the living grapple with machines that promise impossible knowledge. Each story connects to the others through shared themes of loss and longing. The characters face supernatural intrusions that mirror their deepest fears about connection, meaning, and mortality. These speculative narratives blend dark humor with genuine terror as ordinary people confront extraordinary circumstances that reveal uncomfortable truths about human nature.
Genres: fiction, short-stories, horror, supernatural, speculative-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, darkly-humorous, introspective, thought-provoking, unsettling
Tropes: haunting-past, interconnected-narratives, technology-gone-wrong, unreliable-reality
320 pages · Hardcover · William Morrow
Content warnings: death