Reviews

"Teri Ames's second novel, From A Single Seed, offers an almost frighteningly realistic story of a young, naive, and rather hapless college student, Keenan, accused of killing his girlfriend Shannon. The story is deftly told from multiple perspectives, with every character so fully fleshed out and every scene so detailed that you get the sense that something like this not only could happen, but has happened. It's a novel worth reading twice: first just to enjoy the ride (which is fast-paced, exciting, and suspenseful) and then again to grapple with the social problems Ames lays bare. In the manner of one of the 19th century Social Realist novelists (Dickens, Gaskell, or Collins) who both entertain and edify, Ames is acutely concerned with profound social issues. In particular, From A Single Seed exposes the deeply flawed contemporary criminal justice system and (as the title metaphor indicates) the ways in which social media can function as an invasive species, quickly multiplying a story until the truth is first perverted and then, ultimately, lost entirely...." --Antonia Losano, Professor of English and American Literatures, Middlebury College