ENTER DAE'ESHTA
Book of the Month: Laughing Gods and Dreams That Never End.
P.S. A quick note before we dive in...
Starting this month, I’m trying something new and a little more personal: a “Book of the Month” feature where I shine a spotlight on one of my older releases. These are the strange children I’ve sent into the world over the years, and each one has its own story, scars, and soul. Some of you may have read them already (if so, thank you!), but I know many are new to this multiverse we’re building together. Think of this as a way to explore the hidden corners of the dark verses together as fellow wanderers!
A while ago, I wrote a book that still haunts me.
It wasn’t just the world I built—Dae’eshta, a place of shifting emotional storms and baroque architecture—or even the two heroines whom I fell in love with. It was what the book uncovered as I wrote it: the intersections between imagination and trauma, hope and escapism, identity and transformation. In writing that book, I think I healed myself.
That book is Dark Hilarity, and for those of you who have yet to read it, it might just be your next favourite read.
Set half in the real world and half in a surreal dimension where corrupted gods dwell, Dark Hilarity tells the story of two girls: Tara and Nicola, friends since eleven years old, but who have become estranged in adulthood after a trauma that reshapes their lives.
This is a portal fantasy, yes. But it’s also a dark mirror (and contains some frightening windows onto my life, too). It asks: what do we leave behind when we leave reality, when we abandon ourselves entirely to the dream? In the words of Junji Ito, “When I have a dream that never ends… What will I have become?”
If you like your fantasy with a dash of Silent Hill and a pinch of Clive Barker, you’ll likely feel right at home here. That is, if home is a world of wolfmen and serial killer rockstars.
Here’s what readers have said:
“A fantasy masterpiece that introduces the reader to a rich, engrossing new world.” —Iseult Murphy, author of 7 Days In Hell and All Of Me
“This tale of two young friends who find solace in each other and in a shared love of a band really blew me away. The grandiosity and lushness of the world Joseph Sale has created bring Clive Barker to mind. Beautifully written and dark as night, it definitely put me in mind of Imajica or Abarat. I can't wait to read the next books in the series.” —Stephanie
For those already walking the roads of The Book of Thrice Dead, Dark Hilarity offers a different flavour of horror—more intimate, more psychological, and arguably more harrowing.
So this is my gentle nudge. If you haven’t yet stepped through the gate into Dae’eshta, now might be the time. But be warned: once you hear the laughter echoing across the void, you might never be the same.
Grab Dark Hilarity on…
More backlist spotlights soon—because the road we have travelled holds as much magic as the one ahead.
Until then, dear friends… laugh quietly in the dark.