She wakes up at night on a small lawn not knowing who she is, where she is, or how she got there. Hungry, craving meat, she wanders the streets enjoying the smells of cooking food. In an alley, she spots a young man and hunger overcomes her. He yells at her, calling her Alex, saying he is Max, and why doesn’t she recognize him? Before he could run, she jumps on him and sinks her teeth into his throat. He hits her and when she wakes, she finds herself in a hospital tied up. Max talks to her, but she cannot answer, unable to speak coherently. All she wants to do is bite him. When the police come, Max tells them she is Alex Jordan, sixteen. Her parents arrive and take her home. The next morning, she wakes up starving. Was she a vampire? But she did not burst into flame when the sun touched her. At her parents’ rental house, she is attacked by some shaggy-haired creature and Alex though she recognized him. A confrontation with Max and the creature at a lifeguard beach house leads to a compelling ending.
With The Dead Life, Matthew Sprosty presents an emotion-driven story that could have been taken straight out of the X-Files. It is a mystery that will have readers turning pages, hungry to find what happens next as Alex struggles to remember her past, wondering about her future, and what she has become. Her only attachment to reality is Max, but he harbors a dark secret, and she is not sure he actually cares for her. Her parents fight among themselves, and Alex feels all alone in the world. In The Dead Life, Sprosty spins a subtle web around Alex with beautifully crafted narrative, which will allow readers to live in her head, enchanted and mesmerized by the unfolding events. A surprising debut novel that will leave readers deeply satisfied.
This book is available on Amazon.
About the Author
Matthew Sprosty is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter living in Bay Village, Ohio. A graduate with a FA in Playwriting from Ohio University, he has had various professional productions across the country. His play ‘Malicious Bunny’ has received the most critical reviews. Audiences and critics alike compliment Sprosty’s strength with dialogue, character verisimilitude, and his penchant for blending genres. Altogether, the music ideas for which he wrote treatments (for artists such as Imbaland, Katy Perry, Neon Trees, among others) have over half a billion views on YouTube. ‘The Dead Life’ is his first novel.
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