Kids say the darndest things, but usually their words don’t make their parents fatally ill.
That’s the premise of Ben Marcus’s new post-apocalyptic novel, The Flame Alphabet. The sound of children’s speech suddenly turns lethal and moms and dads everywhere are falling prey. Parents everywhere flee their kids to seek safety, but Sam and Claire can’t bring themselves to abandon their daughter Esther.
Artist Erin Cosgrove created the chilling, atmospheric short film above to serve as a preview to the book. It captures the strangeness of the novel’s premise and the psychological horror that the story’s parents face when communication with their offspring becomes poisonous.
As a parent of a kindergartener who is quickly mastering the art of talking back, it’s oddly comforting to know that there could be worse things coming out of his mouth.
The Flame Alphabet is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
