Beyond Where Our Monsters Lie

A searing exploration of memory, morality, and redemption, this novel follows one womans journey from childhood complicity in hate to adult reckoning, forgiveness, and the embrace of her Jewish identity. It illuminates how personal choices intersect with history and the enduring weight of inherited trauma.

A childhood secret. A missing friend. Some monsters wear masksothers look just like your neighbor.

Halloween in 1991 New York City. Donna Dorn, a journalist clawing her way out of the entertainment fluff trenches, is haunted by more than the citys parade of ghouls and skeletons. Her real ghosts? Theyre the memories shes tried to bury for over a decadememories of a friendship with her elderly neighbor, Mrs. Bardawulf, in a Pennsylvania suburb thick with secrets and whispers.

Donnas adult life is a maze of late-night writing, broken relationships, and a friendship with Mark, a rabbinical student who senses the storm beneath her sarcasm. But when Donna finally cracks open her past, shes forced to face what she didand what she let happenin a town where evil didnt hide under beds. It baked cakes, told fairy tales, and smiled across the street.

Small-town nostalgia curdles into dread, and every answer leads to a new, darker question. How far would you go to belong? And what if the real monsters are the ones you loved?