Blog Archives
Before Becoming the Villain
In The Bleed-Through Effect, a convicted man and his estranged savant wife navigate parallel realities manipulated by a shadowy, government-backed organization. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The events in the first book in the series, Periphery, and the magnetic pull of the villain, combined to make the perfect set-up for the complex, thrilling ride in The Bleed-Through Effect. I was really inspired to dive not just into the morality of accessing alternate selves in the multiverse, but also take a deep psychological look at the driving forces and motivations of each character. The ultimate question in The Bleed-Through Effect is how far can you go to save the one you love….before becoming the villain?
What is the most challenging aspect of writing a series?
The first book in the series, Periphery, had a romance-driven plot, with the speculative elements only making their debut toward the last quarter of the book. With The Bleed-Through Effect, the speculative elements take center stage alongside the romance, in addition to being written in muti-POV and spanning two separate realities. The characters are deeply fleshed out, which was important in order to develop a seamless plotline that spanned two books, multi-POV, and two realities, all while keeping the reader invested in all the intricate moving parts. I’m delighted to learn, through early reviews, that readers feel really emotionally invested in the character arcs and storyline!
What inspired Jared and Charlotte’s traits and dialogue?
The Bleed-Through Effect is a profoundly character-driven plot. Jared and Charlotte and Simon are deeply layered characters, and despite whether they’re “good” or “bad” there’s relatability in each character. I wanted the reader to be both fascinated and afraid of how each person is one circumstance away from becoming the villain. Each character falls on an extreme somewhere, and it’s those extremes that propel the plotline and keep the reader engaged in what’s going to happen next.
Can fans look forward to a third installment in the Periphery series? Where will it take readers?
At this point, the Periphery series is set to be a two-book series only. My next release is a standalone contemporary military romance, forthcoming in 2026.
Author Links: GoodReads | X | Facebook | Website | Instagram
In a dual timeline between the main reality and the Periphery, Charlotte and Simon must confront the blurred lines between strength and weakness, love and loyalty, and their past and future.
As they struggle to regain control over their lives, a catastrophic secret is revealed, a vengeful lover on a quest for power closes in, and Charlotte must figure out a way forward…even when the past refuses to let go.
The Bleed-Through Effect
The Bleed-Through Effect, by AA Dasilva, is a psychological sci-fi thriller that dives headfirst into the concept of parallel realities, trauma, and manipulation. At its heart are Jared, a convicted man with a mind engineered for revenge and dominance, and Charlotte, his estranged wife with a savant-like gift rooted in a head injury. Their fates remain twisted together across alternate realities, manipulated by a shadowy government-backed organization called Quantym. Through its dual narratives set in “Reality 1” and “Reality 2: On the Periphery,” the story weaves a suspenseful and often unnerving look at identity, memory, and control, with time travel and consciousness jumping driving the plot.
Jared is magnetic in the worst way: terrifying, cold, and obsessive. His presence has a pull that makes you sick and fascinated at the same time. Charlotte, on the other hand, is caught between trauma and rebirth. Her pain feels honest, her resistance hard-won, and her journey into healing, especially with Simon, is tender without becoming sappy. The writing is punchy and emotional, shifting smoothly between the brutal and the intimate. Characters bleed, cry, shatter, love, and rage with sharp detail. That said, the book can be emotionally heavy, especially with Jared’s manipulative cruelty and the twisted power games that unfold.
I do feel that the pacing slowed under the weight of explanation in some areas of plot. The science, while clever and well thought out, gets a little thick at times. When the characters speak about memory retention, parallel jump logistics, or bleed-through phenomena, it’s like being dropped into a quantum physics lecture. Still, it’s minor when you’re hanging off the edge of your seat during the intense scenes. The best parts are when the emotional stakes meet the speculative sci-fi. Moments where love, betrayal, memory, and pain collide in these chilling and cinematic flashes.
The Bleed-Through Effect is the gripping sequel to Periphery, picking up where Charlotte’s fractured world left off. If you’ve read Periphery, this follow-up feels like a descent into deeper, darker waters. And if you haven’t, you’ll still be able to follow the story, but you’ll miss some of the emotional weight. This book is best suited for readers who love high-stakes science fiction layered with trauma, passion, and moral gray zones. It’s intense. It’s clever. It doesn’t flinch. And for those who like their thrillers to feel both cerebral and personal, this one hits hard in all the right places.
Pages: 356 | ISBN : 978-1509261956
LITERARY TITAN 