One's A Crowd

For Beverly Kane, a birthday cake is a graveyard of wishes, and a sensory overload is a paranormal event.

In 1984, while the rest of Merry Hills makes up the 'teenage wildlife' described by David Bowie, Beverly is forced to choreograph every word and movement just to fit in. Synesthetic in an environment she finds loud and foreign, she has learned to fragment herself into a 'crowd' of voices to survive-turning the ordinary into something extraordinary, and often overwhelming.

Alongside an intruder who soon becomes her sanctuary, she is determined to decipher the concept of the human as a 'group of one.' Together, they build an analog haven through magnetic tapes and walkie-talkies, bound by a private language; however, the secrets shared over the radio frequency have a blind spot. When a subtle yet invasive interference begins seeping into their transmissions, threatening the intimacy of their refuge, her fragile ecosystem wavers-forcing her to discover whether that internal crowd is her greatest flaw or the only force capable of holding her together when the noise becomes unbearable.

Whatever you do, just make sure to listen to both sides of the cassette.

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WATTYS 2024 FINALIST

English translation of my book «Uno es multitud», originally written and published on Wattpad in Spanish.

Book cover made by @ellewinterkress