Phoning Faust by Sophie Mutiara Nova

Description

Phoning Faust
by Sophie Mutiara Nova
Paperback | ISBN: 1648908934

A wrong number becomes a conversation with the Devil in this sharp, surreal, and darkly funny queer reimagining of Faust for the digital age.

Dian Faust is lonely, overwhelmed, and one bad night away from falling apart. A queer mixed Indonesian college student struggling beneath the weight of isolation and depression, Dian reaches for the suicide hotline only to mistype the number. One accidental slip of the finger. Three sixes entered in a row.

Someone answers.

The voice on the other end belongs to “Memphis,” an oddly charming scam caller stranded in a grimy bus stop bathroom and strangely eager to keep talking. What begins as an awkward accidental conversation slowly transforms into something far more unsettling as Memphis reveals an unnerving fascination with Dian’s life, fears, desires, and despair.

Because Memphis is not human.

Behind the glowing pixels of Dian’s laptop and the shadows of her apartment lurks Mephistopheles, Hell’s silver-tongued manipulator and master storyteller. Clever, charismatic, and terrifyingly perceptive, the Devil has arrived with a simple goal: claim Dian’s soul before she can reclaim herself.

Blending psychological horror, queer coming-of-age fiction, internet-age alienation, and mythic retelling, Phoning Faust reimagines Goethe’s classic through the lens of modern loneliness, digital intimacy, and emotional survival. Sophie Mutiara Nova crafts a haunting and darkly witty novel where scam calls become seductions, technology becomes haunted space, and despair itself becomes fertile ground for temptation.

Atmospheric, emotionally raw, and richly inventive, Phoning Faust is perfect for readers who love queer horror, literary dark fantasy, internet gothic fiction, and contemporary retellings infused with psychological depth and supernatural menace.