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Guess the Plot

Canticle of Rot

1. Biodegradation is an important part of earth's environmental ecology. But when it leads to mutant zombie fungus engulfing the planet, it's up to one teenager to save us all. Think "Canticle for Lebowitz," but with recycled, composted themes, values, and media.

2. The planet is rotting from within, and only one person can save us: farm boy Alvin, and his magic gloves.

3. When the congregation turns in their hymnals to Hymn 666, they little suspect that singing it will open the door to hell and doom us all to servitude to Satan.

Original Version

I'm seeking representation for my first book CANTICLE OF ROT that came in at 83K words and is a adult cosmic horror fantasy in the vein of T. Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead and Christopher Buehlman’s The Blacktongue Thief, with the slow-building existential terror of Simon Jimenez’s The Spear Cuts Through Water. [TLDR. Here's a shorter sentence: CANTICLE OF ROT (83K words) is an adult horror fantasy with the slow-building terror of Simon Jimenez’s The Spear Cuts Through Water.] [Note that I left out the comp titles that your book is "in the vein of," which is almost as vague as saying My book, like The Blacktongue Thief, has words.] It is the first in a planned series with standalone arcs and character-centered storytelling. [If you put this stuff after the plot summary, when you've already hooked us, it won't matter that we haven't read any of these books.]

Reality doesn’t break cleanly. Alvin knows that better than most. [Because Alvin has broken reality many times, and each time the break was jagged.]

Once a lowly child from a farming town, turned demon hunter. Alvin now wields gloves that let him tear through the seams of the world [Is Alvin Wolverine's real name?] —but every use risks dragging him deeper into the rot that’s unraveling it. The power feels like a gift. It isn’t. [I'm not clear on why the ability to tear through the seams of the world feels like a gift. Possibly because I don't know what you mean by tearing through the seams of the world. A more concrete example of what his gloves can do might help.] 

A corruption older than empires has taken root in the marrow of cities. Children vanish. Towns twist into parodies of themselves. Eldritch hymns hang in the sky. [The only item on that list that doesn't need explaining is "Children vanish."] Alvin joins a small band of outcasts, each scarred, violent, or barely holding together, to investigate the source. They follow rumors, ruins, and nightmares through crumbling kingdoms and haunted forests, toward a truth that should never be found. [Do these other people also have magical clothing accessories? Because they sound like they're just gonna hold Alvin back like a big iron ball chained to his leg.] 

Alvin wants to protect what he couldn’t before. [What couldn't he protect before?] But to do that, he’ll need to master a gift that burns him alive with every use, [Does every use of the gloves drag Alvin deeper into the rot, or burn him alive? Both, I guess. Wait, is it like the one ring to rule them all, and it corrupts the wearer?] and hold together a group on the edge of collapse. Worse still, something in the rot calls to him. It knows his name. [At the risk of dating myself, I keep thinking of David Seville calling ALVIIIIIIN!!! to Alvin the chipmunk.] And if he breaks first, the world will follow. [Is Alvin breaking first a callback to reality not breaking cleanly?] 

I am a 35 year old stay at home dad debut author with background in psychology, mythology, and criminal justice.

Notes

Here's what I gather from your plot summary. A "rot" is "unraveling" the world. Alvin, a farmer who fancies himself a demon hunter, has somehow acquired magical gloves that let him tear through the world's seams. He joins a band of misfits to find the truth about the rot, a truth that shouldn't be found. And the rot calls to him. I'm guessing the rot has something to do with demons? 

Basically. it's the end of the world, but Alvin can prevent it.

I believe you'd be better off telling us what happens in your book, so we know you have a story. Who is Alvin, where'd he get the gloves, and what's his goal? To kill a few local demons, or to save the planet?

What's his plan to accomplish this goal? Will using the gloves kill him? Turn him into a demon? Are demons trying to kill him? How does he deal with this?

What's at stake? In other words, What will happen if he fails? If he succeeds?

Once you've got that down, if you have room you can try to fancy it up with the marrow of cities and hymns in the sky and seams of the world.

If the rot is a metaphor for the Trump administration, who is Alvin?