J.M. Northup

J.M. Northup writes American books across dystopian fiction, poetry, and books for younger readers. A Ripple of Fear belongs to the Fears of Dakota series and supplies the prehistory for Fears of Darkness. Goodreads identifies Northup as its author and dates the work to 2014, and describes a society destabilized by public anxiety as Dakota’s family and relationships approach a national crisis. Babelcube independently credits Northup and describes A Ripple of Fear as survivalist drama set amid a destabilizing national crisis. That publication order makes the book a prequel in story terms even though it was developed later. Northup uses Dakota’s close relationships to give large social changes an immediate human scale. A Ripple of Fear therefore serves both as an entry into the Fears of Dakota world and as a bridge that explains how its characters reached the conditions seen in Fears of Darkness.