Doors open at 7. The sacrifice is at 9. The dress code is, as usual, black tie.

It's the winter solstice in a Philadelphia that has been eroded by extreme weather, economic collapse, and disease-carrying mosquitoes. The Saturnalia carnival is about to begin, an evening on which reality is suspended, and troubles forgotten.

For tarot reader Nina, Saturnalia is simply a cruel reminder of the night that changed everything for her - the night she walked away from the elite Saturn Club, with its genteel debauchery, arcane pecking order, and winking interest in alchemy and the occult.

But when she gets a chance call from Max, her last remaining friend from the Saturn Club, Nina will put on a dress of blackest black and attend the Club's wild solstice masquerade, the biggest party of the year, on a mysterious errand she can't refuse.

Before the night is over, she will become the custodian of a horrifying secret - and prey to a mysterious hunter.

About the Author
STEPHANIE FELDMAN is the author of the debut novel The Angel of Losses, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, winner of the Crawford Fantasy Award, and finalist for the Mythopoeic Award. She is co-editor of the multi-genre anthology Who Will Speak for America? and her stories and essays have appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Catapult Magazine, Electric Literature, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Rumpus, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn. She lives outside Philadelphia with her family.

Reviews
An unusual blend of thriller, alchemical fantasy and climate apocalypse, it's a wild, entertaining ride * Guardian *
Part horror, part dystopia, part magical realism and part social commentary, Saturnalia defies genre, but it is dark, disturbing and totally perfect for a winter read. I'd defy anyone not to be intrigued. You might not like it. You might be terrified by it. You might love it, but you won't be indifferent to it * My Weekly *
October demands that gothic, autumnal read and Saturnalia is it... This has it all: magic, mystery, a fierce female protagonist, and a fast paced plot that will keep you turning the pages * Glamour (Best New Books for October 2023) *
A propulsive mystery-thriller, with Nina pursued by both a creepy man-shaped critter and her own past, but also a portrait of a terrified city slowly losing its collective mind. Future Philly falls somewhere between steampunk and cyberpunk - baroque, pungent, stratified, crumbling - and Feldman gives its plight considerable emotional charge by making it feel real and lived-in. Like her home, Nina is broken and bitter - but not without humanity and hope * SFX Magazine (SFX LOVES, 5 STAR REVIEW) *
'An intoxifying mix of genres... you enter Saturnalia feeling like it is a Bacchanalia dreamscape and exit in a similar fashion' * SFBook Reviews *



Book Information
ISBN 9780857308399
Author Stephanie Feldman
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Verve Books
Publisher Verve Books