Claire Schultz
Claire Schultz holds a BA in English Literature & Creative Writing from the University of Chicago, an MPhil Education (Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature) from the University of Cambridge, and is pursuing a PhD English at the University of Cambridge. Working primarily in the intersection of fantasy, horror, and literary fiction, she can usually be found in the nearest bookstore or coffee shop. She also writes young adult fiction as Claire Rose. A PhD student by day, she lives in Edinburgh with her haunted cats. You can find her at clairerschultz.com.x
Even Your Bones Would Do
A woman takes her chance to get out of her small town, only to find that her husband’s home has secrets that can’t be locked away in this lyrically haunting horror debut.
April Harker lives a small life in a small Massachusetts town with small sums for the fairy stories she sells and small pleasures since her parents lost all their money in the 1929 crash. Until the day Julius Thackeray arrives. A man with an unsettling blue-black beard and excess wealth, Thackeray promises to marry April. To take her to his estate outside Boston, make her stories famous, show her the world.
But April should know from her fairy stories that a man promising the world on one’s doorstep is too good to be believed. Thornwood House is a sprawling mansion in the middle of nowhere, with hallways that lead different places on different days and silent-footed servants keeping house. And someone—something—else. Spectral presences who leave lipstick-stained teacups in the library and drop the temperature in empty halls. Who haunt her nightmares. Who know the truth of Thornwood House.
Drawn to one of these ghosts, a mysterious specter named Marie, April begins to find a comfort in their presence. But when Thackeray entrusts April with the keys to a seemingly infinite number of rooms, the horrifying secrets at the heart of Thornwood House come to light. Trapped in a cycle of violence, April and Marie must escape their house of horrors. Together, or not at all.
Publication
US: Penguin Random House (Berkley)
UK: Daphne Press
Release date: January 2027
