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Michael’s Descent: Four Score and Madness
Too Raw for the ARC Gatekeepers.
We took that as confirmation we got it right.
Michael Torino once had it all, career, love, security. Then, piece by piece, it slipped away. A layoff, a breakup, a humiliating run-in with old acquaintances. What begins as everyday setbacks soon curdles into something discount groceries and boxed wine become his nightly rituals, while ominous encounters and strange messages make him question not only his luck but his sanity.
As his world unravels, Michael finds himself spiraling through a landscape that is at once painfully ordinary and terrifyingly surreal. Banks, motels, suburban streets, and sterile offices transform into stages for paranoia, humiliation, and rage. The name "Lincoln" haunts him at every turn, appearing on layoff letters, in old classmates' sneers, and in cryptic warnings scrawled across wrecked rooms. Whether coincidence or conspiracy, it becomes the symbol of his undoing.
Written in a sharp, uncompromising voice, Michael's Descent blends dark humor with psychological horror. It captures the fragility of modern identity, how quickly the scaffolding of job titles, paychecks, and borrowed dignity can collapse. The novel offers a biting portrait of decline that will resonate with readers of literary fiction, American gothic, and psychological thrillers alike.
Unflinching, bleak, and at times disturbingly funny, this is not simply a tale of madness. It is a reflection on the thin line between order and chaos, security and ruin, and how, once crossed, there may be no way back.
We took that as confirmation we got it right.
Michael Torino once had it all, career, love, security. Then, piece by piece, it slipped away. A layoff, a breakup, a humiliating run-in with old acquaintances. What begins as everyday setbacks soon curdles into something discount groceries and boxed wine become his nightly rituals, while ominous encounters and strange messages make him question not only his luck but his sanity.
As his world unravels, Michael finds himself spiraling through a landscape that is at once painfully ordinary and terrifyingly surreal. Banks, motels, suburban streets, and sterile offices transform into stages for paranoia, humiliation, and rage. The name "Lincoln" haunts him at every turn, appearing on layoff letters, in old classmates' sneers, and in cryptic warnings scrawled across wrecked rooms. Whether coincidence or conspiracy, it becomes the symbol of his undoing.
Written in a sharp, uncompromising voice, Michael's Descent blends dark humor with psychological horror. It captures the fragility of modern identity, how quickly the scaffolding of job titles, paychecks, and borrowed dignity can collapse. The novel offers a biting portrait of decline that will resonate with readers of literary fiction, American gothic, and psychological thrillers alike.
Unflinching, bleak, and at times disturbingly funny, this is not simply a tale of madness. It is a reflection on the thin line between order and chaos, security and ruin, and how, once crossed, there may be no way back.
233 pages, Paperback
Published September 22, 2025
About the author
Anthony DiCristofano
5 books1 followerAnthony DiCristofano writes dark, offbeat fiction with a literary edge. Slow burns that linger long after the last page. His work explores guilt, psychological unraveling, and the quiet violence beneath modern life; often with elements of horror, satire, or philosophical dread.
His debut novel Schief is a quiet horror story about guilt, rot, and a once-human creature warped by isolation. Something that forces us to reckon with what’s still human inside the monstrous, and vice versa.
Michael’s Descent: Four Score and Madness follows a man’s unspooling after a corporate layoff, as he tumbles through conspiracy, disillusionment, and institutional decay. It’s a dark satire about modern identity.
Malevolent Negation isn’t a horror novel, but a philosophical composition that evokes horror through its confrontation with futility, self-deception, and the quiet violence of existence.
Each book takes a different shape, but the thread is constant: discomfort, honesty, and quiet ruin.
In addition to his fiction, DiCristofano is an accomplished Japanese swordsmith known by the name Sukemitsu. He trained under a master smith recognized as a Mukei Bunkazai (Important Intangible Cultural Asset of Japan).
His debut novel Schief is a quiet horror story about guilt, rot, and a once-human creature warped by isolation. Something that forces us to reckon with what’s still human inside the monstrous, and vice versa.
Michael’s Descent: Four Score and Madness follows a man’s unspooling after a corporate layoff, as he tumbles through conspiracy, disillusionment, and institutional decay. It’s a dark satire about modern identity.
Malevolent Negation isn’t a horror novel, but a philosophical composition that evokes horror through its confrontation with futility, self-deception, and the quiet violence of existence.
Each book takes a different shape, but the thread is constant: discomfort, honesty, and quiet ruin.
In addition to his fiction, DiCristofano is an accomplished Japanese swordsmith known by the name Sukemitsu. He trained under a master smith recognized as a Mukei Bunkazai (Important Intangible Cultural Asset of Japan).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 15, 2025
Really good. I enjoyed this one. Different.
October 17, 2025
Way better than I expected. Dark, sharp, and dead-on.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews