A Thousand Natural Shocks

Named one of Murder & Mayhem's Most Anticipated Mystery, Thriller, and Crime Books of 2025

Named a Goodreads Best Thriller & Mystery of 2025

Omar Hussain's dazzling debut, A Thousand Natural Shocks, is a mesmerizing meditation on trauma, memory, and identity wrapped in a high-octane thriller.

Dash, a reporter in Monterey, California, is desperate to outrun his past. During the day, he investigates the reemergence of a long-dormant serial killer. At night, he has become entangled with a criminal cult that promises a pill to erase his traumatic memory.

But as Dash begins to lose his memories--and his sense of self--he discovers a dark secret about the cult, one that would horrify its members. And soon he finds himself in a race against time to evade the cult, unveil the killer, and reconcile his past before his own memories fade away ...

"A story filled with suspense and introspection."

-- "The Strand Magazine's Mystery Center"

"Part noir, part existential trip, this is an incisive thriller that asks: If you could forget everything, would you? Should you?"

-- "The Seattle Times"

"In Omar Hussain's brilliant thriller, reporter Dash is chasing two stories in Monterey, California: one about a serial killer who has resurfaced, the other about a cult offering a pill to erase traumatic memories."

-- "BookBub"

"Psychological suspense at its finest, tingling with unsettling paranoia and fear...A brilliant debut that slowly builds a momentum capitalizing on the emotional pain, paranoia, and unpredictability of the protagonist to engage all your senses as you dive into a dark and disturbing world of darkness where we run away from our emotions instead of facing them. It'll leave you doing some soul searching."

-- "The Best Thriller Books"

"An unconventional thriller that powerfully probes questions of family, death, and memory...Hussain effectively channels the surreal paranoia of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly and the dark absurdity of Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice to craft a wholly original serial killer tale."

-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"

"A Thousand Natural Shocks, an investigation into the lasting impact of violence and trauma, is another 'lyrical and literary' debut thriller that you need to be on the lookout for this year."

-- "Murder & Mayhem"

"Hussain boxes with heavyweights here, going round for round. He has so many ways to get you: the crackling, staccato prose rhythm of Palahniuk's Fight Club, as well as that book's frazzled, immersive psychic energy; a ferociously ticking clock careening toward a cataclysmic plot resolution in the manner of Amis's London Fields; and a captivating mixture of philosophical ambivalence, indignation, and heartbreak around questions of identity that calls Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist to mind. After tangling with the greats, Hussain comes up standing. This is a major debut by a formidable talent."

-- "Matthew Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of We Are Not Ourselves"

"An engrossing Northern California noir that balances its pulp instincts with haunting atmospherics and a patiently ticking mystery."

-- "Stephen Markley, author of Ohio and The Deluge"

"Omar Hussain's A Thousand Natural Shocks is the most fun reading experience I've had in years. It's a Tarantino movie in book form. And that doesn't mean it skimps on the 'book' part of the equation: it's smart, lyrical, penetrating, and literary as hell. But it also comes with eight thousand volts of sizzle. You'll want to read this before everyone else starts talking about it. Just prepare to have your hair singed."

-- "Darin Strauss, internationally bestselling author of Half a Life"

Omar Hussain is a writer from the San Francisco Bay Area currently living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He holds an MFA in creative writing from NYU. A Thousand Natural Shocks is his first novel.

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