by Melanie Golding (Author), Melanie Golding (Author)
`Chilling story, beautiful prose. Little Darlings is stunning' Clare Mackintosh Leila Slimani's Lullaby meets Rosemary's Baby in the most unsettling book of the year.
THE TWINS ARE CRYING.
THE TWINS ARE HUNGRY.
LAUREN IS CRYING.
LAUREN IS EXHAUSTED.
Behind the hospital curtain, someone is waiting . . .
After a traumatic birth, Lauren is alone on the maternity ward with her newborn twins. Her husband has gone home. The nurses are doing their rounds. She can't stop thinking about every danger her babies now face. But all new mothers think like that. Don't they?
A terrifying encounter in the middle of the night leaves Lauren convinced someone or something is trying to steal her children. But with every step she takes to keep her babies safe, Lauren sinks deeper and deeper into paranoia and fear. From the stark loneliness of returning home after birth, to the confines of a psychiatric unit, Lauren's desperation increases as no one will listen to her. But here's the question: is she mad, or does she know something we don't?
Loosely inspired by the ghostly folktale The Brewery of Eggshells, where a mother becomes convinced her twins are in danger, Little Darlings offers a fresh perspective on modern motherhood, postnatal psychosis and the roles women play. It has always been thus: folk tales do not spring from whimsy; they warn us and teach us, and speak to the fear in us all.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 336
Publisher: HQ
Published: 02 May 2019
ISBN 10: 0008293678
ISBN 13: 9780008293673
`Chilling story, beautiful prose. Little Darlings is stunning'
Clare Mackintosh, number one Sunday Times bestseller
`Dark, richly evocative, tense and thought-provoking. Taps into every woman's fear that she will not be believed'
Mel McGrath, author of Give Me the Child
`Melanie Golding tells the truth about motherhood like no other writer since Sylvia Plath. Rich and satisfying, this is part who-done-it, part fairy tale, part psychological thriller. It delivers on all fronts and will continue to rattle you, long after you have put it down'
Felicity Everett, author of The People at Number 9
`Deep. Dark. Utterly addictive. I read this extraordinary book in one, breathless gulp. It touched me so deeply, it felt almost dangerous. At times I simply had to put the book down. But then I would pace - and pick it straight back up again. Be warned - you can't unread this story. It will haunt you'
Teresa Driscoll, author of I Am Watching You
`A story that is in turn enthralling, creepy and downright sinister, Melanie Golding turns fairy tales on their heads in Little Darlings, making this one to watch out for in 2019. A brilliant, heart-pounding read'
Lisa Hall, author of Between You and Me
`Little Darlings is brilliant - beautifully written, disturbing and deliciously creepy'
Roz Watkins, author of The Devil's Dice
`Riveting, terrifying and at times heartbreaking, Little Darlings had me tiptoeing through my dark house at night to check on the children. Melanie Golding's disturbing portrait of a new mother's paranoia is superbly written, cleverly plotted and gruesomely beautiful in an unforgettable way. A stunning debut and a uniquely creepy premise'
Annie Ward, author of Beautiful Bad
Melanie Golding is a recent graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, with distinction. Her short stories have been chosen to be recorded as podcasts by the Leicester-based festival Story City in 2015 and 2016, and to be performed at both the regular Stroud Short Stories event and their special `best of' event at Cheltenham Literature Festival. In 2017 she won the short story prize at the Mid Somerset Festival, as well as the Evelyn Sanford trophy for highest mark in the prose class. She has taught creative writing in prisons and Young Offenders Institutions, as well as teaching music in a school for boys with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. She is now a full-time registered childminder and splits her time between that and writing. Little Darlings is her debut novel and has been optioned for screen by Free Range Films, the team behind the adaptation of My Cousin Rachel.
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