Win a $20 GC: Anastasia's Midnight Song by M. Laszlo

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. M. Laszlo will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Longing to cure her deep, hysterical fears involving a diabolical dream fox living inside her womb, Anastasia T. Grace takes a post making occult mirrors in the hope that she may someday convince herself that she commands the power to banish her nemesis into one of her creations. However, when a troubled, young Englishman grows obsessed with her beauty, she is forced to confront the pressing, all-too-real, misogynistic danger of male psychopathy.

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This book is a bit of an unusual one, but in a really intriguing way. It’s set in 1917 St. Petersburg, where Anastasia is on a train headed to scatter her mother’s ashes in a place that meant a lot to her. As she travels, Anastasia starts to remember a strange trip she took with her mom ten years earlier when she was a kid. Something really odd happened back then, and it ended up leaving a lasting mark on her—specifically, a "dream fox" that seems to have entered her womb, which becomes a pretty important part of her journey.

At the same time, we meet Jack, who's just gotten to Sinai after dodging the draft for World War I. He’s struggling with guilt over not going to fight and feels pretty lost about what to do with himself. His mental state only seems to get worse as he isolates himself in Sinai, especially after spotting Anastasia, who’s also dealing with her own share of emotional and psychological weight.

The book shifts back and forth between Anastasia and Jack’s chapters, both of them battling some pretty heavy mental health issues. Anastasia is dealing with grief, loneliness, and this weird “creature” inside her, which pushes her to leave Russia and try to find a way to get rid of it. Meanwhile, Jack’s chapters really dive into his depression and guilt. He’s deeply conflicted, and you can really feel the weight of his internal struggle as he spends time alone, lost in his head.

The whole thing has a dreamlike, surreal quality to it. The themes of isolation, grief, and the supernatural are woven in so subtly that it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s just in their heads. This is not a book you’ll breeze through—it’s one you’ll need to sit with and really think about. And honestly, you could read it a few times and probably get something new each time.

Motifs like the “dream fox,” a diadem spider, and a ghostly girl named Svetlana give the story a strange, almost magical vibe, and the music scattered throughout adds to the overall eerie atmosphere. This is definitely not a quick, easy beach read—but if you’re into books that make you think, that dig into the psyche and leave you with more questions than answers, this one is definitely worth checking out.

About the Author:

M. Laszlo is the pseudonym of a reclusive author living in Bath, Ohio. According to rumor, he based the pen name on the name of the Paul Henreid character in Casablanca, Victor Laszlo.

M. Laszlo has lived and worked all over the world, and he has kept exhaustive journals and idea books corresponding to each location and post.

It is said that the maniacal habit began in childhood during summer vacations—when his family began renting out Robert Lowell’s family home in Castine, Maine.

The habit continued into the 1990s when he lived in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem and worked as a night clerk in a Palestinian youth hostel. In recent years, he revisited that very journal/idea book and based Anastasia’s Midnight Song on the characters, topics, and themes contained within the writings.

M. Laszlo has lived and worked in New York City, East Jerusalem, and several other cities around the world. While living in the Middle East, he worked for Harvard University’s Semitic Museum. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio and an M.F.A. in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.

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