THE AWFUL SHADOW is a restless memoir of tragedy, perseverance, personal restoration, and the unveiling of one public university’s ugly underbelly. Told through shifting, often colorful and humorous narrative styles and allusions to gothic fantasy video game elements, the author recounts a five-year odyssey through the death of his daughter, a dysfunctional workplace, a prolonged lawsuit settled out of court, crumbled relationships, a near death experience, spiritual transformation, music composition, and more.

At the heart of THE AWFUL SHADOW is a slick, university-style textbook called ACADEMIA CULPA that teaches specific administrative transgressions, woven from legal discovery, personal accounts, interviews, open records, and graphical data.

THE AWFUL SHADOW concludes with a near-death experience, an outpouring of renegade prayers, and a new, sober view of a world anxiously grappling with its own transformation.