My Two Cents (Book Review): THE FOVEA EXPERIMENTS by M.J. Mars

Have you ever closed your eyes and noticed strange shapes and colored globs that seem to float through the darkness? Did you ever stop to wonder what these things really are, or why we're still able to "see" them, despite our eyes being shut?

This strange phenomenon is at the center of M.J. Mars's upcoming release, The Fovea Experiments, available July 4, 2025 from Wicked House Publishing. In it, a group of students volunteer to take part in research exploring "phosphenes," or the perception of light even when no outside source is present. The study focuses on the fovea in particular, a center point inside the eye, where vision is sharpest, and its relationship to phosphenes. Sounds innocent enough, and easy money for a handful of college friends looking for some quick cash and credit for a homework assignment. Within a week of participating, however, the students begin to die one by one, each in mysterious and gruesome ways, their bodies found with their faces mutilated, with their eyes torn out, jaws wrenched apart and broken.

Only one manages to escape unscathed: a young man named Josh who, in the ensuing decades that follow, lives under a heavy shroud of suspicion that he was involved somehow in the deaths of his friends. Now an adult, he's moved to another town to escape the unbearable stigma, and built a quiet life for himself as a high school teacher. He drinks too much, self-medicating against the guilt, shame, and horror of his past, but has tried to move on as best he can, at least until one of his students, a plucky teen named Nala, digs up the proverbial dirt on both the experiment and his involvement. When she broadcasts her findings on social media, Josh is once again thrust into a spotlight of suspicion, and when he discovers the enigmatic Dr. Ellis, who had conducted the original study, is enlisting new volunteers for a repeat of the same research that cost his friends their lives, he has to decide whether or not to face the truth, and his past, or lose everything -- and everyone -- he holds dear.

This is unsettling, disturbing, and scary as hell. Mars won the inaugural Books of Horror Short Smack competition for her wonderfully wicked short story collection, We've Already Gone Too Far, so there's no question she's a skilled storyteller, drawing her reader into her narrative web, building layer upon layer of tension and dread with every page. The truth behind Dr. Ellis's research is far darker than Josh or the reader can imagine, but it's worth tucking into The Fovea Experiments to find out. But be forewarned: You may never dare to close your eyes again...

Preorder The Fovea Experiments by M.J. Mars here.