Esoteric Eden, Issue 7 - Book release in the face of fascism
Dear Reader,
Over the past two and half years my friend Mariah Darling and I have been writing a novella to capture the horror of the violence trans women experience at the hands of the men who desire them.
The result is CHASERS, a splatterpunk suspense novella that is not for the faint of heart. Today is the release day, and it’s available now wherever books are sold.
It's weird time to be releasing book as a queer person in the current political and social media climate, particularly a transgressive one about the trans experience. Not only does promoting it feel like a yelp in a sea of noise, it also feels like putting a target on your back. Most days I honestly feel like hiding.
But that is, of course, why it's so important for us to put our work out there. The fascists want us to fear, they want us to hide. We can’t control our feelings, but we can control what we do with them. I'm so proud of Mariah and I for putting this queer horror book into the world, and with such an in-your-face cover.
We refuse to hide. We refuse to be respectable, hiding in the false promise of safety. We refuse to sanitize our experience to be palatable to a general audience. CHASERS is a prism of the brutal reality we face as trans women, full of moments of terror and tragedy, but also moments of friendship, solidarity, and joy.
And even in less fraught times, I know that if I'm not terrified to release a book I didn't do my job right. I didn't take enough risks. And one thing I can promise you about Mariah and I's book, CHASERS, is that we didn't pull any punches. None. And I'm so proud of us for that.
Learn more about our book below.
CHASERS by Mariah Darling and Eve Harms
“A wild and deeply felt ride.”
-Laurel Hightower, author of Crossroads
“Brutal and necessary -- Darling and Harms do not miss.”
-Magen Cubed, author of Southern Gothic
Buy now:
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Godless ebooks | Powell’s
If you discovered a peephole to your erratic and elusive neighbor’s living room, would you look?
When Lenora, a black trans woman in her thirties, finally finds a decent apartment in Los Angeles, she’s excited to have a safe place to live and focus on her music career. But that all changes when she discovers the peephole.
Next door is Jane, a sex worker who stages creative and violent scenes in her living room for her LonelyCams channel. As Lenora and her band mates become obsessed with watching the increasingly extreme and gruesome performances, she starts to question: is Jane really just putting on a show, or is something more sinister happening next door? Why doesn’t anyone else in the building seem to notice? And why is there a peephole in the first place?
Discovering the answer plunges her into a world more brutal and depraved than she could have ever imagined, and a desperate struggle for survival.
CHASERS is the powerful splatterpunk novella by Mariah Darling and Eve Harms. If you like queer horror, fun characters, gripping suspense, twisted villains, and devastating tragedy, you will love this book. Buy CHASERS to take the horrifying thrill-ride today.
Praise for CHASERS
"With their debut collaboration, CHASERS, Eve Harms and Mariah Darling bring the reader along for a wild and deeply felt ride. An unsettling mystery peopled with characters who instantly appeal, CHASERS is propulsively plotted with a jaw dropping but all too believable premise. More than simply horror or thriller, the writing is accessible and enthralling. Would love to see more from this talented duo." — Laurel Hightower, author of Crossroads and Every Woman Know This
"CHASERS ratchets the tension by degrees until you're trapped in a depraved psycho-sexual nightmare. Gets its claws in you and won't let go! I loved it!" — Bitter Karella, author of Midnight Pals and Moonflow
“Part Hitchcock, part Henenlotter, CHASERS will make you shudder and squirm, sometimes all at once! Mariah Darling and Eve Harms have a bright future in horror fiction. I'm here for whatever either of them do next." — Lucas Mangum, Splatterpunk Award winning author of Snow Angels and Saint Sadist
“A tightly-wound rollercoaster ride about the dangerous realities of perception and desire for trans women. Unnerving from start to finish, Darling and Harms deliver a harrowing suspense story that will keep you up at night long after it’s done.” — Magen Cubed, author of Southern Gothic
“Darling and Harms have added something special to the LGBTQIA+ horror canon.” — Tiffany Michelle Brown, author of How Lovely To Be a Woman
Buy now:
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Godless ebooks | Powell’s
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the new book.
Sincerely,
Eve