DanWarner

Strange stories.  ·  Debut novel for pre-order

Wither — a novel by Dan Warner. Book cover.

Wither

A Novel

Bloomsbury Publishing  ·  September 2026
Hardcover  ·  Ebook  ·  Preorder now

Before he went off the grid, Mick had a plan: get a high-powered job, find a girlfriend, and leave his past behind.

Then he met Regression. A black-box technology that builds a person's perfect digital twin. Every piece of data. Every secret. Every mistake. The greatest invention since fire. And Mick gets to test it out in a remote Ozark town.

A year later, Mick is clawing his way out of the woods, haunted by the act of violence that sent him into hiding. But when he gets back to Bloom, Missouri, he finds a ghost town with cars still in the driveways and cans in the cupboards, like everyone just walked away. Mick will leave, too, as soon as he finds his girlfriend, Alison, finds redemption, and finds Regression before it finds him first.

For readers of Jeff VanderMeer and Paul Tremblay, Wither is a propulsive, darkly funny horror about technology, privacy, and humanity in transition.

Author photo of Dan Warner
Photo by Jackie Kinealy

Dan Warner is a writer from St. Louis, Missouri, where he lives with his wife and kids. He is also a filmmaker, small-business owner, and builder of slightly crooked wooden things. His name comes from a phrase in English that means "one who warns Dans."