Mills, Lottie: Monstrum

* From the winner of the BBC Young Writers‘ Award 2020 *   What does it mean to be different in a world that values perfection, at any cost? ‘Lottie‘s writing is a superb flight of the imagination‘ A.S. Byatt, author of  Possession ‘Haunting, luridly beautiful, and at times shockingly, deliciously gruesome‘ Jenn Ashworth, author of  Ghosted A ‘Best Book for May 2024‘ according to Cosmopolitan From Lottie Mills, the winner of the BBC Young Writers‘ Award in 2020, comes this beautifully crafted collection of stories. A father and daughter build a life for themselves on an isolated beach. But the outside world is pressing in. It‘s only a matter of time before their secret refuge is discovered. A young disabled woman opts to receive a perfect, pain-free body. Soon, however, she finds herself haunted by the one she cast off.  A travelling circus master discovers the ideal addition to his cabinet of curiosities: ‘damaged‘, ‘grotesque‘, gifted. He plans to make her the star of his show; she plans to take her revenge. Monstrum captures the experience of characters excluded by a society that cannot accept their difference. Eerie, fantastical and hugely ambitious, this collection announces the arrival of an outstanding new literary voice.  ‘Lottie‘s stories reminded me of what matters‘ Claire Oshetsky ‘Magical and haunting‘ Jan Carson