Dive into the Shadows: Exploring Diavian Gunner's New Psychological Thriller New Horizon Darkness Dawns
- Michel Weatherall
- Oct 6
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 8
The wait is over.
Diavian Gunner's psychological horror/thriller, New Horizon: Darkness Dawns is here!
Dawn is a night club singer – beautiful, seductive, confident, sure of herself - at least that's what the world sees.
Beneath the sultry exterior we are forced to discover and witness the abuse and trauma that led her to become the thing she is slowly gravitating towards.
"Is it better to out-monster the monster, or to be quietly devoured?"
―Friedrich Neitzsche, Good and Evil
The descent into darkness and madness is complete as we accompany Dawn, navigating through suffering, sexual abuse, survival, and vengeance. There is light at the end of this tunnel, but on this new horizon sometimes survival means becoming a monster ourselves.
This novel does not back away in its unflinching brutality as it directly faces and confronts the profound and psychologically deep issues of retribution versus justice, and the anguish of survival and identity, with disturbing clarity.
Be warned: Here there be monsters.
CAUTION:
Content Warning: Explicit sex, sexual violence, and sexual abuse
Available: USA Canada BKP Coming Soon to Barnes & Noble
With its introduction written by Diavian's university's professor, Dr. Carla Mary Rineer, says,
"Gunner offers readers a world where women’s memories, anxieties, and desires spawn action, not stasis. It is Dawn who saves herself.... A New Horizon’s unifying metaphor is blood... women’s blood: menstruation, loss of virginity, childbirth, wounds from abuse, and reparation... No chivalrous hero arrives on horseback to rescue her. All but one man slithers through her life creating wretchedness. Dawn may have been penetrated by the masculine fang, but she does not languish."
The Foreword is penning by Lydia Schoch, a Toronto science-fiction author, book reviewer, and blogger, author of Tumble and Waiting for Earl to Die and Other Stories. She has also penned the forewords to Dark Dark Corner of My Soul and Down Dark Corridors.
Lydia has this to say:
"People like Dawn who have experienced violence and abuse are often the victims in the horror genre, but this isn't that sort of book.
"It's one of the reasons why I love horror so much. Sometimes it turns the audience's expectations upside down within the first few pages and then asks us to imagine a world where the difference between the good guys and the bad ones may not be as clear-cut as it is in other genres.
"Dawn isn't someone I'd want to cross paths with on a desolate street corner after dark, but her reasons for becoming the person she did were a breath of fresh air when compared to the way survivors are so often portrayed.
"There's more than one way to heal, although I'll leave the details of that up to other readers to discover and dissect for themselves.
"In the meantime, keep a close eye on who may be following you as you walk home late at night. You never know what secrets a stranger may be clasping tightly to as they speed up just a little to catch up with you."
Broken Keys Publishing author and poet, Samantha Underhill (The Sadness of the Siren) says,
"Something about her (Diavian Gunner) makes me feel she may be on the cusp of something similar to what I witnessed with author, S.A. Cosby."
Diavian's writing flourished during her university years. In that time, her love for stories was rekindled, due in part, to her English classes. They challenged her skills while broadening her creativity. Since then, she has taken what she's learned and applied to her writing to create more immersive and connective stories.
Look forward to upcoming book signings dates in Philadelphia in the near future and your autographed copy!
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