Tag: #metaphysical fantasy

A bit of a change this Thursday. As I bring you a book review!

ABSOLUTELY MIND-BENDING!

The Afterlife Experiment (The Altered Planes Book 1)

Published: October 10, 2023

Genre: Dark fantasy/Sci-fi- horror/ American horror

Pages: 310 pages

Reality ends where madness begins.

Atra Hart’s shadow has grown teeth. It moves on its own and whispers her name. She calls it Dread, and it threatens to devour her mind.

When a fire breaks out at the asylum where she’s locked up, Atra seizes the chance for freedom, only to witness an electric-purple rift split the sky open. Like Dread, the rift is visible only to her.

Then, she awakens back in the asylum, unharmed, as if the fire, the escape, and the rift never happened. But everything feels wrong. No one remembers her old life. Her family, her friends—even her past—have vanished. The doctors insist she’s delusional, but the messages scribbled on the mirrors suggest otherwise. The darkness beneath her bed whispers secrets. And the black cat that watches from where the veils thin? It doesn’t belong here.

As Atra ventures deeper into the mystery, she uncovers a chilling truth: this isn’t an asylum. It’s a trap woven between broken realities. The rift isn’t a vision. It’s a crack in the barrier between worlds, and something is trying to come through. Dread isn’t a hallucination. It’s a harbinger, connected to something ancient that moves between realities like a parasite, searching for a perfect host.

If Atra can’t sever her connection to Dread, she won’t just lose her grip on sanity—she’ll become the vessel that lets the horror in. She’ll open the door to something that could end reality itself.

REVIEW

As I prepared to receive my ARC for the upcoming book, “In the House of Root and Rot” (book two in the Altered Planes Trilogy), I had to read book one, which the author had kindly gifted me as well. This book mind *ucked me and I liked it!

We are introduced to Atra, who has spent most of her life in an asylum. She sees a dark shadow companion whom she calls Dread, which no one else can see. We also meet Tom, her father, who had abandoned Atra, leaving her for dead after a sinister experiment went wrong.

 A rift has opened in the fabric of time, and only Atra, Tom, and some others can see it. An ancient evil wants to break through. Atra has the final piece it needs.

Think Stranger Things meets Sliders meets The Travellers or Fringe. I don’t know! This book makes you question the very reality you are reading!  This is the very first book where I couldn’t predict what would happen next! THE VERY FIRST! I was reading for my sanity, so there was that. These characters become you. 

I love unreliable characters, and Weiss delivers cause this whole book is full of them. The ending leaves you craving what is next.  What horrors and madness await us in the next book? Stay tuned, as I’m set to read the second book “In the House of Root and Rot” soon!

My overall rating is 5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐out of 5 stars. This book gave me a trip, no drugs needed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sam was named after a dog, a fact her mother disputes to this day.

While she’s terrible at writing “About Me”s about her, she’s been told she’s great at writing about what fictional people do. The more miserable she can make them, the better.

Her love of horror films from the 80s, sci-fi shows from the 90s, and alternative music from the 00s have inspired her to write what she’s calling “Dark Science Fantasy” although she’s kind of making that up as she goes along.

When she’s not ready to pull her hair out after discovering another plot hole she’s created, she goes camping with her husband as far away from society as possible. So far, this tactic has been mostly successful and she’s only had to physically converse with a grand total of nine people this year. Next year, she hopes to get that number down to six.

Follow Sam and her books on IG @Weiss Author 🇨🇦

Get The Afterlife Experiement today!