The Kraken Sea

Revelations spill from the fractures between realities in Tobler’s first Traveling Circus novella, a modern myth that reveals gods and monsters on the doorstep of the human world. In 1893, orphan Jackson accompanies mysterious Sister Grace to Chicago, where he is adopted by treacherous sorceress Cressida. Entanglements with a freak show, mythic creatures, and uncontrollable transformations inspire him with a reckless elation that’s stoked by Cressida’s supernatural home of otherworldly creatures. When Jackson becomes a pawn in the battle between two occult brothels, he struggles with the Three Fates and his own confused passions, which transform him into a powerful force that neither side expected. This realistically depicted fantasy stretches the mind and speeds the pulse. Shifting supernatural borderlands inspire awe and ancient gods mirror very human desires in a fear fable that balances complex philosophy with relentless, image-packed action. Tobler creates a fluid, transformative universe that’s equal parts exhilaration and terror. (June)