The University of Shadows

Abstract

Linnea Brae is a university adjunct with a miserable life and an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Intrigued by strange messages appearing on the whiteboards and the disappearance of one of her students (Jay), she stumbles upon the University of Shadows, a parallel-world university which exists in the same space as the one in this world but which only functions at night. Everyone in the University of Shadows (students, professors, and administrators) have received an invitation because there is something each of them needs to learn which is only possible within the confines of this alternative world. Since Linnea did not receive an invitation, the administrators are not prepared for her arrival. Despite that, Linnea is named Head Librarian, a post for which she would have been called if the previous librarian had not died unexpectedly. As Linnea takes her new post in the Imaginary Library, the books start to disappear. Simultaneously, there are attempts on Linnea’s life. Tricked into using the Room of Dreams, Linnea unknowingly unleashes a half-human creature, an actant, that starts to stalk and attack other campus inhabitants. Linnea needs to find out who is trying to kill her, why the books are disappearing from the library, and why she failed to receive an invitation to be part of this intriguing world. The novel deals with themes of rationality versus imagination, and technology versus mysticism, as the main character seeks to establish the reasons for her being there and understand the changes in her life brought up by this new place.