BOOK: Inspired by the story of Countess Elizabeth Bathory who terrorised late-16th century Hungary (whose bloodlust contributed to the story of that other blood-drinking eastern European aristocrat, Dracula) and set in a second-world fantasy realm resembling the Victorian era with all its social stratification and moral hypocrisy - a thrilling, heart-in-mouth story about a resilient young woman confronting abuse and injustice.
THEMES: timely and resonant - class, exploitation of the underclass/poor by the rich, emotional/physical abuse and manipulation within relationships, tensions between propriety and madness, love and obsession, desire and taboo . . .
COMPS: Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May
- 6k hb;
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - 4.4k hb;
The Lighthouse Witches by C J Cooke - 4.7k hb;
The Year of the Witching - 1.7k hb.
AUTHOR: still in her twenties, has emerged as a singular, powerful literary voice within the dark fantasy genre. She's always been fascinated by witchcraft and ghost stories and, as a child, was obsessed with the story of Elizabeth Bathory.
CAMPAIGN: targetting fantasy / horror influencers; written pieces online, review coverage in genre media (podcasts, blogs, websites and print) plus mainstream print as well as reader reviews on consumer and fan sites
CROSSOVER POTENTIAL: fantasy, horror and gothic fans, YA readers - the author's acclaimed debut
The Year of the Witching was shortlisted for 2 Good Reads Awards - Best Debut and Best Horror novel.
Alexis Henderson is a speculative fiction writer with a penchant for dark fantasy, witchcraft, and horror. She grew up in one of America's most haunted cities, Savannah, Georgia, which instilled in her a life-long love of ghost stories. When she doesn't have her nose buried in a book, you can find her painting or watching horror movies with her feline familiar. Her first novel was the twice Good Reads Awards shortlisted, critically acclaimed and bestselling
The Year of the Witching. Alexis now lives in Charleston, South Carolina.
WANTED: A bloodmaid of exceptional taste. Must have a keen proclivity for life's finer pleasures. Girls of weak will need not apply.
A young woman is drawn into the upper echelons of a society where blood is power, in this dark and enthralling Gothic novel from the author of The Year of the Witching.
Marion Shaw has been raised in the slums, where want and deprivation are all she knows. Despite longing to leave the city and its miseries, she has no real hope of escape until the day she spots a strange advertisement in the newspaper, seeking a 'bloodmaid'.
Though she knows little about the far north - where wealthy nobles live in luxury and drink the blood of those in their service - Marion applies to the position. In a matter of days, she finds herself at the notorious House of Hunger. There, Marion is swept into a world of dark debauchery - and there, at the centre of it all is her.
Her name is Countess Lisavet. Loved and feared in equal measure, she presides over this hedonistic court. And she takes a special interest in Marion. Lisavet is magnetic, charismatic, seductive - and Marion is eager to please her new mistress. But when her fellow bloodmaids begin to go missing in the night, Marion is thrust into a vicious game of cat and mouse. She'll need to learn the rules of her new home - and fast - or its halls will soon become her grave.
An
unforgettable feast of decadence and depravity,
House of Hunger cements Henderson's place as one of the great gothic writers of our generation. Readers will be absolutely spellbound by this sinister, scintillating tale.The kind of book that
deserves to be devoured.
Deliciously brutal, hypnotic, and brimming with ravenous malice, Alexis Henderson has crafted
a bloody, sapphic fever dream of a novel and I can't wait to read it again.Has something of the grotesque novelty of Mervyn Peake's
Gormenghast, tinged red by a Clive Barker-esque blending of blood and sex . . .
a lurid, luscious debauch of a book.A gory gem of a story that sinks in its teeth and won't let up,
House of Hunger proves that
Alexis Henderson is one of the best Gothic writers out there.A dark, blood-filled fantasy that's dripping in gothic vibes . . . dread and desire simmer from the pages of this unsettling and lushly written horror.
It'll have you simulatenously wanting to look away and keep reading.
