THE VALLEY AND THE FLOOD

When the past keeps usurping your present, can you tell what’s real anymore?

Senior Rose Colter’s car breaks down somewhere between Las Vegas and San Diego in the middle of a dark desert night a few days before New Year's Eve. When her radio picks up the broadcast of a voicemail from her best friend, Gaby, who died a year ago, Rose decides to walk toward a distant, blinking radio tower where she finds the town of Lotus Valley, someplace she can wait while her car is repaired. The local residents are wary of her presence, and Rose learns there’s a prophecy predicting a cataclysmic flood—and she is the harbinger. Rose has been diagnosed with PTSD that she usually tries to keep hidden, and thanks to the help of her therapist (who checks in with her), she is aware of the ways it influences her perceptions. However, her symptoms become tangled up in the memory manipulation of a lurking creature who is focused on her. This is a story strongly crafted in the vein of surreal fiction about memories and grief, with flashes of times and places past, and creatures somewhere between shadows, eldritch horrors, and bogeymen. In this ensnaring tale, debut author Mahoney strikes a flowing balance, weaving together suspense, connection, uncanniness, healing, devastation, and hope. Rose is White, and the supporting cast contains characters of color and queer representation.

Superb storytelling.