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The Dark We Know

Pages
336
Published
2024
Language
English

Synopsis

Art student Isadora Chang swore never to return to Slater. Growing up, Isa never felt at ease in the repressive former mining town, even before she realized she was bisexual, but after the deaths of two of her childhood friends, Slater went from feeling claustrophobic to suffocating. Isa took off before the town could swallow her too, even though it meant leaving behind everything she knew, including her last surviving friend Mason. When Isa's abusive father kicks the bucket, she agrees to come back just long enough to collect the inheritance. But then Mason, son of the local medium, turns up at the cemetery with a revelation and a plea: their friends were murdered by a supernatural entity, and he needs Isa to help stop the evil before it takes anyone else. When Isa begins to hear strange songs on the wind, and eerie artwork fills her sketchbook that she can't recall drawing, she's forced to stop running and confront her past. Because something is waiting in the shadows of Slater's valleys, something that feeds on the pain and heartbreak of its children.

Vibe

About the author

W
Wen-yi Lee

Wen-yi Lee is the Nebula-nominated author of When They Burned the Butterfly and The Dark We Know. Her work often involves troubling women, troubled history, bodies, and ghosts, and has appeared in short form in venues like Lightspeed, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Reactor, and various anthologies. She has been supported by the Clarion West Octavia E Butler Scholarship, the National Arts Council of Singapore, and the UK National Centre for Writing. She is currently based in Singa...

Characters

Isadora "Isa" ChangProtagonist

An art student who fled her abusive father and hometown, forced back by his death and a supernatural threat that killed her friends.

MasonSupporting

Isa's last surviving childhood friend, son of the town's medium, who asks for her help stopping the entity.

All characters in The Dark We Know