Dare to Know: A Novel (Hardcover)
September 2021 Indie Next List
“A company can tell you with 100% accuracy when you are going to die. But what happens when you live beyond your expiration date? As you read Dare to Know, your sense of reality will melt away.”
— Bob Lingle, Off the Beaten Path Bookstore (NY), Lakewood, NY
“A voraciously readable page-turner of a novel.”—Cory Doctorow
“A razor-smart sci-fi corporate noir nightmare. Dare to Know is what happens when Willy Loman sees through the Matrix.”—Daniel Kraus, co-author of The Shape of Water
This mind-bending and emotional speculative thriller is set in a world where the exact moment of your death can be predicted—for a price.
Our narrator is the most talented salesperson at Dare to Know, an enigmatic company that has developed the technology to predict anyone’s death down to the second. Divorced, estranged from his sons, and broke, he's driven to violate the cardinal rule of the business by forecasting his own death day. The problem: his prediction says he died twenty-three minutes ago.
The only person who can confirm its accuracy is Julia, the woman he loved and lost during his rise up the ranks of Dare to Know. As he travels across the country to see her, he’s forced to confront his past, the choices he's made, and the terrifying truth about the company he works for.
Wildly ambitious and highly immersive, this thought-provoking thriller explores the destructive power of knowledge and collapses the boundaries between reality, myth, and conspiracy as it races toward its shocking conclusion.
“A razor-smart sci-fi corporate noir nightmare. Dare to Know is what happens when Willy Loman sees through the Matrix.”—Daniel Kraus, co-author of The Shape of Water
This mind-bending and emotional speculative thriller is set in a world where the exact moment of your death can be predicted—for a price.
Our narrator is the most talented salesperson at Dare to Know, an enigmatic company that has developed the technology to predict anyone’s death down to the second. Divorced, estranged from his sons, and broke, he's driven to violate the cardinal rule of the business by forecasting his own death day. The problem: his prediction says he died twenty-three minutes ago.
The only person who can confirm its accuracy is Julia, the woman he loved and lost during his rise up the ranks of Dare to Know. As he travels across the country to see her, he’s forced to confront his past, the choices he's made, and the terrifying truth about the company he works for.
Wildly ambitious and highly immersive, this thought-provoking thriller explores the destructive power of knowledge and collapses the boundaries between reality, myth, and conspiracy as it races toward its shocking conclusion.
James Kennedy is the author of The Order of Odd-Fish and the founder and director of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. Before becoming a writer, he was a software engineer with a degree in physics and philosophy, subjects he continues to explore in his writing. Dare to Know is his first adult novel.
Named One of The Times' Best Books of 2021
September 2021 Indie Next Pick
“A voraciously readable page-turner of a novel, part creepypasta, part thought-experiment.”—Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother and Radicalized
“A surreal premise and an unconventional revelation fuel a cosmic journey....a wholly original novel that’s bound to frustrate just as many as it entrances.”—Esquire
“A fascinating, compulsively readable thriller.”—The Guardian
“Imagine Donna Tartt’s The Secret History getting a good edit at last, and you glimpse something of this book’s occult power. Essential reading for the gathering dark.”—The Times Saturday Review
“An entertainingly mind-bending read.”—Financial Times
“Audaciously clever and well-written...a quite superb piece of storytelling: vivid, thought-provoking and unsettling.”—SFX Magazine (5 stars)
“A creepy thriller that reads a little like Stephen King writing Glengarry Glen Ross.”—GeekDad
“Imagine what would happen if Chuck Palahniuk, Enrico Fermi, and the Brothers Grimm got together to raise a child...Sci-fi, snark-horror and futuristic thriller fans will love it.”—Terri Schlichenmeyer for The Guam Daily Post
“[An] enjoyable slipstream thriller....Readers with a taste for the synchronicity of the cosmic with the commonplace are sure to be entertained.”—Publishers Weekly
“Dare To Know will prompt the reader to consider the philosophical implications of life and death itself.”—Booklist
“[A] genre-bending thriller...good pacing and clever plotting keep the pages turning.”—New York Journal of Books
September 2021 Indie Next Pick
“A voraciously readable page-turner of a novel, part creepypasta, part thought-experiment.”—Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother and Radicalized
“A surreal premise and an unconventional revelation fuel a cosmic journey....a wholly original novel that’s bound to frustrate just as many as it entrances.”—Esquire
“A fascinating, compulsively readable thriller.”—The Guardian
“Imagine Donna Tartt’s The Secret History getting a good edit at last, and you glimpse something of this book’s occult power. Essential reading for the gathering dark.”—The Times Saturday Review
“An entertainingly mind-bending read.”—Financial Times
“Audaciously clever and well-written...a quite superb piece of storytelling: vivid, thought-provoking and unsettling.”—SFX Magazine (5 stars)
“A creepy thriller that reads a little like Stephen King writing Glengarry Glen Ross.”—GeekDad
“Imagine what would happen if Chuck Palahniuk, Enrico Fermi, and the Brothers Grimm got together to raise a child...Sci-fi, snark-horror and futuristic thriller fans will love it.”—Terri Schlichenmeyer for The Guam Daily Post
“[An] enjoyable slipstream thriller....Readers with a taste for the synchronicity of the cosmic with the commonplace are sure to be entertained.”—Publishers Weekly
“Dare To Know will prompt the reader to consider the philosophical implications of life and death itself.”—Booklist
“[A] genre-bending thriller...good pacing and clever plotting keep the pages turning.”—New York Journal of Books