Monster's Wife

Born into a family of eccentrics and raised in a haunted house on the outskirts of London, Kate Horsley developed an early interest in the dark side of things. At the age of 21, she moved to Boston MA to take up a scholarship at Harvard and lived and worked there for nearly a decade, her jobs ranging from Lecturer and researcher to babysitter and box-assembler. Eventually her childhood dreams of being a writer began to haunt her and she abandoned truth for fiction.Kate now lives in Manchester with her artist husband, John Brewer, a child and a dog, and teaches English and Creative Writing. Her first novel, The Monster’s Wife, was shortlisted for the Scottish First Book of the Year Award. Her second novel, The American Girl, was published by William Morrow (US) and Harper Collins (UK) and translated into Korean by Tomato Publishing in 2017. Her poems and short fiction have appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies including Best British Crime Stories.

"That Mary Shelley has a lot to answer for! This is an extraordinary novel, an honourable response (neither venerating nor sneering) to its progenitor, while being startlingly original. Kate Horsley has grounded and voiced her Frankenstein “sequel” in the Orkneys which bring their own mythic load with them and she takes the Gothic to new places, where the darkness of Frankenstein meets the darkness of isolated communities of love and fear and survival. It is brilliantly weird, dark and “horrid” – and it is a tender account of women’s friendships and dreams of freedom. It is profoundly touching and weirdly macabre at the same time. I’ve never read anything quite like it and I think it is wonderful." - Sara Maitland "This is a superb debut, an atmospheric and gripping mystery that picks up where the original Frankenstein left off. But to call it a sequel would do it no justice, because this book is fresh and original, and bursting with the most beautiful and lyrical prose. A stunning novel." - KJ Wignall, author of The Mercian Trilogy"An excellent read for the long dark nights of winter. ★★★★★ Oona makes a magnificent protagonist for modern times; determined, feisty and dogmatic. She exemplifies the troubled teenager struggling to fit into a life where she feels she does not belong and refuses to give up her beliefs. No matter what life and the harsh Orkney weather coupled with her failing health throw at Oona, her stubbornness and sense of integrity force her to carry on seeking to find the truth despite the reactions and treatment of her fellow islanders.”- Culturefly, Sue Sheard