Conduits

Mara is a Japanese-American girl with a history of personal tragedy. Though she still cuts to quell the pain, she thought she had left the worst behind her. But her boyfriend's sudden death and a visit to one of the most haunted places in Washington State send her into a spiral of madness that lands her in a psychiatric ward.

Already suffering from dreams of a strange, ghost-infested house in the woods, Mara begins to question the very existence of reality. She is forced to confront the truth of her older sister's brutal murder and, unable to distinguish between nightmare and waking any longer, the reason the ghosts have chosen her as their conduit.

"If you dig that line, you will love Jennifer Loring's CONDUITS. Loring writes with a unique flair and love for language. You will find no boring repetition or meandering descriptions here. This author knows what she's doing, and does so with aplomb.

I'm a huge fan of Japanese culture. I'm also a big fan of Japanese horror. I get it from my grandmother, whose home was always decorated with fans and masks and backlit paintings. The back story of the horimono miko is as tragic as it creepy. I was whisked away during the more surreal aspects of this book, and, at times, was blissfully confused. I love a book that you have to read carefully, that if you skim you'll lose the thread. It makes what the author wrote worth while. If your writing is nothing more than a bunch of words tossed on a page so as to get from point A to point B, you're doing something wrong. Loring does everything right with CONDUITS, writing with such beautifully haunting and mysterious prose that the reader must slow down and take everything in. Yes, this book is the literary equivalent of a speed bump. Slow down, and no one gets hurt.

Oh, and by the way, this joker is seriously scary. Full-on goose-flesh-rising, nail-biting, hair-tugging scary.

In summation: If you enjoy Japanese horror in the vein of A TALE OF TWO SISTERS or THE EYE, definitely check this out. If you enjoy fantastic writing, look no further. I will devour everything Jennifer Loring publishes. Believe that." -- Edward Lorn