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The New Wife is a bloody tale of ghosts, vengeance, and dark curses from the award-winning Kirstyn McDermott, sure to appeal fans of Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber and Angela Slatter's Sourdough stories.
Bluebeard's seventh wife is the first to survive his wrath, courtesy of ghostly warnings and the timely intervention of her brothers. The village burns her murderous husband, his crimes laid bare and his wealth passed on to her... but even after his death, Bluebeard's house won't allow anyone to leave. All wives-living and dead-remain trapped in their husband's manor, even as the man who terrorised them proves to be less dead than they had hoped.
Haunted by his vengeful ghost, can the wives find a way to break the curse that would bind them in darkness and torment forever?
The New Wife is the second novella in Kirstyn McDermott's Never Afters series. Dark, powerful, and brimming with magic, these tales weave a reimagined world in which fairy-tale girls grow up to find both love and heartbreak, family and friendship, and moments of loss and forgiveness.
Kirstyn McDermott
Kirstyn McDermott is an Australian author of two award-winning novels, Madigan Mine and Perfections, along with numerous pieces of short fiction and poetry. Her most recent works are Winterbloom (winner of 2023 Aurealis Award for best fantasy novella), Hard Places, a collection of short fiction, and Never Afters, a novella series of retold fairy tales now collected in an omnibus edition. Kirstyn holds a PhD in creative writing and lives in Ballarat, Australia, with fellow writer Jason Nahrung and two distinctly non-literary felines. www.kirstynmcdermott.com
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