On this episode of STORIES OF THE CROSSROADS, we interview Kassidy Van Gundy after reading two of her short story collections. These two books are a part of her CURSED IMAGES series; a series designed to bring back nostalgia of different eras and explore themes centered around technology or pulp culture references.

This is PART 1 of our interview with her. Come back for part 2!

On this episode of The Stories of the Crossroads, the dream spirits shake things up! The Raven has read Beneath the Silent Stars by Miranda L, but Kylfu has not. It is up to The Raven alone to explain the themes of this starry romantasy.

BENEATH THE SILENT STARS BY MIRANDA L

• They want her captured. Or dead. But Astraia was never meant to bow.

• Astraia has spent her life running—from her past, from her bond to an ancient power, and from the choices that left her hollow. Marked by the constellations, she is feared as a weapon, hunted as a threat, and haunted by everything she could not save.

  Now, as villages burn and shadows rise in the northern reaches of Virellia, Astraia is forced to confront more than just the monsters tearing through the realm—she must face the ones still buried inside her. When a mission leads her to cross paths with a hunter who sees through her walls, Astraia is torn between the steel she’s built around her heart and the unraveling truth that vulnerability might be her greatest strength.

  But some things are not so easily buried.

  
  

In this episode, The Raven and Kylfu discuss the book FORESYTH CONSERVATORY by A.L. Sterling.

This episode contains spoilers, as we discuss detailed themes of the book and what they mean. The podcast's style is more book report or literary analysis than review.

Please follow us on Instagram (@storiesofthecrossroads) and the author, A.L. Sterling (@a.l.sterling) and spread the word of this new podcast!

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

Dahlia Blackburne is a failing bookstore owner and fake Tarot reader who relies on deduction—not magic—to cast her fortunes. So when a stranger calling himself the Meister offers triple her rate for a reading after closing, she can't afford to say no.

But the Meister has a far more dangerous proposition: infiltrate Foresyth Conservatory, an elite occult arts graduate school, and investigate the alleged suicide of brilliant but troubled student and puzzle maker, Julian Earhardt.

Desperate to care for her ailing mother after her father’s recent passing, Dahlia agrees to investigate Julian’s death. Inside Foresyth’s candlelit halls and ivy-choked towers, Dahlia finds the school’s ruthless academic Circle which include the alluring “Trees” Sequoia and Aspen who strive to create magickal art that threatens to transcend life itself. What Dahlia doesn’t know is that the other students are there to pay off their own form of debts, and her father’s history is more intertwined with the seductive currents of Foresyth than Dahlia could have imagined.

As the line between performance and passion blurs, Dahlia must confront the truth about Julian, the Conservatory, and the most dangerous form of magic—the kind that isn’t taught but inherited.

The cards at Foresyth have already been dealt. Now, all Dahlia has to do is play her hand . . . or be consumed by the game.