About Elektra Voltare: Blessed with Awful:
“On the day of my baptism, I killed my father…”
So begins the story of Elektra Voltare, a teenager raised in a monastery, bred for an environment of mass extinction, wracked with guilt over having caused the death of her parents, and separated from a world her mutant power would disrupt into chaos. Caught between the ruling powers who would dissect her, harvest her power, and use her DNA to create a bioweapon and those who would use her powers to disable all electronic weapons and tools, Elektra must resist the temptation to bring on an even darker future…
Elektra Voltare: Blessed with Awful is the first book in the Edgy Catholic Dystopian Series, a series featuring first-person narratives of characters with superhuman abilities. These characters are hunted for their abilities by a sinister regime and sheltered by what remains of the traditional Catholic Church. The Elektra Voltare story will play out over the first three volumes, Blessed with Awful, Eve of the Memes, and Instrument of God.
Elektra Voltare is written as a series of episodes rather then constructed as a more conventional novel. The episodic structure allows for more character insights as the narrator reflects and places each episode into greater context. The structure is a blend of a conventional novel and a television series. That said, the episodes drive forward along a single greater story line as the story and character arcs play out over the three books.
What are people saying about Elektra Voltare?
Here are some quotes from readers:
“…a compelling protagonist and shades of 1984 and X-Men.”
“…the worldbuilding was fantastic.”
“The detail of the future and how the world got there was scarily plausible!”
“The writing is really phenominal…almost poetic.”
Check it out, today!
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Author Bio:
Welcome to the edgy worlds of Joseph Cillo, Jr.
Joseph Cillo, Jr. writes edgy fiction in a variety of genres. Whether it’s a supernatural thriller like his graphic novel, ‘Blind Prophet’ or a comedy like the 2019 Illumination Book Award Bronze Medal winner, ‘Merry Friggin’ Christmas: An Edgy Christmas Comedy’, his work features unexpected plot twists, unique characters, and the highest of stakes.
The added dimension of the supernatural infuses his work with stakes that go beyond life and death, and into the eternal. There is a basic, Catholic moral viewpoint behind his work that gives a solid foundation to what might otherwise be seen as purely fantastical. The reading experience can at times be unnerving, as the reader is drawn to consider whether the mystical nature of his tales is nearer to reality than the plainly material experiences of life. The eternal consequences of choices made by characters and spiritual dimensions of actions made clearly visible are mindbending and thought-provoking.
Joseph Cillo, Jr. classifies his writing as “Edgy Catholic Fiction.” Edgy Catholic Fiction is generally written for adult audiences, at minimum teens and up. The grouping crosses genres and includes a perspective that is generally consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church, which may include rather dramatic supernatural elements, as in “The Exorcist,” or other less dramatic religious elements, which could be as simple as characters relying on prayer. The religious elements may not be overt and could well lie only in the author’s general perspective or a character’s perspective that there is a God, and a moral, immutable foundation to the universe.
For more information, please check out www.edgycatholic.com
Examples of Edgy Catholic literature lie strewn throughout genres which no one has grouped together. Literary masters such as Graham Greene, Flannery O’Connor, J.R.R. Tolkien, and even, C.S. Lewis, who though not Catholic, was consistent with the Catholic perspective in his fiction, wrote works that fall into the Edgy Catholic domain. Dean Koontz, whose supernatural and suspense thrillers are written from a Catholic perspective and are quite edgy, is a more contemporary example of an Edgy Catholic author.
Joseph Cillo, Jr. is the fourth of seven children, born within a year of his older sister in a most unplanned and yet welcome way. Having the great blessings of a loving family, however, did not prevent his drift into a sort of foolhardy extended adolescence for many years, broken only by suffering and illness, in a rather miraculous fashion. He now lives a life of quiet prayer and diligent work.