Rawblood
The Girl from Rawblood (US title)
Best Horror Novel, British Fantasy Awards 2016
Shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award.
For generations the Villarcas have died mysteriously, and young. Now Iris and her father will finally understand why…
At the turn of England’s century, as the wind whistles in the lonely halls of Rawblood, young Iris Villarca is the last of her family’s line. They are haunted, through the generations, by “her,” a curse passed down through ancient blood that marks each Villarca for certain heartbreak, and death.
Iris forsakes her promise to her father, to remain alone, safe from the world. She dares to fall in love, and the consequences of her choice are immediate and terrifying. As the world falls apart around her, she must take a final journey back to Rawblood where it all began and where it must all end…
From the sun dappled hills of Italy to the biting chill of Victorian dissection halls, The Girl from Rawblood is a lyrical and haunting historical novel of darkness, love, and the ghosts of the past.
Praise for Rawblood:
“Genuinely frightening.. Like the best classic Gothic novels (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Castle of Otranto), Rawblood relies on partially informed narrators telling their own stories… As a meta-examination of the Gothic genre and as a straightforward tale of grisly haunting, Ward’s novel is remarkably successful.” – The Spectator
“The ghost story is back.” – The Guardian
“An extended stalk through the history of the English ghost story.. the pleasures of the ghost story are presented in such abundance, and carried off in such fine style.. savour the allusive gusto..” – Literary Review
“Beautifully written, in equal parts both terrifying and heart-breaking, Rawblood is a dazzlingly brilliant Gothic masterpiece.” – Sarah Pinborough