Possessions

For five years Edie has worked for the Elysian Society, a secretive organization that provides a very specialized service: its clients come to reconnect with their dead loved ones by channeling them through living “Bodies.” Edie is one such Body, perhaps the best of the team, renowned for her professionalism and discretion. But everything changes when Patrick, a distraught husband, comes to look for traces of his drowned wife in Edie. The more time that Edie spends as the glamorous, enigmatic Sylvia, the closer she comes to falling in love with Patrick, and the more mysterious the circumstances around Sylvia’s death appear. 
As Edie falls under Sylvia’s spell, she must discover not only the couple’s darkest secrets but also her own long-buried memories and desires—before it’s too late.

“A suspenseful debut novel that’s stylish and deliciously creepy.” — People
“A Gone Girl-esque twisty thriller about a woman who tries on dead people’s souls for size.” — Refinery 29, Lead Pick
“You’re delivered into an entirely compelling world with all the intoxicating imagination and white-knuckle plotting of high-Victorian sensation fiction...brilliantly dramatizing dizzying questions about selfhood and sympathy. The Possessions is a simmering gothic joy.” — Guardian
“Suspenseful...a beautifully rendered, haunting page-turner.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Lush, hair-raising.” — Cosmopolitan
“Murphy’s sublime debut is immersive from page one…. A complex novel that is both unforgettable and impossible to put down.” — Kiristine Huntley, Booklist, starred review
“This poignant tale is a study of grief and obsession…. Murphy’s imaginative debut is a haunting ghost story and a thrilling mystery that will engross readers until the final page.” — Portia Kapraun, Library Journal, starred review
“An addictive, slow-burning mystery that fuses classic noir with the intrigue of speculative fiction... Murphy ensures compulsive page-turning until the past and future of each character is unveiled, and the crescendo of that reveal is heady and satisfying.” — Amanda Trivett, BookPage
“The numerous mysteries that weave in and out of the main plot add a page-turning element to the book, and another ingredient to Murphy’s intriguing genre fusion.... The Possessions is difficult to classify but very easy to enjoy.” — Hank Stephenson, bookseller, Flyleaf Books, ShelfAwareness
“I was totally immersed in the strange, beautiful world of Sara Flannery Murphy’s The Possessions. A gripping, chilling read that’s part love story, part mystery, and completely original, it’s sensuous, scary, and utterly thrilling. I’ve never read anything quite like it.” — Anton DiSclafani, author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls
“The Possessions might be the most affecting, riveting novel about love and obsession I’ve read in a decade. Sara Flannery Murphy possesses the dystopian imagination of Margaret Atwood and the keen feminist incisiveness of Heidi Julavits, but the haunting, seductive prose is all her own. This is a literary ghost story for a whole new generation.” — Christopher Bollen, author of Orient
“An enthralling meditation on grief and memory cloaked in suspenseful psychodrama, The Possessions dissolves the boundaries of past and present and artfully, heartbreakingly maps the consequences of transgressive desire. Sara Flannery Murphy has written the best kind of ghost story.” — Robin Wasserman, author of Girls on Fire
“A literary descendant of the iconic novels Rebecca and Never Let Me Go, Sara Flannery Murphy’s haunting, auspicious debut explores the enduring nature of grief and guilt and the myriad ways the uses of the body can stave off the loneliness of the soul.” — Helen Schulman, author of This Beautiful Life
“Sara Flannery Murphy casts a spell as devilish and dazzling as the language she uses to cast it. Once you enter the erotically charged, psychologically gripping world of her debut novel, The Possessions, there is, truly, no going back or getting out.” — Kathryn Davis, author of Duplex: A Novel