A claustrophobic, literary dystopia set in the hot, luscious landscape of Andalusia from the author of The Golden Key.After the ravages of global warming, this is place of deep jungles, strange animals, and new taxonomies. Social inequality has ravaged society, now divided into surface dwellers and people who live in the Upper Settlement, a ring perched at the edge of the planet's atmosphere. Within the surface dwellers, further divisions occur: the techies are old families, connected to the engineer tradition, builders of the Barrier, a huge wall that keeps the plastic-polluted Ocean away. They possess a much higher status than the beanies, their servants.The novel opens after the Delivery Act has decreed all surface humans are 'equal'. Narrated by Pearl, a young techie with a thread of shuvani blood, she navigates the complex social hierarchies and monstrous, ever-changing landscape. But a radical attack close to home forces her to question what she knew about herself and the world around her.
Marian Womack Books
Marian Womack is a writer of singular vision, delving into themes of memory, identity, and cultural intersection. Her prose is marked by a lyrical quality and an ability to conjure evocative atmospheres that draw readers into her narratives. Womack's work frequently explores the complexities of the human experience, seeking meaning within ambiguity. Her contributions to literary and cultural discourse are profound and thought-provoking.



The Golden Key
- 336 pages
- 12 hours of reading
"...Part Shirley Jackson's stories of inner demons, part Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...part Astrid Lindgren's faith in children's resilience and part ghost story." "Enter a mysterious world in the hands of capable women. Getting drawn into this story is easy; getting out again is trickier." -BookPage 1901. After the death of Queen Victoria, England heaves with the uncanny. Séances are held and the dead are called upon from darker realms. Helena Walton-Cisneros, known for her ability to find the lost and the displaced, is hired by the elusive Lady Matthews to solve a twenty-year-old mystery: the disappearance of her three stepdaughters who vanished without a trace on the Norfolk Fens. But the Fens are an age-old land, where folk tales and dark magic still linger. The locals speak of devilmen and catatonic children are found on the Broads. Here, Helena finds what she was sent for, as the Fenland always gives up its secrets, in the end...
On the Nature of Magic
- 416 pages
- 15 hours of reading
Spanning London's occult seances to the Parisian catacombs, two women claim to have seen Marie Antoinette's ghost in the garden of Versailles in this Gothic supernatural mystery where magic and science collide.