The Man in the Watch Still Visits Me at Night

House of Leaves meets David Lynch in a surreal horror novel exploring generational trauma and the monsters it breeds, from Joshua Chaplinsky, cult author of Letters to the Purple Satin Killer.

The lives of three unlikely women unfold to reveal a shared history of neglect and abuse. At the center looms the Vogel House, a facade of rotten wood and sagging eaves that plays host to a parasitic dream—the malevolent entity known as The Man in the Watch.

After spending the night in an abandoned house, Jenna Thomas returns home haunted by someone else’s past. She revisits the scene in the hopes of exorcising her dreams, only to uncover something far worse. Mrs. Vogel receives an unexpected letter from her estranged daughter. It fills the old woman with hope for the future, even though her daughter is long since dead. Meanwhile, a young woman contends with the legacy of her father while simultaneously fighting for the future of her unborn child.

The Man in the Watch Still Visits Me at Night thrusts readers into a nightmarish dead zone of overlapping realities, presided over by a malignant force that manipulates memory and delights in human suffering.

Joshua Chaplinsky is the author of Letters to the Purple Satin Killer, The Paradox Twins, Whispers in the Ear of A Dreaming Ape, and Kanye West—Reanimator. His short fiction has been published by Vice, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Thuglit, Severed Press, Expat Press, and Broken River Books. He was the Managing Editor of LitReactor.com (2011-2023). Follow him on various social media at @jaceycockrobin. More info at joshuachaplinsky.com. He lives in Queens, NY with his wife and cats.