Claire: Acerbic and drifting, yet mortified by her privilege.
David: Heartbreak fuels his violent fantasies and cultish obsessions.
Greg: Suffers in silence from the voices only he hears.
Beth: Consumed by madness, surrounded by light.
And Sarah: Sensitive, starry-eyed, and vulnerable.
A dark force on the hunt, destroying friendships, harnessing festering rage, seeking weaknesses to exploit. The force wants Sarah most of all. Will the force break her, or will she find the strength to fight back?
Why we’re excited about this book:
Simon Jacobs has been right on the fringes of speculative and strange fiction for several years now. The author of Palaces, and the short story collections Saturn (a collection of David Bowie stories) and Masterworks, his short fiction has graced the pages of Paper Darts, Black Warrior Review, Joyland, and Tin House, among others. With his latest, Jacobs exposes the dark current of chaos that creeps beneath the calm facade of Midwestern suburbia.
Mona Awad (Bunny) says: “String Follow is a work of evil genius that put me in a literal trance and didn’t relinquish me until the final page. Like the irresistibly wise, dark, and unfathomable force it conjures, the voice got in my head and tainted my soul. I loved every insidious second.”. Rachel Eve Moulton (Tinfoil Butterfly) calls String Follow: “A horrific descent into the madness that alternately connects and isolates us. Simon Jacobs creates a world where the characters’ everyday terrors are taken advantage of by a larger force, a brilliant web of evil that stretches over an entire southern Ohio town. It’s a riveting and unstoppable journey.”, and Kirkus calls it: “A terrifying glimpse into teen anomie and rootlessness … Daring and stylish [with] flashes of black humor … the darkness is so relentless and remorseless that the reader can feel pursued by it, punished. Grim, violent Midwestern gothic—hard to watch, hard to turn away from.”
Releasing 1 February 2022 from MCD x FSG Originals, String Follow by Simon Jacobs is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA