LOVE AND OTHER CONSPIRACIES
Mallory Marlowe
Berkley Trade Paperback
on sale August 20, 2024
About the Book
The hardest thing for a paranormal conspiracy theorist and a web series producer to believe in is finding love in this swoony debut romantic comedy.
Hallie Barrett’s life has imploded after she’s dumped by her hotshot ex, who also happens to be her coworker and the star of the online series she was producing. Without a new show to present for the company competition, she’ll be out of a job. But inspiration can come from the strangest places . . . like the most handsome guy she’s ever seen passionately discussing Bigfoot on a late-night docuseries.
Hayden Hargrove made a name for himself as a cryptid expert on his hit podcast, and is intrigued by the plucky, blue-haired producer who offers him the opportunity to lead his own web show. When the production team sees that Hayden’s solo on-screen presence is bad enough to make a ghost blanch, Hallie jumps on camera too, hitting him (and his cryptids) with a healthy dose of skepticism—and enough chemistry to electrify their show to the top of the competition.
As Hayden and Hallie investigate the unknown, they unearth feelings for each other that shake their beliefs to the core. In their search for Mothman, aliens, and the truth, the most elusive discovery might just be learning to love again.
I bumble out of Chloe’s office in a haze, my brain operating like a too fast hamster wheel. I hadn’t even thought over accepting Chloe’s offer. I just did it. Now, I have to follow through.
The Brain-Hamster has been flung off the wheel by the time I return to my desk. I sink behind my monitor.
“You good?” Nora asks. She flashes me a thumbs up, then a thumbs down.
I provide her with a so-so. “I’m good, but I need a show idea.”
That’s when I realize I didn’t grab my pen from the floor in Chloe’s office. Dammit. I liked that pen.
“A show idea?” she yelps. “Really?”
“Yes. By Friday—”
Nora immediately deflates. “Well… shit.”
“I’ll figure it out,” I say, but I am not convinced. I don’t know where to start.
“You know what we should do?”
“What?”
“We should get high and watch Agent Cody Banks. Frankie Muniz really brings out my creativity.”
We do get high and watch Agent Cody Banks. A few hours and a half a bottle of five-dollar wine later, when Nora has gone to bed, I am deep in internet hell.
I listened to podcasts, I watched vlogs, I hunted Instagram for charismatic influencers. I only broke for our brief movie. I feel like I’ve consumed every bit of media under the sun; yet, I still haven’t made a dent in my ever-growing list of TV show recommendations.
I slurp a chopstick full of noodles into my mouth as the alcohol hits me suddenly. The clock on my computer flashes two a.m. I’ll feel this in the morning, though I don’t have time for a hangover. I slip my headphones out of my ears and notice the TV in front of me has descended into late night madness. I’m an hour away from the impending infomercials for discreet adult diapers.
I zero in on the screen as the show returns from a commercial break.
Cosmic Conspiracies.
Yep, I’ve hit the middle-of-the-night trash TV. Animated planets whirl across the screen and large-headed aliens bobble forward like unsteady bowling pins.
“Reports of apelike creatures have been reported on nearly every continent on Earth,” says an overdramatic narrator. “From the Himalayan Yeti to the Florida Skunk Ape, and most famous of all beasts — Bigfoot — cultures across the world tell stories of something they can’t explain lurking in the woods…”
Oh, Jesus.
“In ancient drawings, you’ll find large, hairy creatures intermingled with humans.” The show cuts to a portly British man. “If you look at the footprints, they aren’t so different from ours. Could we be closer to Bigfoot than we think? Could Bigfoot even be an extraterrestrial from another planet?”
“What the fuck,” I mutter into my ramen. Yet, at the same time, I suddenly understand how people religiously watch shows like this. I feel no urge to change the channel. Bigfoot is not real, and neither are aliens, but I have to know how they’re going to justify this.
Then a man far too hot to be offering any opinion on Bigfoot appears on screen. He’s young, probably late twenties with shaggy, dark hair falling in front of his face, a sharp, stubble-coated jawline, and a square pair of black glasses. His bright green eyes are ablaze with excitement and an analytical seriousness that can’t be feigned.
“When we think about Bigfoot,” he begins, in the smoothest, sexiest voice I’ve ever heard. It’s a clear baritone, simultaneously soothing and commanding. The man is full of dramatic hand gestures to help him paint a picture. “We think about a flesh and blood creature not so different from ourselves. When we think of aliens, we think of Greys or little green men. Those are vastly different visuals. But the idea that Bigfoot could have come from somewhere else, or that he’s not native to this world, raises the question. If we share genetic links with Bigfoot as we do apes, what does that make us?”
Noodles drop out of my mouth. I choke on a bean sprout. The most handsome man I’ve ever seen has just publicly proposed that Bigfoot is an alien and that, de facto, we were aliens as well. And I am fucking enthralled. I rewind the clip to the man’s name and title on screen.
Hayden Hargrove
Host, The Out There
Excerpted from Love and Other Conspiracies by Mallory Marlowe Copyright © 2024 by Mallory Marlowe. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
MALLORY MARLOWE is an author and video game writer living in Los Angeles, California. She’s been seriously right-brained since childhood, and her love of telling stories began with highly elaborate plots for her Barbie dolls and taking elementary school writing projects too seriously. She studied Writing for Film and Television at Emerson College. When she isn’t writing, she’s likely reading, stuck in LA traffic, or has fallen down a weird internet rabbit hole. Love and Other Conspiracies is her debut novel. Learn more online at www.mallorymarlowe.com.
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