Synopsis

My mother.

At night, my mother creaks. The house creaks along with her.

Through our thin shared wall, I can hear the makings of my mother gurgle through her body just like the water in the walls of the house…

Teenage Aoileann has never left the island. Her silent, bed-bound mother is a wreckage, the survivor of a private disaster no one will speak about.

Aoileann desperately wants a family, and when Sarah and her young child move to the island, Aoileann finds a focus for her relentless love.

A horror story about being bound by the blood knot of family.

Review

Trigger warnings: Mentions of suicide, violence toward children, child death, disability, body horror

Brilliant.
Masterfully grotesque and haunting.

I didn’t know what to expect reading this Gothic, atmospheric descent into madness…! I could not put it down (though my insides were screaming to throw it across the room)!

This one will stick with me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for this advance reader copy.