Kaia Ross was a high school teacher. Until she lost her third job in four years, only to find herself with no prospects of employment in schools or otherwise. Searching for meaning, belonging, and a way to make ends meet, she’s down on her luck and suffering through worsening depression, waiting for something to finally give. When she finds a compensated clinical trial for a new anti-depressant, she decides, “why not?” and takes a deep dive into the unknown with hopes it will at least ease the pain of asking her roommates to cover rent.
After a short time in the trial, she starts to discover that the side effects are not what they seem, and what she thought was helping her may be the thing tearing her apart. When desperation and depression collide, doors open that should have stayed shut. Dreams become reality, reality becomes a nightmare, and everything Kaia thought she knew can no longer be trusted.
What happens when your only chance at survival becomes the very thing dragging you into madness?
The Threat of Hope is the story of a woman facing the weight of survival in modern-day America who finds escape through an unlikely source and risks losing everything to find herself, only to wind up right back where she started. It has a little bit of something for everyone, but it’s not a book for just anyone. It’s speculative fiction and lands squarely between the real world and a strange mesh of fantasy and sci-fi that makes you question what’s real while addressing the heaviness of humanity: mental health crisis, moral ambiguity, imperfection, and plenty of other things that draw people in while also scaring them a bit. And, of course, a healthy dose of relationships and banter and pretty, whimsical, fantasy things that help balance the darker tones.
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