And He Shall Appear

By: Kate Van Der Borgh

Narrated by: Elliot Fitzpatrick

From a mesmerizing new literary voice comes a story of obsessive friendship, chilling powers, and untimely death for fans of dark academia classics like If We Were Villains and The Secret History.

An unnamed narrator arrives at Cambridge University in the early aughts determined to reinvent himself. His northern accent marks him as an outsider, but thanks to his musical gifts, he manages to fall in with his wealthy classmate, Bryn Cavendish.

A charismatic party host and talented magician, Bryn enthralls the narrator. But something seems to happen to those who challenge or simply irk Bryn—and they aren’t ever the same again.

The narrator begins to suspect that Bryn may be concealing terrifying gifts under the guise of magic tricks. As the tension between them grows, a harrowing encounter is followed by Bryn’s death.

Alternating between their time as students and the narrator’s return to Cambridge years later, where he fears the ghosts of his past are waiting for him, And He Shall Appear performs an astounding slight-of-hand that throws every version of the story into question.

This propulsive novel about the dark power of privilege will haunt listeners like a familiar piece of music with endless iterations.

©2024 Kate Van Der Borgh (P)2024 Dreamscape Media

Far too long…

The audio performance itself was just fine. The story itself waxed philosophical unnecessarily, added interesting bits at points but drowned in academia at others. The main character didn’t have much of an arc or tell a new story..poor kid with a traumatic background had a parasocial relationship with the rich and popular student—spends his existence obsessing and panicking.