The Dead Effect

by Emma Michelle

Piper didn't expect to wake up and find his home, his business and his best friend missing. Neither did he expect to find himself in a shabby seaside flat with no idea of his whereabouts. HIs life was a busy one and the calls on his time demanding, but whoever thought they would sleep a long time once dead was mistaken. Sleeping is just the tip of the iceberg.

276 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 19, 2025

About the author

Emma Michelle is a Canberra-born Melbourne writer.

Her work has been published by places like Lonely Planet, Going Down Swinging, and Kill Your Darlings. In 2020 her short story “Metronomy” was shortlisted for the Apollo Bay WordFest Short Story Award. She won the Freedom to Write Freefall Scholarship in 2018, and her short story “Like Siamese” was longlisted for the Birdcatcher Books Short Story Award in 2016.

In 2017 she self-published Watching Cartoons with Boys: a collection of short stories and personal essays that explored the intersections between animation, pop culture, and relationships. It received glowing reviews from Ramona Magazine and Underground Writers.

Emma is also interested in work of J. D. Salinger (especially his depictions of grief and trauma). She wrote a minor thesis at the ANU in 2012 that examined Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and “Seymour: An Introduction” as narratives of unresolved grief.