A novel about desire both empowering and grotesque, about art as love and art as violence, and about the fundamental truth that no one can love you better or hurt you more than a sister.
Coming Summer 2027 with Blackstone Publishing
Kicked out of the apartment she shared with her sister, Lou is scraping rock bottom. She accepts an invitation to Tangier House, an artist residency in rural Virginia. It might be her last chance to create something worthwhile. When she arrives, she finds a familiar face in Veronica, the object of her teenage infatuation. They haven’t seen each other since their days at the all-girls boarding school, Cusk, forever the backdrop for Lou’s first encounter with the knife-edge of desire, and the worst moment of her life.
But Veronica is different than she was. Gone is the enigmatic, reclusive girl Lou knew. In her place is a magnetic, violently intense creative, whose artistic eye has landed squarely on Lou.
Summer unfolds at Tangier House. Lou writes letters to her sister that will never arrive. The art takes on a life of its own. There's a story of a girl who got lost in these woods, found screaming about someone wearing her face. As Lou and Veronica’s mutual obsession grows deeper, Lou is forced to ask herself how much she has really changed since Cusk, and how much she is willing to change still, reshaped by Veronica’s hands. Because Veronica is intent on collaborating with Lou in every sense of the word—no matter the gory havoc wreaked in the process.
