by Dan Wells
First published 2012
Michael Shipman lives with paranoid schizophrenia. His mind conjures hallucinations, delusions, and elaborate fantasies where persecutors hunt him through a world filled with horrors. He has learned to navigate this landscape of false terrors, distinguishing between the creatures his illness creates and the safety of reality. Then something changes. The monsters he sees begin to feel different. Some of the threats stalking him carry a weight that his usual delusions lack. Michael faces an impossible question: what happens when a paranoid schizophrenic encounters real danger? How can someone who cannot trust his own perceptions determine which fears deserve attention and which should be dismissed? Michael must find a way to separate genuine threats from the products of his fractured mind. He cannot rely on his senses or his judgment. Every shadow might hide a real predator or another false alarm generated by his condition. The stakes climb higher as Michael realizes that dismissing the wrong vision as a hallucination could prove fatal, while believing the wrong delusion could drive him deeper into madness.
Genres: fiction, suspense, mystery, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
336 pages · Kindle Edition · Tor Books
Content warnings: mental-illness