Austin Farmer's "The Phantom Circuit" is a gripping and inventive techno-thriller that delivers a rollercoaster ride of suspense, intrigue, and mind-bending twists. Set in a near-future world where virtual reality and artificial intelligence reign supreme, this novel immerses readers in a high-stakes adventure that challenges the boundaries of perception and reality.

At the heart of the story is protagonist Jake Winston, a brilliant hacker and VR enthusiast who finds himself thrust into a perilous conspiracy involving a clandestine organization known as the Phantom Circuit. When Jake stumbles upon a hidden VR simulation with the power to manipulate minds, he becomes embroiled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse, where nothing is as it seems.

Farmer's writing is fast-paced and immersive, drawing readers into a vividly imagined world where technology blurs the line between fantasy and reality. The narrative unfolds with a series of electrifying twists and turns, keeping readers guessing until the very end. What sets "The Phantom Circuit" apart is its thought-provoking exploration of the ethical implications of advanced technology, raising questions about the nature of identity, consciousness, and free will.

The characters are well-developed and relatable, each grappling with their own demons and motivations. Jake's journey is particularly compelling, as he navigates a labyrinth of deception and danger while confronting his own inner demons. The supporting cast adds depth and complexity to the story, with alliances shifting and secrets unraveling at every turn.

Overall, "The Phantom Circuit" is a captivating read that will appeal to fans of sci-fi thrillers and cyberpunk adventures alike. With its gripping plot, dynamic characters, and thought-provoking themes, it's a novel that will keep readers hooked from start to finish. Austin Farmer has crafted a mesmerizing tale that pushes the boundaries of imagination and leaves a lasting impression long after the final page is turned.

Definitely a horror/thriller to read! I love ghost stories and urban legends, I remember being scared of Bloody Mary and can relate to the girl's fear. Tangled with the death of her sister, this makes for an interesting, all-consuming read that is a must for any thriller fan.

Erica and her sister Dianne played Bloody Mary often as children. The result is that Bloody Mary would continue to haunt her by sending shadows after her. They want to send her to a void somewhere beyond the cosmos. Twenty eight Erica is a Lyft driver. She is run ragged driving for Lyft is underunemployed. She finds out that her sister now “international superstar” is dead. Erica will get a message from Dianne’s Facebook Messenger account. Erica think it’s a hacker. This event causes Erica to start a mystery that launches her from one plane to the next. She travels to a cybermirror realm that has Erica meet (the hacker but wasn’t a hacker) Macy who died on the Oregon Trail in the 1800’s. Bloody Mary is trapped there too. To save Macy and herself, she must dive into mirrors and face her memories of her sister and their childhood battles and Bloody Mary. Erica must finish her quest before Bloody Mary consumes them.

The novel includes time travel, an original mix of supernatural, drama and tech-driven anxieties. It’s a suspenseful, dramatic thriller novel that includes the supernatural. I liked how Erica works to save Macy and herself.

Disclaimer: I received an arc of this book from the author/publisher from Netgalley. I wasn’t obligated to write a favorable review or any review at all. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.

3.0 star rating. I enjoyed this story. The flow was smooth and the writing was tight, I finished the book in 9ne sitting. I was glued to the story and was invested in the story. I liked how it tackled social media and exposed it for the toxic environment it can be. I definitely advise that ppl read this book.

#THEPHANTOMCIRCUIT #NETGALLEY

Erica and her sister Dianne played Bloody Mary often as children. The result is that Bloody Mary would continue to haunt her by sending shadows after her. They want to send her to a void somewhere beyond the cosmos. Twenty eight Erica is a Lyft driver. She is run ragged driving for Lyft is underunemployed. She finds out that her sister now “international superstar” is dead. Erica will get a message from Dianne’s Facebook Messenger account. Erica think it’s a hacker. This event causes Erica to start a mystery that launches her from one plane to the next. She travels to a cybermirror realm that has Erica meet (the hacker but wasn’t a hacker) Macy who died on the Oregon Trail in the 1800’s. Bloody Mary is trapped there too. To save Macy and herself, she must dive into mirrors and face her memories of her sister and their childhood battles and Bloody Mary. Erica must finish her quest before Bloody Mary consumes them.

The novel includes time travel, an original mix of supernatural, drama and tech-driven anxieties. It’s a suspenseful, dramatic thriller novel that includes the supernatural. I liked how Erica works to save Macy and herself.

DNF at 40%. Though I think it's clever to add the Oregon Trail because of the computer game from the 90's, I didn't understand the character motivations. Why did Macy have stakes? Not for me.

This book was confusing. Let me break it down.
Characters: The main three characters were easy to understand. Everyone else I was massively confused about. Bloody Mary as a villain is such a cool character. I would've liked more lore about her.
Atmosphere: The idea of the mirror world is really cool, but everything kept changing all of the time, and I was confused.
Writing: The writing of this book made it very confusing.
Plot: The book ended very suddenly with main character saying sorry if she left us on read (a callback to earlier). This is a book where you have to focus to understand anything that's going on in it.
Intrigue: I was intrigued by Macy's story and Bloody Mary mostly.
Logic: I'm still confused by everything.
Enjoyment: The book was okay, but I think it could've been written better. This ended up with 3 stars.

I've been looking for more modern horror stories and this one was so fun! Combining a classic horror story with modern technology made this a great read for me. The psychological aspect really grabbed me and I was hooked from chapter 2.

An interesting take on the Bloody Mary myth, with the incorporation of current technology. Some parts I felt were draggy but the writing was somewhat enjoyable.

This a quite unique take on folklore tales and modern technology. I did like the concept of the book but the execution left me just…meh. I really liked the cover of this book!! It’s beautiful.

Since I am hungry for more horror incorporating technology and more modern tools into the story, I knew I had to check this one out.

It is also combining a classic horror story we all know, the legend of Bloody Mary, with a twist. This is a psychological horror story that was unfortunately too slow paced and confusing making it really hard to be engaged with a story that seemed to go on endless circles.

When it comes to the concept I did like to see the new approach to the Bloody Mary tale we all know. The twist is that our main character, instead of a mirror, uses a computer screen to communicate with the otherworld. It is a stream of consciousness narrative that deals with the questions of what happens when a loved one with a social media presence dies.

I read about 25% of The Phantom Circuit as an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) thanks to @NetGalley! Unfortunately I had to shelve this one under Did Not Finish (DNF). Three main things -- I didn't buy it, it was too much, and the #facts were just wrong.

I didn't buy it. The first-person narrative was written with omniscient third-person insight. Were we really to believe that a woman who talks to her mother on the phone about her job WOULDN'T call her mother upon hearing her sister died? She hears her sister died and then checks Google? No phone call TO her sister? To her mother? She just...buys it? I don't buy it. I don't buy that this 28-year-old calls mirrors "looking glasses" without being ironic. Using old-timey phrases would have been fine if the omniscient third-person tone required them to differentiate between the 28-year-old's frantic, Millennial tone, but this 28-year-old spoke in tones and words that I don't believe one would use in 2021. I'm assuming this was 2021, because the pandemic is referenced.

The pandemic, the Bloody Mary ghost/phantom/concept/being, the old-timey 1800's Macy, it was too much. I would have loved a book on a computer-based, technological phantom haunting people through their internet. That would have been very 2022-Black-Mirror-y. I would have loved a book about a vengeful 1800s pioneer/Oregon-Trail-traveling witch. I would have loved a book about mysterious circumstances surrounding a sister's death that must be solved through her social media. There were three entirely different book concepts SHOVED together in one attempt, and it was too much.

Also, and most frustratingly, the facts were wrong. I was getting too hung up with glaring inaccuracies. Some of the phrases didn't make sense. How is a horizon "like a cosmic, newborn nebula with memories shooting out like lightning, branching in tornadoes." What?! What does a newborn nebula look like? Does it shoot things like lightning? I don't think there's lightning in space because the atmosphere is different? And how do things "shoot like lightning" and simultaneously "branch in tornadoes?" Do tornadoes BRANCH?

Farmer was lazy with his language. Metaphors were recycled in confusing ways. Toward the beginning of the book, another metaphor described a car "scraping across the cement wall, sparks erupting in volcanic tornadoes." What are volcanic tornadoes?? Tornadoes that branch, but also erupt...but also, tornadoes do neither!

Most frustratingly were the lazy and just plain wrong #alternativefacts. Why would a girl from the 1800s have "no memory of her life" except know EXACTLY what a 21st Century girl needs to do to save her sister. Why would Macy care about Dianne? Also, California wasn't incorporated until 1850, so how would Macy's family be traveling "toward California" before the property was annexed from Mexico? As a California native, I was almost personally offended by this one.

Also, Macy's family was traveling the Oregon Trail, which notably passed ABOVE California to Oregon. Why would Macy say her family was traveling to California from the Oregon Trail...only to settle in San Diego?? Again, San Diego, at the southernmost point of California, wasn't incorporated until 1850. California didn't exist until then, and it certainly wasn't part of the Oregon Trail. Farmer insulted California natives with blatantly incorrect facts. Parts of the novel read like he regurgitated snippets he'd overhead at cocktail parties about "life in pioneer days." Rude.

I rated this book One Star because I don't foresee myself ever recommending it or picking it up again. There are three distinct ideas for different books, but even then, the writing made my stomach turn.

Try again.

This review was cross-posted on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4517638522

I requested this book because the cover art reminded me of stories I grew-up with; the myths of spooky ghosts & the scary stories we told at sleepovers. Unfortunately, I could not get through this book. I didn't appreciate the character dialogue as everyone seemed really immature & I couldn't get behind their thought process. I'm sure that some younger readers will really enjoy this type of story, especially with it's modern take. However, this was not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Austin Farmer for a free advanced copy of this book to read and review. When I read the short snippet of what the book was going to be about I thought it sounded interesting. I'm not sure that I would conisder this book a straight up "horror" book, it fell more into the "thriller" genre. Like I said I liked the premise, but unfortunately this book fell flat for me. I honestly considered DNFing it about half way through. I thought the story lines were a bit confusing and all over the place. I was having a hard time figuring out if we were in present time or if it was a flashback. I liked some of the storyline of Erica reliving important moments in her life with her sister. I really didn't like the Bloody Mary character, she seemed more alien that horror scary with all the talk of "ectoplasm." I probably wouldn't recommend this book to a friend.

I'm in two minds about The Phantom Circuit, on the one hand there were parts I really enjoyed and though omg this is so COOL, but then on the flipside I just found it a slog to read at points, and I really did consider DNFR. I think the big blocks of text didn't help and if the author had broken those up a bit more I absolutely would have found it much easier to read!

To brief you about the story... The Phantom Circuit is a modern day retelling of Bloody Mary, and instead of mirrors she uses ~other~ methods shall I say (don't want to give too much away!) and as someone who was obsessed with urban legends as a child/teenager this was definitely something I thought I would love.

It did frighten me a lil bit, as I am still (at 26 years old) deathly afraid of Bloody Mary and so I want applaud the author for bringing that fear back into the forefront of my life...

The idea of this book was incredible, the author had taken quite a traditional legend and injected something new to the story. However, it just wasn't executed in the best way.

Character wise they were kind of a focus of the book, but they also weren't - it was pretty mixed and therefore hard to form a real opinion on them. I get what the author was trying to do, and I can see how the characters could have been such an amazing part of the story, they just needed fleshing out a bit more so that we could form an attachment to them and then start to root for them.

And I don't think the delivery of the book helped with matters. The execution of the story is what lacked for me, it was all over the place and I felt like I was wading through treacle to read it. Some parts lacked relevance to the story and would have been better left out and as such would probably have helped with the flow of the story. I did enjoy the way the author had messages written from Dianne though, I found that really interesting and thought it worked well with the way Bloody Mary was appearing.

Overall, it definitely has potential! The premise is super cool and the idea of a modern touch on an old legend is interesting, it just needed some work on the execution of the story.

ALSO, a warning that it was going to discuss the pandemic would have been nice haha, I try and avoid that while I'm reading and it just suddenly got sprung on us!

Thank you for the opportunity to give this a read!

Unfortunately, I ended up DNFing this at around 75ish pages in. While the idea of this story is very intriguing, I felt as though I was constantly being told plot, instead of having it be shown and growing organically. I barely got to know the main characters before being thrown into the story, meaning I don't really care about what happens to them. The fact that I noticed and became increasingly annoyed with how many times the word "ectoplasm" got repeated on every other page also pulled me out of the story. Erica read as much, much younger than her supposed age of late 20s, and the letter-type entries where Erica and Macy first begin getting to know each other felt more like the author telling me the memories, than actual characters remembering, and the writing styles were interchangeable and thus hard to differentiate. I can definitely see how this book has its audience! Unfortunately, I am not in it.

Firstly, thank you to both Netgalley and Austin Farmer for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review!

Erica has just received the sudden news that her famous sister Dianne has died via social media, an unknown hacker contacting Erica via her sister's Facebook profile promises to fulfill Erica's final wish in seeing her sister one last time.

Growing up Erica and Dianne did what most curious kids in the 90's and 00's did, they innocently played the infamous mirror game "Bloody Mary", unbeknownst to them they accidentally summoned the spirit of Bloody Mary who lurks on the other side of the mirror throughout Erica and Dianne's life. As the two sisters grow up, they slowly drift apart due to mental health issues and Dianne's struggle with drug addiction and popstar fame, causing tension between the two.

After another night of Lyft and Uber driving to try and make ends meet, Erica receives the sudden news of her the death of Dianne. Erica wishes into the void that she could see her sister one more time, only to have her wish granted by a hacker contacting her via Dianne's Facebook account... However, the hacker is not a normal person, it claims to be the spirit of a young girl who died on the Oregon Trail many years before hand named Macy Abigayle and she needs Erica's help to escape from Bloody Mary's shadow void behind the mirrors...

I won't lie, at first I was very sceptical of this book based off of the other reviews on Goodreads but I was intrigued by the storyline and wanted to give it a go, I can definitely see why a few people have found the book to be confusing and hard to read, the storyline itself is easy to follow and the author's writing style is very descriptive but repetitive in some parts which can easily leave a reader confused, however if you're a fan of an emotional read that is in depth and really sets an atmospheric scene as Erica flashes between her shared memories with her sister Dianne, desperately trying to save her from the clutches of drug addiction.

Overall, I genuinely enjoyed "The Phantom Circuit" and I'm eager to read more from Austin Farmer in the future.

This review maybe it's not the best because I DNF this book at 75% since I wasn't understanding ANYTHING. So...Let's get into it.

The Phantom Circuit by Austin Farmer presents a story about grief, memories, sisterhood, depression, and loss. It shows in a very reflexive manner a complex story that intertwines three different hurt characters, technology, a reinvented bloody mary, and ¿the afterlife?
I mean, I didn't get what was going on, so bear with me, please.

First things first, the main premise of this book is this: Erica is a young woman with an unfulfilling life that had 0 contact with his beloved big sister since she became a star (and also an addict). Sadly, that relationship would never get on the good track again, because the news has reported the death of her sister.
Not knowing how to feel or what to do (she was ghosting her sister) she post on Facebook how much she would like to see her sister one more time.
What she was not expecting was her sister's account popping up, sending her a message.
What she suppose to be a hacker turns out to be Macy, a girl locked on the other side of the mirror by Bloody Mary.
She warns her, Mary is going for her and her sister's spirit and she may be the only one who can stop this evil spirit.

...Sounds kind of cool. I guess it was. The fact that the plot was so weird and fast and...I don't know...didn't help at all.
I didn't understand how exactly the bloody mary thing work. I would like to blame the fact that English is not my first language, but at the end of the day, I believe it wasn't well explained and developed. She was supposed to be this neutral being related with time and memories that eventually turn evil and do...¿things?
You see, this is problem number one: I don't even understand the worldbuilding and the main villain. I didn't get her story, nor the space where it was happening.

¿Macy character?¿Erica going through her memories and fighting Mary? Same story. What was happening? I DON'T KNOW

Yet there's something positive about it. I liked Dianne's chapters. Her perspective was enchanting. Easy to follow, full of pain for the lost relationship with her sister, the letter format recalling her memories...Chef kiss. Well done and captivating. The writing style shine on those pages.

"It’s just a game, Erica. Everyone knows that."

Austin Farmer’s debut novel is a richly atmospheric exploration of grief, adulthood, and sisterhood. It is set during the pandemic and kicks off with Erica, a young woman who lives from gig to gig driving for Lyft and Uber and any similar apps that will approve her. She is caught up in the middle of trying to figure out where the next paycheck is coming from in a world where everyone looks like they’ve got everything figured out, at least on social media. That’s when she learns she’s lost her sister, Dianne, who used to be her best friend. They haven’t talked properly in a long time, so how can Erica be getting messages from her now, seemingly from beyond the grave? And if the messages are being sent by a cruel hacker, how does the hacker know the name the sisters called three times in front of a mirror when they were children?

The urban legend of Bloody Mary is recognizable across many cultures, and in this novel it gets a clever technological twist. Two very recognizable things are efficiently welded together, and the supernatural element allows Farmer to explore the relationship between the sisters by showing us flashes and scenes from their past.

"What if all we had was this moment? What if the only thing that mattered was right now, before it goes away?"

Whether it’s a friend or a sibling, we can all relate to the experience of drifting apart from someone. But the memories we share with them are undeniable, and they can become a powerful currency that can make or break us.

The themes of isolation and feeling disconnected in an age of technology and social media are tackled really powerfully in the first part of the novel, which is particularly strong. Another great strength of the novel are the passages that detail moments from Erica’s and Dianne’s past, as well as the descriptions of Macy’s journey along the trail. There are moments in the book that read somewhat like a creepypasta or a reddit/nosleep story, but definitely like the better and more literary ones that end up as published short stories or novels. There are definitely places that recall recognizable elements from urban and folk horror alike.

One possible downside of the novel is that the descriptions may come across as a little repetitive, and so lose the more impatient readers or those who expect relentless, non-stop action. The rules of the world the characters inhabit could also be made just a little bit clearer. There are also very few sentences that could use another round of editing (which probably happened before the final version was released).

What could have worked really well in this kind of novel would have been bits visually designed as Facebook posts or Messenger messages, or at least graphically more separated from the rest of the text (maybe this has already been done in the final version, or the author simply didn’t want to go that way, which is also understandable). However, Farmer already manages to give the three first-person narrators three distinct voices, which is a huge success, especially with such an ambitious novel. The bond between the three women is strengthened by the subtle and not so subtle parallels and keywords that are skillfully planted across their narratives and very fun to spot. There is a delicate balance between keeping the three voices distinct and pointing out how they are connected, which is another strength to consider.

All in all, “The Phantom Circuit” is a praiseworthy effort and an enjoyable read that reflects (pun intended) many relatable themes and represents a satisfying whole.

The Phantom circuit by Austin Farmer.
After twenty-eight-year-old Lyft driver Erica Westfield learns her popstar sister is dead, the last thing she wants to deal with is a stupid hacker threatening to delete her sister’s Facebook profile. Let alone a hacker who brings up Bloody Mary.
A good read. Likeable story and characters. I did like the cover. It was different. 4*.