Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Hexum, Natalie Satakovski

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

HEXUM is a psychological suspense novel about two house flippers who get in over their heads when trying to restore an allegedly haunted pub.

The story follows Australian YouTubers Laura Russo and Katherine Liu as they move to a remote but soon-to-be-revived historic town to restore the Hexum Hotel. While Katherine’s out, Laura finds a skeleton in the cellar, and to prevent project delays, she secretly buries it in the bush. But this isn’t quite the easy fix she was hoping for. Instead, she becomes paranoid about a murderer on the loose, growing increasingly unhinged.

When project problems turn deadly, …

Dolores' Last Will And Testament, Victoria Calderin

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to analyze the intersectionality of points of view among generations of Cuban immigrants in Miami through the lens of fiction. In it, Carmen Velez, a Cuban American Construction Manager, faces a divorce and financial ruin which force her to return to the life she fled from in Miami. After her mother, Dolores, dies, Carmen must execute her estate. Following a dangerous whirlwind trip to Cuba, meeting her estranged father, and encountering the shadows of her mother’s former life as a revolutionary, Carmen comes to more deeply understand her family, and by extension, herself. Despite her loses, she …

Human Error, Avery Werther

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

HUMAN ERROR is a science-fiction novel set in a future in which, to save the planet from environmental degradation, humans have been eradicated and replaced by “Syntho-sapiens.” These synthetic humans are engineered in labs to be not only physically superior to their evolutionary predecessors, but also equal in every way to each other. However, from the moment Cal-12 opens his eyes, he is different. He not only has heterochromia, a mutation of the eye color, but also a strong need for connection that his emotionless peers seem to lack. This need intensifies when he discovers a human woman named Thalia, …

The Death Of Superman, Shane F. Mcfarlane

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN is an autobiographical novel that covers the years from 7 to 17 in the life of Shane McFarlane, who struggles to overcome the effects of his inner-city environment and an addict father in and out of incarceration. The title is a metaphor for the decaying presence of the narrator’s father in his and his older brother’s life and the resulting consequences of that absence.

With the narrator’s father in prison, new threats emerge, including his mother’s ruthless boyfriend and his brother’s attraction to the allure of fast money. The narrator must ultimately make decisions governed by …

The Mango Snores, Michael S. Garcia

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

THE MANGO SNORES

by

Michael S. Garcia

Florida International University, 2021

Miami, Florida

Professor John Dufresne, Major Professor

Set in Miami at the start of the twenty-first century, THE MANGO SNORES is a seriocomic crime novel chronicling a week in the life of Sam Espada, Cuban-American writing professor and author of the Mango series of detective fiction. Reeling from the sudden dissolution of his marriage and the abject failure of his latest book, Sam finds himself embroiled in a plot right out of one of his novels when his newest pupil, private investigator Leonard Cobb, is …

Shadows Of The Morning Twilight, Philip A. Lapadula

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Shadows of the Morning Twilight is a collection of seven short stories and one novella about men who, facing transitions in their lives and in society, grapple with issues of sexual identity, residency, past traumas, and corruption. In the noir-influenced title novella, Nick Esposito, a mid-1970s journalism student, faces dangerous choices when he reports on the sale of a gay bar that is covertly owned by the mafia. Some characters see themselves as trapped. In “Final Score,” a former football player struggling with dementia finds a reason to live when he mentors a young gay man. In “Psyched,” “Phantoms of …

The Hard Way, David J. Sangiao-Parga

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Hard Way is a fiction thriller set in small-town West Virginia in 1997. It tells the story of a group of independent professional wrestlers who are waylaid in Chimney Corner while on their way to a big show in Richmond, Virginia. The group have a fight with a couple of local meth dealers at a diner in the middle of night. Other wrestlers come looking for them the next day. What happens after is a brutal fight for survival, as the wrestlers use all their skills to overcome a threat they were never prepared for.

Narrated in the third …

Nightworld, Susan Renee Falco

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nightworld is a collection of short and flash fiction pieces exploring cycles of violence and redemption. Variations in the length and style are meant to create a formally experimental continuation of the Southern Gothic tradition. Mythic heroes from Robert Johnson to Shirley Temple populate this fictional landscape of musicians, acrobats, reverends, stray children, and wild animals. Predatory wildlife reflects on the inherent violence in biology. The title story follows a pair of musicians on a night when a near fatal overdose fails to provide a catalyst for change. In Nightworld, the characters choose the myth of the Self Destructive …

Embrace The Moon, Natalie J. Havlina

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

EMBRACE THE MOON is a collection of six stories that explore how people respond when faced with the impossible. A young woman welcomes a visit from her recently-deceased grandfather in the title story, while the narrator of “A Unicorn in Paris” dismisses the magical creature as a side effect of heartbreak. Like the dark power in Truman Capote’s “Master Misery,” the reality of the ghost and the unicorn remains ambiguous. In other stories, the uncanny is dangerously real, as in Karen Russell’s Vampires in the Lemon Grove. “The Norban Birds of the Count Bartello-Sauvigny” feast on the women they charm …

Enforcer Blues, Jessica Borsi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The science fiction novel ENFORCER BLUES follows cyborg and mob enforcer Gregory Rikard as he becomes involved with a conspiracy on Mars.

Ex-soldier and cyborg Gregory Rikard and his partner Platina work unwillingly for a crime syndicate until a charismatic stranger offers them the chance to rebel in the hope of claiming a better life. But when Rikard steals a dangerous prototype for the rebellion, he’ll be forced to choose between his own interests, the future of Mars, and a single innocent life.

Like Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, ENFORCER BLUES explores the relationship between …

The Dancing Policeman And Other Stories, Satyaki Kanjilal

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Dancing Policeman and Other Stories, a collection of short stories set in India and the United States, looks at ordinary people facing challenges in societies undergoing economic and social change.

Some have historical settings. In “Faithful Naren,” a young man learns the complex political realities of British rule in early 20^th century Natihati, West Bengal, while in the same town in the 1960s, a teenager deals with injustice in “Sabotage.”

Others take place in a present where past practices persist. "Shit Gibbon" centers on a store clerk driven to gambling rather than sacrifice his son's future. In “Road …

Mandala Springs, Juleen Collins

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS MANDALA SPRINGS by Juleen Collins Florida International University, 2018 Miami, Florida Professor Debra Dean, Major Professor MANDALA SPRINGS is the small town setting for a story that explores the nature of secrets, lies, revelations, and the damage each can cause. The narrative follows Bodhi MacLachlan, a young woman who struggles with Borderline Personality Disorder, back to the psychiatric hospital where she has resided in-patient multiple times. The long-term association with her psychiatrist becomes complicated when she reveals details of her affair with a secretive man. Meanwhile, she becomes obsessed with uncovering the mysteries of the relationship …

The Greatest Is Love, Leslie Charles Taylor

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

THE GREATEST IS LOVE is a collection of ten short stories showing the painful manifestations of romantic relationships in the lives of contemporary American characters from many walks of life.

As in the stories of D.H. Lawrence, these characters are often driven towards what may be bad for them, finding that love overrides their rational thoughts. In “The Mechanic” a woman whose legal career has left her isolated becomes irresistibly attracted to her friend’s ex-husband. Three stories center on one character, Charles, whose early failures both in college and at work lead him to become a detective, only to be …

This Terrible Silence, Jeff Bonar

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This Terrible Silence is a collection of nineteen stand-alone stories. The work largely focuses on characters on the fringe of society—alcoholics, gamblers, thieves, liars, cheaters, and loners, who feel trapped or destined to repeat their troubles. In the struggle to break free, either by self-fulfillment or outside interference, these stories showcase the characters’ hearts and wills in the face of often daunting or insurmountable desperation.

The stories in this collection are influenced by the work of Raymond Carver, and the Dirty Realism of Larry Brown, Breece DJ Pancake, Jayne Anne Phillips, and others. With minimal exposition, the characters are laid …

Family Medicine, Jaimie Eubanks

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The novel FAMILY MEDICINE follows three married women as they struggle to define themselves in Foley, South Dakota, a small town where privacy is nearly impossible.

Marcy Morrow, a queen bee, in a vulnerable moment reveals misgivings about her second pregnancy to Bridget Cunningham, the wife of Dr. Herb Cunningham and his office manager at the town’s only medical practice. Bridget's offer of off-the-books help begins a chain of secrecy into which Dr. Maka Smith, the practice’s other physician, is reluctantly pulled. Meanwhile Marcy and Bridget’s husbands run for mayor, forcing the women to reexamine their lives, ambitions, and the …

Existential Bebop, Brett Kaplan

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

EXISTENTIAL BEBOP is a collection of thirteen short stories that use humor and satire to address some of the absurdities of human existence.

In some stories, characters are forced to come to terms with mortality, such as the six-year-old boy in “A Goldfish Memory,” who learns about death for the first time. In “Cassandra Knows All” a rational twenty-something is lured by a charlatan who convinces her that there is an afterlife. In others, the comedy centers on human frailties, such as “Weekend in Deceit,” where two couples confront infidelity. “The Sacrifice of Mikey Horowitz” explores family values, ancient and …

Desperate Times Call, Hector Duarte Jr

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

DESPERATE TIMES CALL is a collection of short stories and a novella about people whose lives intersect with violence. The young girl in Of Course She Would is forced to leave her home after finding her meth-addicted father dead of a heart attack. Tomas Mangual, the main character of She Said Two, sets off on a blind date to discover his counterpart has recently been the victim of a disturbing hate crime. The featured novella, Diablo Corrido, raises the question: How far would someone chase their ambition to see a life-long dream come true?

Using the intimate perspectives of …

The Last Cold Winter, Gabriela P. Suarez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Last Cold Winter is a historical novel that takes place in Romania at the end of the 1989 Communist Revolution. George Bird, a naturalized American citizen, returns with his thirty-year-old son, Adrian, to the country they had defected from twenty-eight-years earlier. George Bird is dying of lung cancer, and he wishes to see his parents and his country one last time. The trip quickly turns into a nightmare when he is kidnapped the first day back. Adrian, who doesn’t speak Romanian, must now meet the kidnapper’s demand for a list he knows nothing about in order to save his …

Back To Bluefield, Mary F. Slebodnik

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

BACK TO BLUEFIELD is a collection of ten short stories set in the fictional small town of Bluefield, Ohio. Like “Dance of the Happy Shades” by Alice Munro, BACK TO BLUEFIELD highlights patriarchal limitations women often face in rural communities. In “This Little Light of Mine,” a teenage girl attempts to escape the sexual abuse inflicted on her by her father, while in “Praise Camp,” a youth pastor counsels a teenager to repress homosexual feelings, yet cannot bury her own unrequited love for her female best friend. In the spirit of Hemingway’s “The End of Something,” each story contain a …

Desert Palms, Carolyn D. Pledge-Amaral

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

DESERT PALMS is a contemporary women’s novel set in an Arizona RV park. When Miamians Margie Campos and her husband, Carlos, unexpectantly inherit Desert Palms, a rundown retirement community, Margie reluctantly agrees to stay in Arizona to overhaul the park. With the discovery of a secret letter that threatens to unravel the family, an unscrupulous broker determined to buy the park on the cheap, and a husband bent on hitting it big, Margie digs in and starts to find purpose amidst a desert microcosm.

Told from Margie’s perspective in a closely attached third person, DESERT PALMS is a realistic and …

Fragile Saints, Mary-Claire Ibarra

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

FRAGILE SAINTS is a magical realist novel set in contemporary Peru. Elsa is struggling with her recent divorce and childhood memories of her family’s silk-producing farm haunt her, so when Elsa’s dying grandmother requests to see her, she visits Peru. There, Elsa learns she has inherited a country house, near the old family hacienda, which is haunted by a dark secret. Elsa is intrigued with the house, its caretakers, and her new lover Gustavo, yet she encounters disturbing ghostly visitors.

The novel is written primarily from Elsa’s point of view, as she discovers her purpose, but an omniscient narrator is …

A Single Regret, Jason Ehlen

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A SINGLE REGRET is a murder mystery set on the post Hurricane Sandy Jersey shore.

At thirteen, Jimmy Miller killed his father in retribution for murdering his mother. Twenty years later, he returns home because of the murder of his childhood best friend, Dillon Abernathy. Jimmy learns that Gavin, a classmate turned junkie, is charged with murdering Dillon, a scenario Jimmy doesn’t find plausible, so he decides to pursue leads the police won’t.

Told in first person past tense, A SINGLE REGRET follows Jimmy as he unearths the secrets behind his friend’s death and also learns the truth behind the …

Easy Hearts: A Novel, Andrew J. Olsen

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Easy Hearts is a novel set in contemporary Texas. Justin Borchard, just paroled after three and-a-half years in prison, returns to his hometown in East Texas where his wife, Melinda, has been tending bar at the Shortleaf Inn. After Melinda confesses to a brief affair with a local oil executive named Waylon Goodwin, an affair she has ended, and facing limited prospects in their hometown, Melinda and Justin make the hard choice to accept a proposition from Waylon: they will leave home for Hearts County, a desolate swatch of hardpan in the Permian Basin of West Texas, where Waylon has …

Calle Panadero, Giselda Aguiar

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This collection of nine short stories follows Adelia Villalobos and Isidoro Belmonte, two Cuban Americans solving crimes in present-day South Florida. The former best friends have grown apart during college, but when Adelia is drawn into a murder case, the outcome leads Isidoro to return home and the pair to found the unlicensed detective agency, Calle Panadero (Spanish for Baker Street). Their cases explore the underside of many facets of the community, including bigamy, fraud, and criminal organizations. Along the way, they deal with love, death, and family obligations, and arrive at a new understanding of how their destinies are …

A Body Outside The Kremlin, James L. May

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A BODY OUTSIDE THE KREMLIN is a historical mystery novel set in the Northern Camps of Special Significance, a Soviet Russian penal institution based in the Solovetsky Archipelago during the 1920s. The protagonist, working first with the camp authorities, then in spite of their disapproval, solves the murder of a fellow prisoner. In the process he improves his position within the camp, while also becoming hardened to the brutal necessities of camp life. Prior to the establishment of the penal camp, the Solovetsky Archipelago was the site of an important Russian Orthodox monastery, and the mystery proves to involve valuables, …

Market Value, Christine Morando

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

MARKET VALUE is a collection of stories about people in Southwest Florida struggling to make sense of their lives when faced with shifting economic realities.

The characters in the collection reevaluate their relationships and uncover secrets, forced to navigate a new American landscape of stalled opportunities and uncertain futures. In “Call the Storage King,” Walt assumes that his girlfriend has total faith in their relationship, but accidentally discovers evidence to the contrary. In “Luxury Living,” a resident of a mostly-empty riverfront condo gives a guided tour to a prospective buyer, revealing the building’s short but sordid history along the way. …

Out Of View: Stories, Justin Bendell

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

OUT OF VIEW is a collection of stories set in the American Southwest about people coping with loss—the death of parents, children, ideals, innocence.

The characters in this collection reap or resist lessons of life as they struggle to find their place in the world. In “First Rain,” 15-year-old Tessie struggles with the loss of her father and the demands of her mother as she navigates the rocky terrain of adolescence. In “Monsters,” middle-aged Maury has to choose between a new relationship and protecting the well-being of his 4-year-old ‘daughter.’ The stories are influenced by the Western realism of Maile …

The Saints Of Banias, Jennifer Maritza Mccauley

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

THE SAINTS OF BANIAS is a novel set in a fictional slavetown during the Reconstruction Era. The work seeks to blend myth, magic, and history to create a world that is both believable and otherworldly. The novel follows Beah, an ex-slave girl travelling to the town of Banias in hopes of finding her mother; Prophet Moon, an itinerant vision-seer who offers to help Beah with her goal; and the founder of the town, Claude Banias, who struggles to protect Banias from bloodthirsty radicals. As the characters’ lives intertwine, they face more challenges and secrets.

THE SAINTS OF BANIAS is loosely …

Haiti, 1965 - A Novel, Fabienne Sylvia Josaphat

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

HAITI, 1965 is a historical novel set in Haiti where a struggling taxi driver, Raymond L’Eveillé, struggles to provide for his family under the rule of the infamous dictator François Duvalier Sr.

Raymond’s brother Nicolas, a professor and attorney, lives a more luxurious lifestyle, and both brothers are at odds over finances. When Nicolas decides to write a book about the crimes committed by the government, the inevitable happens. The brutal Tonton Macoutes militia raid his home and find notes that are as evidence enough to send him to Haiti's most notorious gulag of the era, Fort Dimanche, It will …

The Lines We Crossed, Jane Deon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

THE LINES WE CROSSED is a historical novel set in Umbria, Italy from 1943-1944. One October morning, Emilia Testadura awakes to find the Nazis have arrived in her village. Major Christoph Strauss presses Emilia into service as housekeeper for the soldiers who now occupy an abandoned palazzo in the village. As the stakes and complications rise in the war throughout winter and spring, so they do for Emilia. Brutal reinforcements arrive and conditions become very dangerous. Emilia realizes she is falling in love with Major Strauss. She learns secrets that change her view of her deceased father and herself. That …