Afterbirth: A Novel

Author: Emma Cleary

Synopsis: An unsettling, hypnotic descent into the visceral heart of “mommy horror,” Afterbirth is a story of fractured sisterhood, aching hunger, and irrevocable transformation—reverberating with the echoes of classic horror cinema. In the wake of a fraught and ill-omened romance, Brooke arrives in Vancouver to care for her sister Izzy, who is preparing to undergo reproductive surgery. But Izzy’s rapidly decaying apartment building, its hallways stalked by an ominous figure known only as Medusa, offers little of the refuge the sisters need.

Seeking solace in the horror movies her ex-girlfriend loved, Brooke soon finds traces of horror bleeding from the screen into their lives. Old wounds reopen and new tensions surface. When Brooke begins to exhibit strange symptoms of her own, the line between self and sister blurs, and their concern for each other twists into a tangled obsession. Eerie, threaded with yearning, and startlingly original, Emma Cleary’s haunting literary debut explores loneliness, motherhood, and the body’s threatened autonomy. The novel blooms with the dark desires we suppress or surrender to—until only one question remains: who, or what, will survive when all unravels?

Additional Titles to Look For:

1. I Love You Don't Die by Jade Song (3/17)
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   For as far back as she can remember, Vicky has been fascinated and obsessed with death as the only inevitable thing in life.
2. Afterbirth: Novel by Emma Cleary (3/24)
   An unsettling, hypnotic descent into the visceral heart of “mommy horror,” Afterbirth is a story of fractured sisterhood, aching hunger, and irrevocable transformation—reverberating with the echoes of classic horror cinema.
3. Wayward Souls by Susan J Morris (3/17)
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4. Indigent by Briana Cox (3/20)
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5. Hex House by Amy Jane Stewart (4/28)
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6. The Lady in Chains by Bonnie Quinn (4/28)
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7. Wife Shaped Bodies by Lauren Cranehill (4/14)
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