Liar, Dreamer, Thief

 Like seeing movement from the corner of your eye, only for there to be nothing when you turn your head, Liar, Dreamer, Thief defies any one genre. Katrina Kim is a 24-year-old woman whose life is spiraling out of control; her job sucks, her compulsions make even the simplest of tasks arduous, her apartment's a disaster, she’s stalking her coworker, and her parents disowned her. She’s losing her already tenuous grip on reality, unable to trust her own eyes — like did the aforementioned coworker really jump off a bridge in front of her? As someone with OCD, I couldn’t help but feel a kinship to Katrina. Her obsessions, compulsions, and anxiety are so well written — they're her comfort and salvation, her prison and tormentor, all wrapped into one.   Recommended By Charlotte S., Powells.com

A young woman's carefully constructed fantasy world implodes in this brilliantly conceived novel that blurs distinctions between right and wrong, comedy and tragedy, imagination and reality: "Surreal . . . filled with technicolor lies and terrible truths" (Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling and Hugo-award winning author).

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Katrina Kim may be broke, the black sheep of her family, and slightly unhinged, but she isn't a stalker. Her obsession with her co-worker, Kurt, is just one of many coping mechanisms — like her constant shape and number rituals, or the way scenes from her favorite children's book bleed into her vision whenever she feels anxious or stressed.

But when Katrina finds a cryptic message from Kurt that implies he's aware of her surveillance, her tenuous hold on a normal life crumbles. Driven by compulsion, she enacts the most powerful ritual she has to reclaim control — a midnight visit to the Cayatoga Bridge — and arrives just in time to witness Kurt's suicide. Before he jumps, he slams her with a devastating accusation: his death is all her fault.

Horrified, Katrina combs through the clues she's collected about Kurt over the last three years, but each revelation uncovers a menacing truth: for every moment she was watching him, he was watching her. And the past she thought she'd left behind? It's been following her more closely than she ever could have imagined.

A gripping page-turner, as well as a sensitive exploration of mental health, Liar, Dreamer, Thief is an intimate portrayal of life in all its complexities — and the dangers inherent in unveiling people's most closely guarded secrets.

"Liar, Dreamer, Thief is a surreal thriller that blurs the line between daydream and nightmare. It leaves you with the creeping certainty that there is a different world lurking just under the surface of our own, filled with technicolor lies and terrible truths." — Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling and Hugo-award winning author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January

"Mesmerizing...This nuanced depiction of a woman's struggles with isolation and mental health rings entirely true. Fans of sharp, inventive fiction will be eager for Dong's next." — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"Increasingly bonkers twists propel the story to a cogent, poignant close...A rabbit hole worth falling down." — Kirkus

Maria Dong's short fiction, articles, and poetry have been published in over a dozen venues, including Apex, Apparition Literary Magazine, Augur, Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Fantasy Magazine, Fusion Fragment, Kaleidotrope, Khoreo, Lightspeed, and Nightmare, among others. Currently a computer programmer, she has had a diverse career as a property manager, English teacher, and occupational therapist. She lives with her partner in southwest Michigan, in a centenarian saltbox house that is almost certainly haunted, and loves watching K-Dramas and drinking Bell's beer. She can be reached via Twitter @mariadongwrites or her website, MariaDong.com.