Eye Contact

'Eye Contact is another book of nightmare brilliance by Selene DePackh. In it, DePackh writes with a clean and literary style that eases its way into your subconscious where it seeds itself to become something quite, quite different. I loved this book.' -Sarah Walker, Weird Fiction QuarterlyThings sinister and strange can happen in the historic Taconic Behavioral Health Complex and the layers of worlds beneath it. The veil between those worlds is thin there and in the ancient mountains surrounding it. Each witness is pulled into the vortex in their own way-Brian, an orderly haunted by his time as a combat medic; Rowena, the autistic child he tries to save; Artemida, the young Russian witch seeking justice for her sister; Cindy, a seemingly ageless woman from the mountains with both honor and dangerous appetites competing in her blood-each one sees something of the forces at work in their fates, some more clearly than others. These and a small group of others grasp fragments of certainty within their own narratives, and several of their short tales have appeared elsewhere, but this collection brings the threads together in a tapestry that reveals the vast truth of what possesses this cursed place.'Selene DePackh acts as a mad doctor in Eye Contact, peeling back each layer of dermis with torturous glee, and leading you, as the reader, to wonder at the spectacle beneath. That spectacle is filled with intricate tales of ghosts that first haunt the cold corridors of the CareWell Institute and later haunt your mind.' -Elaine Pascale, author of The Solstice'Selene dePackh writes of her characters’ inner lives with precise and cutting detail, exposing the damage the world does to those who cannot conform. In Eye Contact, she weaves together seven stories of human suffering and supernatural revenge to create a disquieting and emotionally complex mosaic novel that explores the fraught relationships between the living and the dead. The ghosts who haunt the Taconic Behavioral Health Center are burdened by regrets and painful glimpses of what might have been, if only they had been allowed to live as who they truly were. dePackh skillfully describes the love, sorrow, fear, and rage that drive her characters, and lays open their deeply conflicted hearts. When they choose to share their secrets with the living they also share their pain. It is retaliation, if not redress, for what they have had to endure. Beautifully written and keenly felt, I recommend Eye Contact highly.' -Erica Ruppert, author of Sisters in Arms and Seven Stars: Collected Stories