My latest is ADVERSE REACTIONS: A Novel of the Paranormal. (Published 18 March 2026.) It’s a post-apocalyptic, dystopian paranormal, dark fantasy Western—a suspense-thriller that’s also “speculative historical fiction.” To put it mildly, it crosses genres! Are you intrigued? My beta readers and ARC readers have been.
Gifted individuals in Purity face a stark choice between immediate death or the horrors of the Peaceful Hills sanatorium. Devin Perridin, the “One Who Got Away,” seeks to reclaim her psychokinetic powers and bring retribution, with the aid of a denim-clad desperado and a generous helping of Old Magic.
“This novel is immediately immersive, with an opening scene that sucks readers in with vivid sensory detail and a great sense of suspense.” —The Black List
“What a story! I was picked up from the first page and you never let me go thereafter. The premise is original … compelling … convincing.” —ARC Reader
“A very enjoyable read. Excellent pacing. Immersive language. Polished, effortless writing. I’d love to see a prequel (or three)!” —ARC Reader
“Relevant to the current situation in the world. Ostracizing others who are different out of fear and ignorance. Cruelty and inhumanity.” —ARC Reader
“Believable and relatable.” —The Black List
“Thematically rich, as Devin faces constant self-doubt but eventually comes to find empowerment in the unique abilities that have made her an outcast.” —The Black List
Where to Buy
Bookshop
Amazon
Apple
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords
Everand
Fable
Goodreads
Seven Rivers Publishing (paperbacks at a discount, direct from the printer)
More About the Book
Purity demands a bullet.
Devin brings a reckoning.
They destroyed her mind, hunted her kind, and left her powerless. They should have made sure she couldn’t come back.
Since she was six years old, Devin Perridin has been locked behind the walls of the family home to keep her hidden from those who would kill her. But at sixteen, she is exposed as a “Syke,” one of an outlawed minority who possess extraordinary powers of mind over matter. Snatched from hiding, she escapes the firing squad, but only to be imprisoned in a house of horrors: the Peaceful Hills Sanatorium and Rehabilitation Center for the Treatment of Persistent Mental Disorders. After an unknown time of torture and “behavior modification,” brutally designed to destroy her psychokinetic reflexes, she emerges from the asylum severely damaged in mind and spirit. Her salvation may lie in the series of crimes triggered by her release: first kidnapping, then attempted murder, and then a mustering of forbidden forces to assault the remote pseudo-psychiatric facility where she had been tortured into near-mindlessness.
Drawing upon a strength she had always known was hers but had never before been able to consciously control, Devin defies the authoritarian society with its unjust laws that demand her death. She pushes through pain, isolation, and moral quandaries to seek justice for not only herself, but all members of a maligned and cruelly persecuted minority. A post-apocalyptic, paranormal suspense, dark fantasy “weird Western.”
Step into a harrowing world where survival means resisting a brutal system built to destroy those who are different.
“A vivid, immersive fantasy experience that pulls you straight into its world from page one.” —NewInBooks
Comparable Titles
Powerless by Lauren Roberts
The Power by Naomi Alderman
Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth
All These Monsters by Amy Tintera
The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Vicious by V.E. Schwab
The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
To Learn More
Check out these related blog posts:
Adverse Reactions: Author Interview
Adverse Reactions: Black List Evaluations
Media Kit
A one-page flyer about the book and its author, along with author photos and book-cover images, is available on the Media Kit page, elsewhere on this website.
Keywords
- Suspense thriller
- Speculative fiction
- Apocalyptic
- Fantasy
- Action-adventure
- Paranormal fantasy
- Speculative science fiction
- High-stakes supernatural thriller
- Dystopian paranormal thriller
- Quarantined asylum
- Speculative history
- Alternate history
- Psychokinetic abilities
- Psychokinesis
- Gritty modern Western
- Post-apocalyptic paranormal thriller
- Possibly linked to the Waterspell universe, in a tangential way
More Keywords
(As I struggle to find the 7 most effective keywords for Amazon’s exasperating algorithms:)
- Post-apocalyptic paranormal fiction
- Paranormal dystopian fantasy
- Psychokinetic powers science fiction
- Mentally gifted protagonist
- Outlawed mind powers
- Persecuted gifted minority dystopia
- Authoritarian sanitorium [or] Abusive mental asylum
Still More Keywords
- dystopian paranormal thriller
- psychokinetic powers fiction
- paranormal fantasy suspense
- abusive psychiatric facility
- female protagonist escaping captivity
- post-apocalyptic fantasy thriller
- mind over matter abilities