**New Thriller Mortal Vengeance Explores The Deadly Cost of Silence

Barcelona, Spain Nov 17, 2025 (Issuewire.com) When elite students at Santo Domingos most prestigious Catholic school set out to expose their sadistic teacher, they didnt just uncover a monsterthey created one. Mortal Vengeance, the haunting debut novel by Dominican author Alejandro Torres De la Rocha, is a razor-sharp psychological thriller about complicity, cowardice, mental health, and the institutional silence that allows abuse to thrive.

Originally released on Amazon/Kindle in June 2025 (ebook, paperback, and hardcover), the novel now reaches a wider global audience with ebook availability on the Google Play Store, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo, beginning November 17.

To mark the expansion, the ebook is available at no cost across all platforms except Amazon through November 30 (with Barnes & Noble readers able to use promo code BNPMV4FREE).

The book has already become a BookRaid Best Seller in the thriller category and is currently on the SHORT LIST for the 2025 Dante Rossetti Book Awards for Young Adult Fiction.

A Story Decades in the Making
Mortal Vengeance began in 1999, when Torres De la Rocha was a frustrated 15-year-old who had just failed Spanish class. His parents didnt ban the computerthey took the phone cable, killing his dial-up connection. With no internet, no escape, and too many emotions he couldnt name, he turned to writing. Out of that anger and isolation, he says, I wrote the earliest version of this story. I didnt know it then, but writing was the only way I could process feelings I didnt yet understand.

Years later, he would learn that many of those emotional extremes were shaped by borderline personality disorder. Revisiting the manuscript as an adult allowed him to confront the systems, silences, and psychological patterns that shaped him.
The book still carries the skeleton of that early draft, but it has evolved into something deeper, darker, more Dominican, and far more psychologically honest.

A Pressure Cooker of Guilt and Consequences
Set in the suffocating halls of Excelsior Academy, an elite Catholic school in Santo Domingo, Mortal Vengeance follows a group of friends whose carefully planned revenge spirals into chaos. After a brutal prank goes wrong, their school becomes a crucible of guilt, fear, emotional volatility, and buried truths.

At the heart of the novel lies a question drawn from the authors twelve years in Jesuit school:
If you witness injustice and stay silent, how innocent are you?

No character is blameless.
No friendship is free of power.
And when authority goes unchecked, silence becomes a form of violence in itself.

Why It Resonates And What Sets It Apart
Readers of Elite, 13 Reasons Why, A Good Girls Guide to Murder, and I Know What You Did Last Summer will recognize the emotional tension, the secrets, and the spiraling moral descentbut Torres De la Rochas thriller distinguishes itself through:

A grounded exploration of borderline personality disorder
Fear of abandonment, identity instability, emotional dysregulation, and distorted perception shape key turning points and character choices.
A focus on institutional complicity, not just individual guilt
The story examines how silencerather than conspiracyprotects abusers.
A cast of morally gray characters
There are no heroes here. Only consequences.
A deeply Dominican setting
Power structures, social hierarchy, Catholic elitism, generational silence, and cultural pressure are embedded in every conflict.
A Dominican folkloric twist via the Grim Cojuelo
Inspired by the Diablo Cojuelo from Dominican carnival culture, Torres reinvents him as the Grim Cojuelo a chilling embodiment of guilt, fear, and the consequences that stalk the characters.

Early Recognition
Pulled me in from page one. What starts as an innocent pact spirals into guilt, paranoia, and a shadowy figure haunting every step.
Sivan Kish, Goodreads

A gripping exploration of betrayal and revenge complex, flawed characters made deeply relatable.
Giwa Fuad, Goodreads

As a bad guy, El Grim Cojuelo is terrifying De la Rocha has a poets voice and provides truly stunning imagery.
Reader Views

A fresh new voice sinister world with a Caribbean twist. Perfect for spooky season.
Sarah Osman, Reader Views

A Growing Universe
Mortal Vengeance marks the beginning of a planned slasher trilogy, each entry following the shifting dangers and survivors that emerge after every reckoning.
Running parallel to The Grim Saga is a canon series of prequels that expand the folklore and institutional rot haunting the main storyline.

Book 0, Mortal Vengeance: A Grim Tale, is set 18 months before the events of Book 1 and is currently serialized on Wattpad with weekly chapter releases. The final chapter is scheduled to arrive on January 1, 2026.

Read Mortal Vengeance: A Grim Tale (Wattpad)

Mortal Vengeance II is currently underway, with a sequel to A Grim Tale also planned.

Target Audience
Perfect for readers who loved:
One of Us Is Lying, A Good Girls Guide to Murder, Elite (Netflix), Control Z, 13 Reasons Why, The Secret History, Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Advance Review Copies & Interviews
Advance copies, press kits, sample chapters, and interview opportunities are available upon request.

Press Contact:
[email protected]

Links of Interest

Websites
Book Website: https://mortalvengeance.com
Author Website: https://aletorr.es

Social Media
Instagram: @mortalvengeance
Facebook: fb.com/mortalvengeance
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aletorres

Where to Buy?
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Google Play Store
Kobo