Memories are malleable, dreams are a battlefield, and reality is a shifting landscape. Think Inception meets Dark Matter , with echoes of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the unsettling corporate dystopia of Severance . You can’t always trust your dreams. But what if you can’t trust your waking life either? Fifteen years after her mother’s mysterious death, Piper “Pip” Screed discovers The Reverie Cloud, a sleep-therapy program merging dreams with augmented reality. When the system is hijacked, her mind becomes a battlefield, her buried memories the ultimate prize. Trapped in a collapsing virtual dreamscape, Pip must navigate its mercurial layers, confront the specters of her past, and outmaneuver those who seek to weaponize her subconscious—before she’s erased entirely. A mind-bending fusion of cerebral suspense and haunting surrealism, OPPOSITE WORLD explores the vanishing point between perception and reality—and how the aching tremor of human longing may pull us even further from both. FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing Independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more about Flame Tree Press at www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress. "Martins has fun meticulously unpeeling the onion layers of Pip’s mind and showing how truth and trust can be malleable concepts. Opposite World reads rather like a course of psychotherapy with SF trappings, its narrative given impetus not so much by storytelling drive but by the protagonist’s desire, relatable and common to many, to understand herself better and heal the mental and emotional fissures left by her past." -- Financial Times "This is a gripping, inventive and very human tech thriller." -- SFX Magazine “An articulate near-future Black Mirror-style take on loss and memory in a high the thriller package." -- Concatenation "This is a story of trust, and a brilliant, unique journey into the vulnerabilities and insecurities of the self." -- British Fantasy Society “Imaginative, sophisticated, and full of suspense.” -- Dr. Alice Violett, historian & book critic “Thought-provoking…perfect for fans of mind-bending sci-fi like Inception.” -- Readworthy on BookBub "Opposite World opens as a mysterious coming-of-age story but charts off-course to explore states of the human mind. The real and the virtual blend into an inescapable, claustrophobic nightmare. This story proffers a cautionary tale about the lures and dangers of the surreal world, and the level of control over our lives that we relinquish to technology. For fans of cutting-edge psychological terror replete with cultural fears." -- Aurealis Elizabeth Anne Martins is a Philadelphia-based writer who studied English and Publishing at Rosemont College. Her writing often explores resilience, identity, and survival, blending speculative elements with deeply human stories. Her debut novel, Dry Lands , is a post-apocalyptic story of motherhood and survival set in a world reshaped by water. The book was named a 2024 Great Group Reads pick by the Women’s National Book Association and has resonated with readers who connect with its themes of hope and endurance. When she’s not writing, Elizabeth can usually be found at the piano, composing something new or playing a duet with her son and husband. Music, like storytelling, is her way of making sense of the world—one note or word at a time.