The Found Object Society, a New Tale From the Crypt

Debut author Michelle Maryk, gives us an inside look into her thoughts as she wrote her mind-bending debut novel, THE FOUND OBJECT SOCIETY, released by Hyperion (February 2026).

THE FOUND OBJECT SOCIETY is an atmospheric speculative suspense novel focused on a self-destructive woman determined to uncover its secrets. The mysterious society offers its members the chance to relive the death of another person. Her curiosity becomes an obsession that could lead to her own demise.

The ambitious, genre-bending debut is perfect for fans of time-travel ﬁction including Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library and Gareth Brown’s The Book of Doors. Edgar Award nominee Vera Kurian called Mayrak’s debut, “Like classic Tales from the Crypt,” the 1989 classic horror movie. Michelle smiles and attributes her talent for dark stories to her dad introduced her to horror movies and graveyards at age eight. “It’s in my DNA,” she quips.

Chatting about the book’s development with Authorlink® Editor Doris Booth, the author shares how quickly she was able to write the story, why she chose to write the tale in present tense, and how she and her agent, Victoria Marini pitched the unusual story to publishers who hopefully might see the work become a movie some day.

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The book focuses on Greta Davenport who has lived for twenty years with the guilt of surviving the accident that killed her parents. She’s tested the limits of her own mortality ever since, but little gives her the dopamine rush she craves. Not until the night she almost drunkenly crashes her car into a tree, and a peculiar blank card slides under her front door—an invitation to the Found Object Society. What she discovers there is beyond comprehension: an opulent, subterranean playground filled with aisles of objects from different eras and regions of the world. Pick an object and go on a voyage to relive the final moments of the person who died holding it, along with an unparalleled high. Greta’s hooked, but she can’t quiet her questions about the society and its enigmatic creators, the answers to which have implications far beyond her growing dependence on the voyages. Death is addictive, and what she uncovers will put her entire life into question.