Kirjahaku

An impulsive young outcast confronts his small town's dark secrets in this atmospheric and haunting debut horror novel from brilliant new voice Jen Julian. The town of Blacknot is not what it appears, and a place on its desolate edge known only as The Night House is calling... What remains of Jesse's mother can fit inside an old jerky tin. Photos, postcards, a single, worn-out bracelet. But nothing that can explain why she was found dead eighteen years earlier on the bank of a river, her infant son left wailing by her side. When Jesse starts to receive anonymous messages promising him answers, he returns home to the regressive town of Blacknot, North Carolina so that his lifelong obsession can finally be laid to rest. But Jesse's investigation is stirring up trouble with the locals, including his well-armed ex-boyfriend and the mysterious daughter of a local businessman, each with their own inscrutable agendas. They will soon find that this backwater town holds a power more volatile than any of them could have imagined, and that the answers they seek might be better left buried.

In nine stories and one novella, author Jen Julian explores realms of the surreal and speculative: from two sisters cleaning out their father's house as it grows and shrinks, to an aunt who watches on anxiously as her niece forges an interdimensional connection; from a small town populated by animate sex dolls, to an eerie near-future in which AI co-opt the social media accounts of the dead. By way of ghosts and fish-men, nuclear threats and giant spiders, each story seeks to capture the inherent otherworldliness of feeling displaced, while at the same time illuminating the intimate and tenacious beauty of human beings in constant search of human connection. Winner of the 2018 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction, Earthly Delights and Other Apocalypses by Jen Julian is a collection worth exploring.