"James Kennedy is the author of the horror thriller Bride of the Tornado, which the Guardian named one of the ""Best Recent Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Novels"" in September 2023. James's previous books include the sci-fi novel Dare to Know, which was named by the Times Saturday Review as a Best Sci-Fi Book of 2021, and the young adult fantasy The Order of Odd-Fish. In addition, James is the founder of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival, an annual video contest in which kid filmmakers create short movies that tell the entire stories of Newbery-winning books in about 90 seconds. He also hosts the Secrets of Story podcast with Matt Bird. James lives in Chicago."
September 2021 Indie Next Pick [An] enjoyable slipstream thriller....Readers with a taste for the synchronicity of the cosmic with the commonplace are sure to be entertained. -Publishers Weekly A razor-smart sci-fi corporate noir nightmare. Dare to Know is what happens when Willy Loman sees through the Matrix. A heartbreaking, time-bending, galactic mindbender delivered in the mordantly funny clip of a doomed antihero. -Daniel Kraus, co-author of The Shape of Water Philip K. Dick energy infusing Death of a Salesman emotional timbre....I loved it. -Kieron Gillen, author of The Wicked + The Divine and Once & Future Imagine Rod Serling hijacking Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross into The Twilight Zone, and you've got a glimmer of James Kennedy's doom-laden, genre-defying novel Dare to Know. A fresh and morbid twist...Kennedy spins a slow-burn nightmare in which something is clearly coming apart at the seams, but is it our self-cursed narrator or the whole of existence? -Stephen Segal, author of Geek Wisdom Time shifting from present to past, and possibly the future, Kennedy seamlessly integrates philosophy, first love, Beatles music, jaw-dropping science fiction and the four stages of civilization, and turns it all into a fast-paced, existential, mind-expanding thriller-a thoroughly enjoyable read. -Paul Dinh-McCrillis for Shelf Awareness Dare to Know is something of a mind-twister reminiscent of Philip K. Dick. -SF2 Concatenation