My short novel We Who Hunt Alexanders will be published on July 22 by Apex Book Company. This is one of the most personal and timely stories I’ve ever written. The novella tells the story of Amelia, a type of monster who feeds exclusively on violent people. But where most monsters like Amelia feel only anger, she experiences every emotion just like the humans she hunts. Can this neurodivergent monster survive a hateful world while saving her family and friends?
We Who Hunt Alexanders is currently available for pre-order.
Here’s what people are saying about the novella:
"Sanford has written a wonderfully paradoxical story: horrific yet sweet, subtle yet blunt, rageful yet loving, historical and—unfortunately—all too timely. I came away both disturbed and comforted, and I very much enjoyed it."
—Jim Hines, author of the Magic ex Libris series
"We Who Hunt Alexanders is a fast-paced novella interlaced with mystery, exploring rage, violence, and the abuse of power while unpacking new truths and unravelling the previously known. It is a bloody yet comforting story about learning to love and trust after being taught to harden against the cruelty of the world and the difficulty of solving problems if you can't reach the rotten roots, and only trim its branches."
—Ai Jiang, Nebula and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Linghun
"By turns dark and deeply touching, We Who Hunt Alexanders is a tightly crafted rumination on fanaticism, monstrousness, and the power of community in a hostile world. With a fascinating new monster, a delightful supporting cast, and some epically bloody comeuppance, this is not one to miss."
—Samantha Mills, author of The Wings Upon Her Back
"If you could rid the world of evil by eating it—by literally becoming the hell that will torture the blackguards you consume—would you? Jason Sanford's We Who Hunt Alexanders puts this very moral quandary before us, in a grisly, action-packed tale of murder, loyalty, and more zugzwangs. By testing the human heart under the most unimaginably difficult circumstances, Sanford delivers a frightening, cathartic meditation on just how far we'd go for the ones we love—even when we aren't sure what love even is."
—Carlos Hernandez, author of Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe
"Jason Sanford ain't playing with y'all anymore. We Who Hunt Alexanders lives at the intersection of cyberpunk and horror. Edginess and timeliness; blood and desperation; love and terror all woven like a rogue literary DNA strand. Sharp, relentless, achingly beautiful. Like the times we live in, We Who Hunt Alexanders is a harrowing tale infused with the kind of humanity that refuses to be erased."
—Maurice Broaddus, author of Unfadeable and Pimp My Airship
"Amelia, the protagonist of this remarkable novella by Jason Sanford, is at once adorable and arcane, and her experiences are both deeply relatable and utterly terrifying. What I loved the most was that underneath everything, this is a story of friendship, in all its myriad forms: from the mysterious sisterhood of the rippers to the individual friendships between characters that aren't coaxed into becoming 'something more.' It's also a story about families, both biological and found. Unexpected pockets of tenderness are folded into every scene of this book about ancient man-eating monsters with entirely too many teeth."
—Mimi Mondal, author of His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light