His skill at squeezing humor and self-reflection out of the direst of circumstances is one of the greater joys I had while reading this story. I found many passages to highlight and share, and I was constantly impressed with how easily Fletcher seemed to intuit wisdom out of the bloody muck and shit his characters were dragged through.

Fortunately, Fletcher has a gift of writing in a beautiful, literary prose that displays clear insights on the lurid nature of humanity. In the early parts of the narrative, the reader is transported from one dour nightmare to another, and I was concerned that it would be exhausting over time. In Beyond Redemption, Fletcher paints a grim world that he leans into heavily, and this decision is what helps make this book so remarkable. It’s a world where your own dopplegangers scheme to murder and replace you where your mirrored reflections can tell the future if you’re foolish enough to trust it where narcissists and sociopaths and cannibals and pyromaniacs all wield enough influence and power to topple kingdoms and overthrow religions. It is a world where belief spawns reality, all communication is manipulation, and the mentally insane gain God-like powers until their delusions grow too powerful and consume them.

The world of “Manifest Delusions” is one of the most creative, gut-wrenching, and fascinating worlds I’ve ever experienced in speculative fiction. That moment when our minds white out and thought vanishes, when the fire within us devours all rationality.' Every visceral pleasure comes from the moment when we truly lose control.

'We are, each and every one of us, addicted to chaos.

Michael r fletcher books