Descending Lines, Revised Second Edition by L. Andrew Cooper

Carter and Megan Anderson’s six-year-old daughter Caitlin is dying from bone cancer that has spread throughout her body. Medical science can’t save their little girl—but they know something that can. When they were in college, they discovered a book of rituals, The Alchemy of Will by Dr. Allen Fincher, that enables people to do almost anything when they combine the power of will with the right sacrifice. Carter and Megan can save Caitlin if they sacrifice their second-born. But Caitlin is an only child. How far would you go to save your child? They decide to get pregnant and begin nine months of hell, preparing for the unthinkable. Their urban apartment becomes a domestic nightmare as their relationship and sanity erode. The dark secrets of their past point toward a darker future, and as they get closer and closer to saving their daughter, they descend deeper and deeper into unimaginable horror.

The revised second edition of Descending Lines significantly expands and alters the first published edition, returning to the author’s original, more twisted vision of the story.

“The fine, complicated line between ethical and moral decision-making plays heavily at the very heart, pulped and raw, of Cooper’s Descending Lines, beginning with a question that has no easy answers: How far is a parent willing to go to save their child from certain death? From its opening scene where its protagonists ponder this dilemma all the way to its heartbreaking, final gasp, Cooper’s novel rips the reader back and forth in time, tracing the supernatural catalyst for the couple’s decision and the violent peril it will put its users through. Cooper’s tale meticulously weaves domestic, occult, monstrous, and extreme horrors into a phantasmagoric tapestry of unearthly suspense and thrills. Be warned, however: this is most assuredly NOT for the faint of heart.” —Kenzie Jennings, author of Reception and A Woman Like Jo

“I don’t scare easily… But this book is scary, not due to how extreme it is (which it is), rather because of how it resonates… Cooper explores the human experience through horror, making even the most fantastical elements feel authentic… Descending Lines will make your skin crawl as Cooper expertly guides you through the madness and mayhem.” —Luc Dantes, The Horror Tree