Adverse Reactions: A Novel of the Paranormal
ByPublisher Description
They destroyed her mind, hunted her kind, and left her powerless. They should have made sure she couldn't come back.
In the remote prairie town of Purity, there are some who possess extraordinary powers of the mind. Their fate, if they are discovered, is death by a bullet to the brain. The wealthy, however, have an alternative way to die: they may submit to "therapy" — torture — at the Peaceful Hills sanatorium. For most of the inmates, it is a worse death than a sniper's bullet. The asylum is brutally designed to snuff out every spark of psychokinetic power, turning a Syke's brain to mush. Few inmates survive.
Devin Perridin does. She's the One Who Got Away. But can she find her way back into her right mind? And bring a long-overdue reckoning to the town of Purity and its house of horrors? To exact vengeance on those who put her in the asylum, and avenge the murders of her fellow Sykes, Devin will need the aid of a denim-clad desperado — and a generous helping of Old Magic.
Adverse Reactions is a dark standalone novel about persecution, psychokinetic power, and what it means to reclaim your mind after someone has tried to erase it. For readers who enjoy dystopian fiction, paranormal suspense, and weird Westerns.
In a society that executes the gifted, survival becomes the first act of rebellion. But survival was only the beginning. Vengeance is next.
"The pacing is tense and immersive, with a strong focus on psychological resilience and rebellion. It is a story of survival that steadily evolves into reckoning." —NewInBooks
Step into a harrowing world where survival means resisting a brutal system built to destroy those who are different.
"Thematically rich, as Devin faces constant self-doubt but eventually comes to find empowerment in the unique abilities that have made her an outcast. Adverse Reactions fits neatly into the dystopian genre, with its post-apocalyptic setting and speculative sci-fi themes. It's reminiscent of The Power by Naomi Alderman, which also explores societal fear of psychokinetic abilities and the way power reshapes morality." —The Black List
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About Deborah J. Lightfoot
Castles in the cornfield provided the setting for Deborah J. Lightfoot's earliest flights of fancy. On her father's farm in Texas, she grew up reading tales of adventure and reenacting them behind ramparts of sun-drenched grain. She left the farm to earn a degree in journalism and write award-winning books of history and biography. High on her bucket list was the desire to try her hand at the genre she most admired. The result is Waterspell, a complex, intricately detailed fantasy comprising the original four-book series (Warlock, Wysard, Wisewoman, Witch). In the linked sequels to that earlier quartet — The Karenina Chronicles and The Fires of Farsinchia — new generations of powerful wysards carry the saga into the magical future of an ancient world.
Having discovered the Waterspell universe, the author finds it difficult to leave. Even her newest book, the dystopian standalone Adverse Reactions: A Novel of the Paranormal, may be tangentially linked to the wysards' world. But that's for readers to decide.
Lightfoot is a professional member of The Authors Guild. She still lives in rural Texas.
Other books by Deborah J. Lightfoot
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