When Silvena and her boyfriend take a vacation at an isolated mountain villa in Bulgaria, she gets the unsettling sense she is being watched by the knots in the house’s wooden walls. Her boyfriend tries to distract her with their usual BDSM games, but Silvena’s hallucinations only worsen when she encounters a local woodcutter who takes an unusual interest in her. Could his presence be somehow linked to her delusions?
The debut novella from Koji A. Dae, author of Scars that Never Bled, Mazi is a seductive erotic horror tale inspired by the author’s experiences using kink to deal with mental health issues and the bitter, sometimes isolating winter of the Balkan Mountains.
Praise for Mazi
In her debut novella Mazi, Koji A. Dae takes readers on a journey into the deep, dark isolation of the Bulgarian woods…and the even darker realm of the human psyche. Blending folklore, horror, and erotica infused with psychological depth, Dae crafts a tale both shocking and inevitable. The novella blurs boundaries between reality and imagination, desire and dread, with an emotional impact that readers won’t soon forget.
– Stephanie Parent, author of The Briars
“Mazi is as intimate as a whisper in your ear, but hits like a skeletal fist in a leather glove. If you enjoyed Cherryh’s Rusalka trilogy, but left it wanting something more visceral and explicit, this is the book for you.”
– John Possidente, author of My First Abomination
“Drawing from Bulgarian folklore, Mazi follows a vacationing poly couple as they enter into sexual intrigue with a local man who might be more than he first appears. Blurring the lines between the domestic and sub-domestic spheres, this erotic, intimate novella asks whether what’s given can ever be taken, and who gets to decide where that line is drawn.”
– LINDZ MCLEOD, AUTHOR OF THE UNLIKELY PURSUIT OF MARY BENNET AND SUNBATHERS
From: Ghost Orchid Press, May 21, 2024
