A mysterious realm on the other side of our screens. A dark force that draws victims into its static. The unlikely hero called to save them and herself from this electric hell. Public Access Afterworld is the profound, binge-all-night, headrush of a novel by the celebrated filmmaker of I Saw the TV Glow and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
‘Beautiful, funny, and scathing . . . I stayed up all night binge-reading.’—SenLinYu
‘Gave me a vertiginous thrill I haven’t encountered since David Mitchell.’—Torrey Peters
‘Psychedelic horror of the first order.’—Grady Hendrix
‘Heart-wrenching, hilarious, visionary, and so damned smart, this novel is a major work by a major writer.’—Paul Tremblay
‘Utterly hypnotic.’—Lev Grossman
‘Dazzling and politically acute, Schoenbrun’s debut announces a major literary voice.’—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
‘A dazzling story . . . a great American novel.’—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
One of Publishers Weekly’s 10 Most Anticipated Books • One of the Most Anticipated Books of the Year: The New York Times Book Review Podcast, The Boston Globe, Lit Hub, The Chicago Review of Books, The Bookseller, Reactor, Book Riot, Crime Reads, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Debutiful
Find the receiver. Make it real.
At 5:35 p.m. on September 3, 1988, Dallas weatherman Ray ‘Can You Say Sunshine’ Davino makes passing reference to Public Access Afterworld during a rambling monologue, right before he puts a gun to his head on live television and pulls the trigger.
On June 12, 2009, David Sawyer and Erin Morrison, two lonely, TV-obsessed suburban teens who might be falling in love, gather in Erin's basement to watch TV's analog-to-digital transition. But in the static that follows, Erin witnesses surreal broadcasts from a pirate TV network called Public Access Afterworld, and their lives are changed forever.
Seventeen years later, Bethany Peters toils through the night shift at megacorp GlobalVill’s bleak Austin campus. A trans content moderator, she spends her evenings reviewing an endless stream of horrific videos. But then a young streamer begins to crop up in her feed calling out to Public Access Afterworld.
But what is Public Access Afterworld?
Spanning decades and realities, with an unforgettable ensemble of outcasts and nerds—especially the messy but wholly relatable Bethany, who must overcome paranoia and self-doubt to transform into a hero of our times—Public Access Afterworld will have you reading through the night and rooting for its characters to survive. A mesmerizing mash-up of speculative fiction, horror, and conspiracy, it marks the arrival of a major new force in contemporary fiction by a groundbreaking filmmaker who’s been compared to David Lynch and Paul Thomas Anderson.
Genre: Science Fiction
‘Beautiful, funny, and scathing . . . I stayed up all night binge-reading.’—SenLinYu
‘Gave me a vertiginous thrill I haven’t encountered since David Mitchell.’—Torrey Peters
‘Psychedelic horror of the first order.’—Grady Hendrix
‘Heart-wrenching, hilarious, visionary, and so damned smart, this novel is a major work by a major writer.’—Paul Tremblay
‘Utterly hypnotic.’—Lev Grossman
‘Dazzling and politically acute, Schoenbrun’s debut announces a major literary voice.’—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
‘A dazzling story . . . a great American novel.’—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
One of Publishers Weekly’s 10 Most Anticipated Books • One of the Most Anticipated Books of the Year: The New York Times Book Review Podcast, The Boston Globe, Lit Hub, The Chicago Review of Books, The Bookseller, Reactor, Book Riot, Crime Reads, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Debutiful
Find the receiver. Make it real.
At 5:35 p.m. on September 3, 1988, Dallas weatherman Ray ‘Can You Say Sunshine’ Davino makes passing reference to Public Access Afterworld during a rambling monologue, right before he puts a gun to his head on live television and pulls the trigger.
On June 12, 2009, David Sawyer and Erin Morrison, two lonely, TV-obsessed suburban teens who might be falling in love, gather in Erin's basement to watch TV's analog-to-digital transition. But in the static that follows, Erin witnesses surreal broadcasts from a pirate TV network called Public Access Afterworld, and their lives are changed forever.
Seventeen years later, Bethany Peters toils through the night shift at megacorp GlobalVill’s bleak Austin campus. A trans content moderator, she spends her evenings reviewing an endless stream of horrific videos. But then a young streamer begins to crop up in her feed calling out to Public Access Afterworld.
But what is Public Access Afterworld?
Spanning decades and realities, with an unforgettable ensemble of outcasts and nerds—especially the messy but wholly relatable Bethany, who must overcome paranoia and self-doubt to transform into a hero of our times—Public Access Afterworld will have you reading through the night and rooting for its characters to survive. A mesmerizing mash-up of speculative fiction, horror, and conspiracy, it marks the arrival of a major new force in contemporary fiction by a groundbreaking filmmaker who’s been compared to David Lynch and Paul Thomas Anderson.
Genre: Science Fiction
Praise for this book
"A riot in novel form by an author with an utterly singular, original vision. Public Access Afterworld will leave you breathless and desperate for a sequel." - Kaliane Bradley
"A thriller unlike any other. Strange, urgent, utterly hypnotic - once you start reading Public Access Afterworld, you won't stop." - Lev Grossman
"Constantly yanking the magical carpet out from under the reader's feet, this epic quest for the source of all television is psychedelic horror of the first order." - Grady Hendrix
"Such a compulsive read. Dark and glittering and full of static. Huzzah. Neon sign: So, so much fun." - Helen Macdonald
"An epic TV show wrapped inside a novel wrapped inside our reality and maybe every other reality there ever was, Public Access Afterworld is a 600 page shot of sheer adrenaline, as exhilarating as it is addictive... Jane Schoenbrun is one of modern horror's most distinctive, confident voices and the fact that they're as adept at bringing their vision to the page as they are to the screen is both dazzling and infuriating." - Will Maclean
"Jane Schoenbrun has the literary voice I've been famished for. Public Access Afterworld gave me a vertiginous thrill I haven't encountered since David Mitchell; the kind of epic book that doesn't just warp reality on the page but goes on warping when you look up - you read it and the world glints with secrets anew." - Torrey Peters
"Public Access Afterworld is an immersive and chilling journey that I stayed up all night binge-reading. Schoenbrun's skill and confidence as a storyteller are made clear by the deft way they play with both genre and form as the book bends and warps across time and mediums. Adroitly beautiful, funny, and scathing, Public Access Afterworld is a book from a talented storyteller with much to say, who's not afraid to say it." - SenLinYu
"In Jane Schoenbrun's electric Public Access Afterworld the American dream is refracted through the lens of the history of television to show its true nightmare self. Thrilling, heart-wrenching, hilarious, visionary, and so damned smart, this novel is a major work from a major talent." - Paul Tremblay
"A thriller unlike any other. Strange, urgent, utterly hypnotic - once you start reading Public Access Afterworld, you won't stop." - Lev Grossman
"Constantly yanking the magical carpet out from under the reader's feet, this epic quest for the source of all television is psychedelic horror of the first order." - Grady Hendrix
"Such a compulsive read. Dark and glittering and full of static. Huzzah. Neon sign: So, so much fun." - Helen Macdonald
"An epic TV show wrapped inside a novel wrapped inside our reality and maybe every other reality there ever was, Public Access Afterworld is a 600 page shot of sheer adrenaline, as exhilarating as it is addictive... Jane Schoenbrun is one of modern horror's most distinctive, confident voices and the fact that they're as adept at bringing their vision to the page as they are to the screen is both dazzling and infuriating." - Will Maclean
"Jane Schoenbrun has the literary voice I've been famished for. Public Access Afterworld gave me a vertiginous thrill I haven't encountered since David Mitchell; the kind of epic book that doesn't just warp reality on the page but goes on warping when you look up - you read it and the world glints with secrets anew." - Torrey Peters
"Public Access Afterworld is an immersive and chilling journey that I stayed up all night binge-reading. Schoenbrun's skill and confidence as a storyteller are made clear by the deft way they play with both genre and form as the book bends and warps across time and mediums. Adroitly beautiful, funny, and scathing, Public Access Afterworld is a book from a talented storyteller with much to say, who's not afraid to say it." - SenLinYu
"In Jane Schoenbrun's electric Public Access Afterworld the American dream is refracted through the lens of the history of television to show its true nightmare self. Thrilling, heart-wrenching, hilarious, visionary, and so damned smart, this novel is a major work from a major talent." - Paul Tremblay
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