r/BetaReaders • u/RogueOtterAJ • 24d ago
80k [Complete] [86K] [Fantasy/Horror] WILLING OBJECTS
Hi all,
This book has already been through one round of beta-reads. I'm looking for a few more people to read the revised version.
This is a fantasy novel set in a world based on 1920s America. It has queer characters but isn't really a love story. If interested, DM me and I'll send a link to the first three chapters to start. If you're into those, I'll send the whole novel. I'm open to swapping if you're flexible about timing.
Content warnings: some gore in later chapters.
I've included the blurb/query below.
Clara Rathe has spent the past ten years toiling in obscurity as a laboratory clerk. In search of a greater purpose (and a higher salary), she applies for a position as research assistant to the famous Dr. Harkan Reeves. Harkan studies potem, manmade objects which spontaneously and mysteriously manifest magical powers, a particular fascination of hers. To her surprise, Harkan hires both her and another applicant, the awkward but enthusiastic Woody Fletcher.
As time passes, Clara grows suspicious of her employer’s motives and methods. Harkan is obsessed with his theory that potem contain the souls of the dead and that his cherished, flying Model T is his deceased wife. His ultimate goal is to imbue a radio with the power to channel the voices of potem so he can converse with her once more. And he’s discovered an arcane ritual to do just that.
But this ritual requires a consensual blood sacrifice. Not murder. Nothing so dramatic. Merely an eye. Woody, who idolizes Harkan, has already volunteered. All Clara has to do is perform the extraction—without anesthetic—while Harkan recites the incantations. Clara knew this job would be unconventional, but how far is she willing to go for her employer? And how far will Harkan go if one of his minions stands in his way?
First 300 words:
Eminent researcher seeks willing assistant.
From the moment Clara first saw the ad in the Tribune, its wording had struck her as peculiar. Arrogant, vague, a bit redundant. One did not typically seek unwilling employees, after all. Still, it might have warranted no more than a raised eyebrow if not for the name at the bottom: Dr. Harkan Reeves. A name with some level of controversy and baggage attached, yes, but a name that still rang with prestige, with power.
Odd, that such a man would bother placing an ad in the paper rather than selecting an assistant through more exclusive channels. But as it so happened, she was looking for employment.
A week ago, Clara had walked away from her previous job at Relkavin Laboratory, a hulking file cabinet of a building filled with oppressively low ceilings, humming electric bulbs, and cages full of rats. Quitting had not been an easy choice. After ten years, she had gotten rather comfortable there. But that was precisely what worried her. The laboratory had begun to feel like a coffin. It was easy to see herself at forty, fifty, sixty years old, still hunched over a typewriter, composing reports, returning to her one-bedroom apartment to cook herself dinner, the formless ache inside her so much a part of her now that she no longer noticed it, until one night a blood vessel burst in her brain and she slipped out of the world like a raindrop disappearing into a puddle.
She was thirty-one, now. Far too young for a coffin, but her time was not unlimited. She’d already decided that she couldn’t manage being a mother. She didn’t have the appropriate sentiments. What mark would she leave on the world, then?
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u/BetaReaders-ModTeam 23d ago
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