The Evolutionist

Winner of the 2013 Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in a First Novel!

Las Vegas suburbanite, Stacy Troy, dreams that everyone is dead. She dismembers the bodies of loved ones, stuffs them into a shopping cart, then takes them two at a time to the pile where she will burn their remains and say her last goodbyes.

Waking nightly to her own screams, Stacy is convinced she’s on the brink of a mid-life crisis and begins secretly seeing a psychiatrist. Dr. Light and his methods seem strange and unconventional, but his treatments work, and her circumstances improve. Until the nightmares return with a vengeance, taking on a life of their own.

Uncertain what to believe, Stacy carries on living the only life she remembers. Nosebleeds and head-splitting alarms only she can hear, become a regular occurrence. In physical and mental decline, the nocturnal world in her mind refuses to die. The images it reveals hold clues that lead her to a shocking discovery.

Threatening to unravel the last thread of her sanity, Stacy must make a heartrending decision...before her post-apocalyptic nightmares come true.

“Rena Mason is a fine writer. Write her name down, underline it, stick it on the fridge with the other reminders. Then, buy everything she writes. You will not be disappointed, because she is indeed a: Rising Star.”
—Gene O’Neill, THE BURDEN OF INDIGO and FROZEN SHADOWS

“The next time somebody tells me there’s nothing new in genre fiction, I’m going to hand them this and ask that they let me get a safe distance away before their presumptions are blown to smithereens.”
—Lisa Morton, Bram Stoker Award Winning author of THE CASTLE OF LOS ANGELES and TRICK OR TREAT.

"In this bold debut, Rena Mason has constructed an upper middle-class nightmare for the entire human race that will long stay with me. Read this book, and be prepared!”
—Benjamin Kane Ethridge, Bram Stoker Award Winning author of BLACK & ORANGE and DUNGEON BRAIN.

"Rena Mason’s The Evolutionist is one of the best debut novels I’ve ever read. A psychological thrill ride that is both literary and visceral. Wildly original, smart as hell, and highly recommended!"
—Peter Giglio, author of Stealing Night and Sunfall Manor

"The Evolutionist runs its icy fingers up your spine, grabs you by the brain, and compels you to read on to the final chilling page."
—Fran Friel, Two-Time Bram Stoker Award Finalist.

     "Author Rena Mason's debut novel is a highly imaginative, ambitious tale of supernatural themes. Her use of dreams and the subconscious to showcase the gory macabre is nothing shy of brilliant. We virtually feel the melancholy and despair within her character as she suffers a loss of intimacy with her friends, her absent husband, and her increasingly estranged teenage son. Her dreams depict a ghastly slaughter with an apocalyptic back drop as each of her neighbors and loved ones are dismembered and rendered helpless." -Hellnotes
     "Mason's individual style is refreshing as a first person point of view. It's a challenging persona to undertake yet she executes it with ease refraining from the mundane all the while expressing a wide range of deep emotion. The interpersonal relationships with her husband, parents, son and friends are created effectively bound to emphasize the way in which the readership holds relationships in their own lives. It creates a sense of suspended belief, enhancing the tale with an endearing sentiment." -Horror News

"As the novel progresses, Rena Mason continuously demonstrates equal ability in handling both graphic imagery and the surreal atmosphere that permeate the storyline."
-New York Journal of Books