Sussex, England. 1994. 16-year-old Tim helps run his family winery in the remote Oldscoombe valley. Since his mother left, Tim has nobody but his short-tempered father and delinquent older brother. He staves off loneliness by holding funerals for roadkill and lusting after his neighbour’s beautiful wife… until the summer he stumbles across a secret.

There’s a woman hiding at the bottom of the well. She's beautiful. She's soaked in blood. She says she’s killed a man. Tim only has to feed her, clothe her, and keep her safe. Soon her requests escalate from wine to animals, which alter her appearance in horrifying ways. When she eats a chicken, feathers sprout from her neck. When she eats a centipede, her spine splits; she grows more legs. Tim realises that, with the right diet, he could sculpt her to the image of his wildest fantasies...

As the power balance shifts, the line blurs between pet and prisoner. The woman demands a human sacrifice whose identity she can consume. And Tim must choose: the unsuspecting woman he covets, or the mother who abandoned him and broke his heart.

Publication

Titan