The Once and Future Me by Melissa Pace

Dark Matter meets Girl, Interrupted with a feminist twist in this gripping psychological thriller perfect for fans of dystopian fiction, time travel, and shows like Black Mirror and Russian Doll.

When a woman wakes up on a transport bus arriving at Hanover State Psychiatric Hospital, she remembers nothing of her life up to that moment, none of the dark things she's seen—and done—that have forged her into the steely survivor she is. Dr. Sherman tells her she's Dorothy Frasier, a paranoid schizophrenic committed by the state for her violent delusions. And that it's 1954. She knows none of this is true.

The only problem is, despite her fighting skills and uncanny ability to pick locks and find escape routes, she has no idea who she actually is. Delusional episodes begin to happen more frequently, moments where she finds herself in a broken future with a ragtag team of young scientists urging her to find a doctor in 1954. Apparently, this doctor holds the key to something lying dormant in them all, something they call the Guest.

When she's moved to the Unit, a section of the hospital where Dr. Sherman experiments with electroshock therapy, she knows that she has to get out—until she has a visitor. He's a man whose concerned, loving face she recognizes, a man her doctor says is Paul Frasier, her doting husband. Now she is sure of nothing but she needs answers—about the Guest and about Paul, but most importantly about herself.

But to find those answers, she will have to face the darkness inside her and use it as she risks her freedom, mind, and ultimately her life in a battle for the truth—provided by publisher.

• Hardcover
• ISBN: 9781250358677
• 384 pages
• Published by Macmillan
• Published on August 19, 2025