Rottenheart by Kat Dunn

Publishes 4 June
 
Revenge me.
For I am murdered . . .

Odette and Cecilia are young women, living between their grand homes in Hampstead and the imposing, ancient Herne House in Suffolk. Though Odette's artist mother Lydia keeps a tight grasp on her, she and her beloved Cecilia are mostly left free to roam, to learn and to love. But when Lydia inexplicably sickens and dies, a dark veil falls.

As the funeral rites are performed, Odette's aunt, the cold and implacable Claudine, increasingly takes charge of the household, while her father retreats to his study. Odette, lost in grief, disappears into the shadows. But as Claudine is announced as Odette's new stepmother, a sinister presence in the house makes itself known.

To her horror, Odette realises that despite her death, Lydia never really left. And now she wants revenge...

Inspired by Hamlet, the ultimate revenge tragedy, Rottenheart is the stunning new sapphic gothic horror novel from Kat Dunn, the lauded author of Hungerstone and Bitterthorn. Set in the 1890s, this a story of love and grief, mothers and daughters, death and madness.
 
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'Feed this directly into my veins' - Taylor Jenkins Reid
 
'A darkly intoxicating and fierce sapphic retelling of Hamlet. Extraordinary' - Lucy Rose, author of The Lamb
 
'Sinister and devastating. I want to read it again and again and again' - Bea Fitzgerald