American Shadows

Obsession, Conspiracy, and Inherited Guilt

By: R. Morningstar

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Three dark tales of American obsession, conspiracy, and inherited guilt—where Hawthorne's timeless themes collide with contemporary crises.

In The Perfectionist, cosmetic surgeon Spencer Vale loves his model wife Emersyn—loves her so much he can't stop seeing flaws. What begins with removing a simple birthmark spirals into an obsessive pursuit of physical perfection that reveals the dangerous mathematics of beauty, where every improvement only exposes new imperfections, and love becomes indistinguishable from control.

Gallows Hill Road returns to Salem, where Hepzibah Pyncheon inherits more than just a Victorian mansion with seven gables. Beneath her family's centuries of prosperity lies a foundation built on stolen land and judicial murder. When documents surface proving her ancestor's crimes during the witch trials, she faces a choice: protect her family's legacy or finally give the victims' descendants the justice—and property—they've been owed for over three hundred years.

In Digital Salem, historical researcher Graham Brown stumbles onto an online network that seems to include everyone he knows—his wife, his pastor, his neighbors—all discussing how to manage his community without public knowledge. As he's drawn deeper into what appears to be a vast coordination network, Graham must confront an impossible question: Is he discovering a shadow government, or is he the last person to understand how American democracy actually functions?
From toxic perfectionism to ancestral crimes to the conspiracies we half-believe, these contemporary reimaginings of Hawthorne's classic tales explore the peculiarly American tension between individual freedom and social control, between the democracy we profess and the systems that actually govern our lives.

American Shadows: Where the past never stays buried and perfection is the deadliest poison.