The Unseen

By: Mike Clelland

Narrated by: Jay Myers

Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Mike Clelland, author of The Messengers, has written a fast-paced paranormal thriller. The story taps into real-life experience from his extensive research into the mythic role of the owl, synchronicities, and supernatural contact.

A disillusioned artist embarks on a haunted journey into the wilderness. His odyssey culminates in a lonely town, full of mystery and secrets. He is confronted by ghosts from the past, and premonitions of the future, and he struggles to understand his destiny in the face of questions without answers. There is a story beneath the story, filled with hope, longing, and the quest for profound connection. Spiraling twists, psychic spies, and mind-bending adventure will keep listener to the edge of reality and beyond.

©2023 Mike Clelland (P)2024 Mike Clelland

Critic reviews

Mike Clelland has clearly been holding out on us in waiting until now to produce his first—spectacular—work of fiction. The Unseen is riveting from beginning to end. Gripping storytelling, emotional nuance, and metaphysical mystery sweep the reader away on a tide of synchronicity, intuition, and high strangeness. Clelland masterfully paints the core emotional reality of being an experiencer: the rawness, the vulnerability, and the ever-ambiguous connection to truth. This is a work of fiction that could only be written by someone who deeply knows the reality of the phenomena. It’s destined to be a classic. —Sharon Hewitt Rawlette, PhD, Author of The Source and Significance of Coincidences

Mike Clelland’s new fiction book Unseen is a whole mood. There is a story beneath the story here, filled with longing and mystery and the hope of profound connection. It all remains tantalizingly beyond reach, leaving behind a strange sensation that’s somehow both familiar and foreign. This book is unsettling and sad, beautiful and redemptive. It has stayed with me. —Robin Lassiter, author of Earth: A Love Story

When one reads this book, a startling possibility emerges: that unexplained phenomena eagerly find refuge in the margins of fiction, where their existence is suspended between fact and fantasy. The Unseen may be from Mike Clelland’s head, but it isn’t in his head. It is a lived reality that every experiencer and student of the paranormal will find as authentic as any true tale. —Joshua Cutchin, author of The Ecology of Souls

I loved the mood of it

I was anticipating the audiobook release and was excited to listen. I could have listened in one sitting, if I had the time to do so. I enjoyed it a lot. I found myself googling flights to Utah and New Mexico. The book seemed “cinematic” in a good way.

I thought that the story balanced a lot of things well. Real life is stranger than fiction, and it would have been easy to overdo paranormal aspects. It threaded that needle nicely, in my opinion. It made me think about how many movies, books, etc. start with a writer legitimately wanting to explore some mysterious aspect of the world, but end up adding to the pile of common tropes or by turning the weirdness up to 11. I don’t think that this story does that, really. That being said, I think that small Mothman references didn’t totally fit. (The word “Mothman” isn’t used.)

Positives:
• The story’s pace is interesting. It made small things of life seem more interesting, but without meandering.
• I enjoyed the timeless aspects of it, and that characters didn’t reveal too much about themselves. I don’t think that the town is named, but I might be wrong.
• The mood/atmosphere was intriguing, but also distinctly calming. I know it’s a thriller, but it was chill, in a good way.

Negatives:
• I didn’t love the performance of the female voices. It’s not bad, necessarily, just my opinion.

A Spellbinding Journey Into the Unknown

Get ready for an adventure full of mystery, the strange, and a hauntingly beautiful desert landscape. Mike weaves a hypnotic spell with his almost poetic journey into the dark unknown. The narrator pushes you over the brink with his soothing performance. It will get its claws under your skin and not let you go until the moment the story ends. That's when you'll sit in silence and pray for a sequel. I've already read the book myself once, and knowing what curve balls are headed my way does nothing lessen the majesty of the story when listening to it in audio format. It's been over a decade since I last reread (or relistened) to a book I've read in the past. Mike's "The Unseen" was definitely worth the second round.

Amazing conclusion - D R E A M S

Overly Descriptive canyon land (for three chapters) stalls out the narrative flow.
Excessive use of I said, she said dialogue.

Otherwise I highly recommend this audiobook

Outstanding AF story

The barred owl freaked me out since I have a nesting pair in my backyard…

This book held a certain synchronicity for me with the owls.

A riveting story

it's not the novel you think you're in - and in the best ways. strong recommend.