The Dissonance

Hal Isaac is facing prison time. Athena Watts is a teacher of sex magic in her occult café. Erin Porter struggles to hold down a job. The one thing they have in common is that their lives peaked as teenagers, when they discovered the magic of Dissonance, a source of power that’s rooted in disharmony and pain. As teens, Hal, Athena, and Erin formed a coven that was eventually disbanded by tragedy, the consequences of which still haunt them in adulthood with apocalyptic magnitude. From the author of the well-received debut A Cosmology of Monsters, this is another bold and bizarre tale that follows the misadventures of a cataclysmic coven. With exceptional plotting, the drama shifts back and forth between the trio’s teen years and adulthood, as palpable menace seeps through. This is dark academia that takes place in someone’s backyard, sweeping the protagonists into a whirlwind of cosmic horrors and alternate dimensions. It’s also a moving tale of the friendship between believable characters that are rough around the edges.