Keeping the Stars Awake
by Matthew J. McKee
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Jul 15 2022 | Archive Date Sep 11 2022
Talking about this book? Use #KeepingtheStarsAwake #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
Dead in a matter of pages! No self-respecting narrator would dare call such a story a novel, but the narrator of this novel has no self-respect, and his story doesn’t end with death. Absurdity of the highest order follows him down to hell, leaving death the least of his worries.
Unable to sleep, and with a blue-and-green-eyed beauty dragging him ever forward through the horde of assorted horrors that stand between him and the only slice of normalcy left untouched, our narrator has his work cut out for him; as do we, the unsuspecting yet equally guilty masses swept along for the ride in the darkness beneath his hood, and the darker, deeper, and more terrifying truth lying therein.
In turns hilarious and horrifying, self-reflective and self-reproachful, Keeping the Stars Awake is author Matthew J. McKee’s invitation into a mirror world much like our own, asking, are we all just coming home to lose?
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
"Keeping the Stars Awake is a lively epic of youthful grit in a thoroughly unearthly setting that will doubtless appeal to lovers of madcap, high-speed fantasy."
-Feathered Quill
"This hidden gem propels the reader through the absurd, provides a welcome walking stick in the wilderness of weird and wacky."
-Independent Book Review
"McKee debuts with dystopian, speculative fiction about a hoodie-wearing teenager who finds he’s a character in a book...Absurd, slightly unhinged storytelling about confronting your demons."
-Kirkus Reviews
"Unexpected plot twists contribute mystery and terror to this original and strange story about identity, survival, and power dynamic."
-Bookview Review
"A world at once familiar and alien...Libraries and literary discussion groups will find Keeping the Stars Awake a compelling exploration that pushes the boundaries of the definition of sci-fi and ironic inspection alike."
-D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
Marketing Plan
Bookstores and libraries contacted for stocking and reading opportunities
Book club selection
Goodreads giveaways
Social media outreach and ad-buys
Kirkus, Publishers Weekly reviews
Publications/newspapers/book bloggers contacted for reviews, interviews, and features
Guest on radio and podcast shows
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781639883462 |
| PRICE | $18.99 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Chelsea S, Reviewer
This is such a unique book but in a very good way.
I couldn’t put this book down once I started it as I was hooked from the 1st page.
It’s a book that is so well written by the author. The characters were all really well written and the pot and story was so well written too.
The cover of the book is so amazingly done and that’s what draw me to this book.
Janalyn P, Reviewer
I have never done LSD, but after reading this book I think I know how that trip is. Before the story even starts the main characters arguing with the author… because the main character doesn’t believe that the author is in charge, but after he dies twice he started to believe it. Now however he is faced with a young girl who has one blue eye and one green eye and they both blink independently of each other she’s dressed in a school uniform and although he should really find her attractive there’s some thing unsettling about her to him. her name winds up being Sen and if he’s our“Hero“ then she’s his sidekick. They have many battles against God‘s from other alternate universes?… I think they buy gum from a witch coven fight stuffed animals and do everything in his power and others to save the universe. Let me just start this review by saying this book moves swiftly it is funny action packed I want to call it a sci-fi disaster but there’s nothing disastrous about this but I totally loved it! And I even grew fond of Sen this is a book I highly recommend if you love comics, comedies and sci-fi fantasy awesomeness you love this book! I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review totally voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.
Marta R, Reviewer
I took this long to finish this book because this was a really bizarre reading… the main character at some point he introduce himself as having the name “oh, ok” being ok his last name and oh the first name. But going back and without spoilers, this book is Alice in wonderland in a nutshell if it was an only for adults story. It has humour but in a very particular way, not for everyone…
I will definitely recommend this book when people will ask me for a different kind of horror read.
Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC and this is my honest opinion.
Readers who liked this book also liked:
By Irving Abella and Harold Troper Foreword by Richard Menkis Afterword by David S. Koffman
History, Politics & Current Affairs
Publishers Lunch
General Fiction (Adult), Nonfiction (Adult), Teens & YA
