
Staff Pick
Jawbone
by Monica Ojeda
AUCK OUT OF STOCK
WGTN IN STOCK
Pages:
360
Published:
7 Oct 2022
Format
Paperback
Publisher
New Ruins
ISBN:
9781838171629
'Was desire something like being possessed by a nightmare?' Fernanda and Annelise are so close they are practically sisters: a double image, inseparable. So how does Fernanda end up bound on the floor of a deserted cabin, held hostage by one of her teachers and estranged from Annelise? When Fernanda, Annelise, and their friends from the Delta Bilingual Academy convene after school, Annelise leads them in thrilling but increasingly dangerous rituals to a rhinestoned, Dior-scented, drag-queen god of her own invention. Even more perilous is the secret Annelise and Fernanda share, rooted in a dare in which violence meets love. Meanwhile, their literature teacher Miss Clara, who is obsessed with imitating her dead mother, struggles to preserve her deteriorating sanity. Each day she edges nearer to a total break with reality. Interweaving pop culture references and horror concepts drawn from Herman Melville, H. P. Lovecraft, and anonymous 'creepypastas,' Jawbone is an ominous, multivocal novel that explores the terror inherent in the pure potentiality of adolescence and the fine line between desire and fear.
$36.00
Wholly unlike anything I've ever read.This violently unsettling 'White Horror' centres on the relationships between mothers & daughters, & the terrible bonds formed between schoolgirls on the cusp of beautiful and monstrous womanhood. Ojeda has an incredibly unique turn of phrase, and Booker's translation is unflinching, thoughtful & illuminating.



