New Novel Challenges Whitewashed US History through Disturbing Parallels of Social and Economic Oppression, Religious Zealotry and Women’s Rights

PR Zen

Published

September 19, 2022

From The Great Depression to The Golden Age and the Cultural Decade, Shelah Johnson’s new historical fiction novel, Perpetual Gloom, tenders facts hard to ignore as we keep repeating the worst things about ourselves as a society.

Sep. 19, 2022 / PRZen / PORTLAND, Ore. — Perpetual Gloom, the first book in The Boloney Trail Trilogy by Shelah Johnson, tells the remarkable true story of the Hornbeck family, who struggle to survive the Great Depression, only then to become key players in the birth of the feared Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel—a kind of Grapes of Wrath meets Breaking Bad story.

In Perpetual Gloom, looking backwards looks a lot like the future, with rhetoric from groups targeting various issues because they haven’t been able to control the narrative. Johnson notes, “For decades Americans had seen a growth in middle-class and the hate groups were pushed underground. Today the middle-class is shrinking along with affordable housing and stagnant wages, and we’re seeing an increase in hate groups targeting women’s rights, banning books, and celebrating unwarranted racial superiority all in the name of religion and nationalism.”

Readers and reviewers are devouring Perpetual Gloom, praising its boldness and unabashed authenticity:

“Weighty, insightful, a literal encounter in authenticity, Perpetual Gloom is aptly titled, not only for the darkness the time encapsulates, but the consistent undertones of despair and hopelessness shrouding the Hornbeck’s and others like them.”—Reader Views

“The visceral story and three-dimensional characters make this novel a thoroughly compelling and thought-provoking portrait of the past.”—Self-Publishing Review

Johnson has partnered with award-winning screenwriter and producer, J.R. Santana to bring The Boloney Trail Trilogy to the big screen.

About the Author

Shelah Johnson is the recipient of 9 awards from The Society for Technical Communication and is also a published photographer. She has produced and directed over 40 lifestyle broadcast segments focused on eco and small space living. She directed, produced, and is the co-creator of the documentary series, Where Small Business Grows. Shelah lives a life of voluntary simplicity, where she makes a mid-century modern Airstream her home on an island in the Pacific Northwest and enjoys kayaking and traveling across the country and around the world.

Perpetual Gloom (ISBN 978-1737700807, Independently Published, 2021) is available at online bookstores everywhere. The second and third books in the trilogy, Imaginary Gravity and Shattering Light will drop in Q1 23 and Q3 23.

For more information about Shelah Johnson and her work visit https://theboloneytrail.com/. Publicity contact: admin@readerviews.com.

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