"An impressively hectic spin on the Gothic tradition"― Telegraph The winner of BEST HORROR NOVEL at the British Fantasy Awards by the author of The House on Needless Street ! What if it's not your mansion that's haunted―it's you? Young Iris Villarca is the last of her family's line. They are haunted by "her," a curse passed down through the generations that marks each Villarca for certain heartbreak and death. For generations, the Villarcas have died young, under mysterious circumstances. But Iris 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… Perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson, Susan Hill, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Girl from Rawblood will pull readers through time into the early 1800s and 1900s, mesmerizing them with this lyrical story of cunning folk horror right until the breathtaking finish. Praise for The Girl from Rawblood : "Superb debut....Ward perfectly balances sensory richness with the chills of the uncanny." ― Publishers Weekly , STARRED review " The Girl from Rawblood makes a powerful contribution to the British literature of the fantastic…There's a touch of Ted Hughes here, Emily Bronte and M.R James in this eerie and by turns moving story that spans generations…A definite book of the year for me." ― Adam Nevill, award-winning author of The Ritual and No One Gets Out Alive " The Girl from Rawblood weaves a spell that both terrifies and mesmerizes. As each layer of mystery is peeled away, more haunting truth is revealed. The book leaves the reader breathless in its gothic tale of fear, family, blood, and love." ― Simone St. James, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel "...superb debut....Ward perfectly balances sensory richness with the chills of the uncanny." ― Publishers Weekly, STARRED review "Ward’s layered and skillfully crafted novel weaves elements of classic gothic and horror into a remarkable story populated by unforgettable characters, palpable atmosphere, and rich lyricism. Imagine the darkest and goriest undertones of Edgar Allan Poe, the Brontës, Charles Dickens, and Shirley Jackson, and you’ll have an idea of what Ward offers here." ― Library Journal "The Girl from Rawblood is a cleverly interwoven Gothic tale of love and madness. Ward’s atmospheric writing and chilling story drew me in from the first page, and kept me up at night, right through to the disturbing and tragic ending." ― Claire Fuller, author of Our Endless Numbered Days "The Girl from Rawblood makes a powerful contribution to the British literature of the fantastic. It's an epic family saga incorporating a great Gothic house, built upon a lyrically rendered regional landscape, from which the numinous rises as if it is a natural function of the setting. There's a touch of Ted Hughes here, Emily Bronte and M.R James in this eerie and by turns moving story that spans generations. It filled my head for several evenings, and will linger there too . . . A definite book of the year for me" ― Adam Nevill, author of The Ritual "Brilliant – The Girl From Rawblood is the old-school gothic novel I have been waiting for. While it delivers everything I want from a ‘haunted house/family curse’ story, it is still stunningly original. I have never read anything like it and that’s saying something." ― Mike Mignola, creator of the Hellboy comic book series "Beautifully written, in equal parts both terrifying and heart-breaking, The Girl from Rawblood is a dazzlingly brilliant Gothic masterpiece" ― Sarah Pinborough "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 . . . savor the allusive gusto" ― Literary Review "genuinely frightening . . . Like the best classic Gothic novels (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Castle of Otranto), The Girl from 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" ― Spectator "an impressively hectic spin on the Gothic tradition" ― Telegraph "The ghost story is back" ― Guardian "A lush, macabre, chillingly good tale. From the modern horrors of man – medical experiments, war – to the ancient power of the natural world, The Girl from Rawblood is not only a ghost story of the highest order, but a sublime meditation on the things that hold us captive: fidelity, fear, memory, love. " ― Leslie Parry, author of The Church of Marvels "From Victorian ghost story to anti-war polemic and back again: I raged, wept and hid under the bed covers. As full of science as it is the supernatural, this is a hauntingly brilliant virtuoso performance." ― Emma Healey, best selling author of Eliz