March 30, 2023
Horror DNA recently posted their review of Lyndsey Croal’s novelette, Have You Decided on Your Question. They gave the book four stars, saying…
“Instantly immersive…”
– Ai Jiang, author of Linghun
If you could live your life over again, what would you ask to change?
Something big?
Something small?
A single moment?
Have you decided on your question?
Zoe has.
Tired of feeling alone and lost, Zoe seeks out an experimental virtual therapy experience from Alternative Reality Tech, which offers patients the opportunity to explore life’s biggest “what if?” questions.
During her first assessment, Zoe glimpses a past in which she would have met the love of her life years ago, if not for a split-second decision. Wanting to explore what could have been, she returns regularly to her alternative life, slowly falling in love with the one that got away.
And so begins a dangerous obsession…
“Lyndsey’s work flows with an insistent, dreamlike adrenaline that pulls you through… as though you’re in a simulation yourself. It is a downward spiral that becomes tighter and tighter wound by the second, until there is a sudden release… This story is instantly immersive—an addiction in itself.”
– Ai Jiang, author of Linghun
“An unnerving, shiver-inducing tale about the dangerous and addictive pursuit of exploring the ‘what ifs’ of our life. Lyndsey Croal’s imaginative story brings a sinister and alarming edge to our everyday daydreams, creating a believable world of accessible artificial stimulation that damages our version of reality.”
– Chloe Timms, author of The Seawomen
“Have You Decided on Your Question takes a clever premise and spins it into a taut narrative of regret, loneliness, and obsession. Croal delves into the darker sides of love in this delightfully tense little story and you’ll be turning the pages until the very end. I read it all in one sitting.”
– Nicholas Binge, author of Ascension
Lyndsey Croal is a Scottish author of strange and speculative fiction, with work published or forthcoming in over eighty magazines and anthologies, including Apex Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, and PseudoPod. She’s a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardee, British Fantasy Award Finalist, former Hawthornden Fellow, and a Ladies of Horror Fiction Writers Grant Recipient.
She has two titles with Shortwave Publishing: “Have You Decided on Your Question” (April 2023), a science fiction novelette, and Limelight (Sept 2024), a dark science fiction collection. She also has a number of other longer projects in the works, often at the intersection of science fiction and horror.
