Psychological Science

Distinguished for his talents as a rat killer, the nameless protagonist of Hye-young Pyun's City of Ash and Red is sent by the extermination company he works for on an extended assignment in C, a country descending into chaos and paranoia, swept by a contagious disease and flooded with trash. No sooner does he disembark than he is whisked away by quarantine officials and detained overnight. Still worse, when he finally manages to reach an old friend, he is told that his ex-wife's body was found in his apartment and that he’s the prime suspect.

Blythe Hallowell is 16 when she is abducted by a survivalist and locked away in an aban­doned missile silo in Eudora, Kansas. At first, she focuses frantically on finding a way out, until the harrowing truth of her new existence settles in - the crushing loneliness, the terrifying madness of a captor who believes he is saving her from the end of the world, and the persistent temptation to give up. But nothing prepares Blythe for the burden of raising a child in confinement.

The America of 2037 is a country distracted by, infatuated with, and addicted to Arcadia. The brainchild of reclusive genius Juan Diego Reyes, Arcadia is a wickedly immersive, all-encompassing social-media platform and virtual-reality interface. Although Arcadia has made the Reyes family fabulously wealthy, it's left them - and the rest of the country - impoverished of that rare currency: intimacy.

It's the year 2035 and fiction has been banned by the government for five years. Writing novels is a crime. Reading fairytales to children is punishable by law. Fern Dostoy is a criminal. Officially, she has retrained in a new job outside of the arts but she still scrawls in a secret notepad in an effort to capture what her life has become: her work on a banned phone line, reading bedtime stories to sleep-starved children; Hunter, the young boy who calls her and has captured her heart; and the dreaded visits from government officials.

Across the world, thousands of people are shocked to receive an email telling them that they once chose to have a traumatic memory removed. Now they are being given the chance to get that memory back. For Mei, William, Oscar and Finn, there is a piece missing, but they're not sure what. And each of them must decide if the truth is worth the pain or better left unknown. For Noor, who works at the memory clinic Nepenthe, the process of reinstating their patients' memories begins to shake the moral foundations of her world.

Whatever happened to Oskar and Eli? And what became of the beleaguered families in Handling the Undead? Find out in Let the Old Dreams Die. In other tales from this collection, a woman finds a dead body and decides to keep it for herself, a customs officer has a mysterious gift that enables her to see what others hide, and a man believes he knows how to deceive death. These are the stories of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s rich imagination. They are about love and death, and what we do when the two collide and the monsters emerge.

When her ship is attacked and crew slaughtered by a mysterious creature, Violet "V" Green is rescued by the handsome Dr. Dominic Shade and brought aboard his magnificent luxury class vessel, The Persephone. The opulent halls, fine food, and high-quality hallucinogens are almost enough to convince her that she could recover from the horrific tragedy that brought her here. But from the moment she arrives, something only she can hear torments her endlessly: a woman's scream. Is it trying to tell her something, or is she losing her mind?

When Susannah Breslin is a toddler, her parents enroll her in an exclusive laboratory preschool at the University of California, Berkeley, where she becomes one of 128 children who are research subjects in an unprecedented 30-year psychological experiment that predicts who she and her cohort will grow up to be. Decades later, trapped in an abusive marriage to a man with a violent history and battling breast cancer, she starts to wonder how growing up under a microscope shaped the person she became and her life choices. Is she the narrator of the story of her life, or is something else?

What would you sacrifice for a new life? Ambitious businesswoman Mae Yu runs Golden Oaks - a luxury retreat transforming the fertility industry - where women get the very best of everything, so long as they play by the rules. Jane is a young immigrant in search of a better future. Stuck living in a cramped dorm with her baby daughter and her shrewd aunt Ate, she sees an unmissable chance to change her life. But at what cost?

When Abigale inherits her uncle's curiosity shop she is thrust into the world of the occult. Where strange rituals are performed and cursed antiquities change hands. In this, she finds an entity of untold power. A primeval being of aeons past shouting to be freed. An old tome acting as a latched door opened a crack, outlining a rite requiring exotic ingredients and acts of questionable morals. He promises an answer to her family's dark secret in exchange for her help.

Engrossing Psychological Narrative There are people among us who survive great catastrophes, even murder attempts, in one lifetime, but few have survived innumerable murder attempts, and multiple catastrophes. I am alive today, despite, or, because of, quirks of chance-in fact- there are people who have said that I have experienced what can only be called miracles of survival. Regardless of the reasons, the paradoxical inevitability of the facts remains true: over twenty near-death experiences, via disease, accident, beasts, and by men with knives and guns, as well as inopportune and ...

Gia Acquaviva struggles to maintain her freedom and hold on to her business empire. A Sicilian mob boss nips at her tail, hoping to lure her into his sick fantasies. Meanwhile, the global media hunts Gia, attempting to hold her accountable for a string of murders. Can the world’s most famous mermaid escape their net, or will she be caught?

Dr. Teagan McKenna's groundbreaking technology promises a poignant solution to the inevitability of death-an opportunity to transition the consciousness of dying loved ones into ageless, AI-powered android shells. However, the benefits of eternal companionship darken when a NeuroNet android seemingly chooses to commit suicide. Searching for answers, Dr. McKenna grapples with an agonizing decision. Should she risk everything she and her friends have meticulously built or shroud themselves in the comfort of the status quo?

"Everyone else has the luxury of forgetting. But I never will." Aurora Reynolds stopped the terrorists controlling the weather, saved New York City from an unthinkable attack, and destroyed the Dream Machine. She should be a hero. So then why won't anyone listen to her? Rory knows something isn't right. Corrupt people are still in power, strange weather is happening in Europe, and her attempts at warning the public are being silenced. Even Noah, Jordan, and Emma seem more interested in moving on with their lives than finishing the fight they started together. And don't even get her started ...

“Everyone has secrets, Rory. One of life’s greatest challenges is figuring out who you can trust them with.” Aurora Reynolds has managed to make some powerful enemies in the past two weeks. And it’s clear they want her, and her secrets, dead. After achieving the impossible: freeing Jordan Daniels, a federal prisoner accused of treason, Rory hoped her life might finally go back to normal. But after surviving an assassination attempt, Rory realizes her problems are only just beginning. Don't miss this thrilling sequel to the hit novel, The Story Seer. Praise for The Truth Seer: "This ...

Franz Kafka's profound and disturbing novella Metamorphosis was first published in German in 1915. In this recent translation by David Wyllie, Gregor Samsa, a travelling salesman, wakes to find himself "transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin". How he, his family, and others deal with this untoward situation is subsequently revealed.

Ren Lewis was born with the power to control minds, hypnotize others, and read thoughts. Therefore he is certain of one thing. God made a mistake. No one should be born with so much power. A monster awoke in Ren the same year he received his gifts. At 10 years old. A prepubescent boy with the ability to control others might merely abuse this power, but Ren allowed it to corrupt him. And since he can have and do anything he wants, Ren should be happy. However, his journey teaches him that harboring so much power doesn't bring happiness, it steals it.

With his face swaddled in bandages, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses and his hands covered even indoors, Griffin—the new guest at The Coach and Horses—is at first assumed to be a shy accident-victim. But the true reason for his disguise is far more chilling: he has developed a process that has made him invisible and is locked in a struggle to discover the antidote. Forced from the village and driven to murder, he seeks the aid of his old friend Kemp. The horror of his fate has affected his mind, however—and when Kemp refuses to help, Griffin resolves to wreak his revenge.

The year is 2035, and the crew from the first expedition to Mars is returning to Earth. The crewmembers are anxious to get home, and ennui pervades the ship. The mood is broken by a series of mysterious events that jeopardize their safety. Someone or something is threatening the crew. Is it an alien being? A psychotic crewmember? A malfunctioning computer? The truth raises questions about the crewmembers’ fate and that of the human race.

Memes have been part of computer-assisted communication almost since the development of the first consumer browser (the "World Wide Web") in 1990. This book seeks to explain how memes influence societies and cultures beyond the confines of social networking services. It will begin by reviewing the fundamental definitions that frame discussions about memes in popular culture and academic research. There will be a connection between theoretical concepts about memes and the memetic content itself.