Kirstyn McDermott

Winterbloom is a heart-breaking and fey re-imagining of a classic story from the award-winning Kirstyn McDermott. Ideal for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Kate Bernheimer, and Danielle Wood. Several years into their marriage, Beauty and her once beastly husband are at a crossroads. Though they still love each other, they have not been able to have children nor talk about the problems that have beset them since the fairy curse was lifted. Instead, she devotes herself to the roses in their garden while he composes music to charm the most discerning Parisian audiences. But Beauty secretly longs for the Beast with whom she fell in love, and her husband fears he's no longer the creature she most desires. When Peregrine, Beauty's enigmatic fey sister-in-law, comes to visit, she sparks off a chain of events that will either heal the marriage or leave it in irretrievable tatters. Winterbloom is the sixth 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, loss and forgiveness.

"Kirstyn McDermott's prose is darkly magical, insidious and insistent. Once her words get under your skin, they are there to stay." -Angela Slatter, author of All the Murmuring Bones and The Path of ThornsHard Places collects the very best of Kirstyn McDermott's short fiction written over the past twenty years along with a previously unpublished novella. From unsettling obsessions and brutal body horror to unexpected monsters and ghosts drifting through suburbia, these stories run the gamut of horror and the contemporary gothic. By turns harrowing, provocative and poignant, this collection will haunt you long after the last page is turned.

After Midnight is a tale of royalty, bloodlines, and royal slippers from the award-winning Kirstyn McDermott, sure to appeal to fans of Catherynne M. Valente and Theodora Goss. The Queen who'd once swept up the cinders is exiled to a distant wing of the palace, replaced by a younger, prettier girl who can bear her King an heir. Unwilling to accept the rapid deterioration of her power and desperately clinging to fraying strands of sanity, the exiled Queen journals the choices that led to her sorry state... and those she must make in order to reclaim her rightful place in the kingdom. But there's more than one prisoner in the castle, and the conspiracy that draws tight around Queen and rival involves graver threats than a return to poverty. After Midnight is the third 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.

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.

Burnt Sugar is a dark and evocative re-imagining of a classic story from the award-winning Kirstyn McDermott. Ideal for fans of Jane Yolen, Theodora Goss, and Catherynne M. Valente. Decades after the incident in the woods, Gretel has forged a good life in a small village, running a bakery and taking care of her brother and the stray, bedraggled women who find work as her apprentices. Business is good, and when it's not, Gretel took more from the witch than a knack of making sweet treats and gingerbread, just as her brother returned home forever changed by the torture he experienced. The book of magic hidden beneath the stairs has kept Gretel and her household comfortable for years, but it also calls to Gretel in the night, demanding she return to the woods and replace the witch they killed. For years, she's been resisting, determined to keep Hansel and her apprentices safe. Then Hansel's drinking goes too far and Gretel realises her brother is dying. Finally, the seductive call of the book's magic might be too strong to deny... Burnt Sugar is the first novella in Kirstyn McDemott'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, loss and forgiveness.