Beyond Where Our Monsters Lie - Paperback

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by Debby Dodds (Author)

A searing exploration of memory, morality, and redemption, this novel follows one woman's journey from childhood complicity in hate to adult reckoning, forgiveness, and the embrace of her Jewish identity. It illuminates how personal choices intersect with history and the enduring weight of inherited trauma.

A childhood secret. A missing friend. Some monsters wear masks--others look just like your neighbor.

Halloween in 1991 New York City. Donna Dorn, a journalist clawing her way out of the "entertainment fluff" trenches, is haunted by more than the city's parade of ghouls and skeletons. Her real ghosts? They're the memories she's tried to bury for over a decade--memories of a friendship with her elderly neighbor, Mrs. Bardawulf, in a Pennsylvania suburb thick with secrets and whispers.

Donna's adult life is a maze of late-night writing, broken relationships, and a friendship with Mark, a rabbinical student who senses the storm beneath her sarcasm. But when Donna finally cracks open her past, she's forced to face what she did--and what she let happen--in a town where evil didn't hide under beds. It baked cakes, told fairy tales, and smiled across the street.

Small-town nostalgia curdles into dread, and every answer leads to a new, darker question. How far would you go to belong? And what if the real monsters are the ones you loved?

Author Biography

Debby Dodds is the author of Amish Guys Don't Call, named a BEST YA OF 2017 by Powell's Books and featured in Random House's Better with Books. She's had over 30 short stories published, including in the NY Times best-sellers My Little Red Book (Hachette) and The Things That You Would Have Said (Penguin), as well as essays and short stories in Salon.com, Hip Mama, Judith Magazine, Manifest-Station.com, Mountain Bluebird Magazine, Living Dead Magazine, and The Sun Magazine.

Debby received a 2021 Fellowship to MVICW, a 2023 AWP fellowship, was a 2024 Mineral School Resident, and was named the winner of the Fall 2025 Resident Fellow at Moss Rock Retreat. Her second novel, Beyond Where Our Monsters Lie, in the literary fiction genre, is under contract to be published by Histria Books and distributed by Simon & Schuster.

She has her BFA from NYU and MFA from Antioch University in Los Angeles. She has been a keynote speaker, panel member, or teacher in many schools and literary conferences including AWP, Willamette Writers, Wordstock, Cal State Chico, Terroir Creative Writing Festival, The Poe Show, Catlin Gabel School, Salem Career Day, Time Out, Grief Rites, Telltale PDX, Off the Page at The Empty Stage, Southern Oregon University, and Oregon State University. She lectured on creativity at Oxford University in 2023.

As an actress, Debby Dodds worked in film and TV and wrote and performed in plays and Improv Comedy shows in NYC and Los Angeles. She performed in shows at Disneyland and Disney World. She is also known for screaming loudly in B-horror films.

Number of Pages: 300

Dimensions: 1 x 8.9 x 6 IN

Publication Date: November 03, 2026