Hex House

A feverishly told, dark and unsettling Scotland-set fairy-tale about a safe haven for women which transforms them into vessels of revenge, perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher, A. G Slatter and Julia Armfield

ELLY

Elly is running. Pregnant and still in her wedding dress, she flees the cottage that her new husband has rented for their wedding night. Because he's not what people think he is - and she knows that, one day, he'll hurt her in a way she can't fix. Freezing and lost in the dead of night, Elly begins to lose hope.

A woman in the woods alone is never the beginning of the story. It's usually the end.

So, when a beautiful house appears out of nowhere and a woman beckons her inside, it almost feels too good to be true.

Welcome to Hex House: a refuge, a home, a sanctuary. A place that can only be found by those who truly need it; a place that promises to teach Elly how to access a power more incredible - and more terrifying - than anything she could have imagined.

SIOBHAN

Four years after Siobhan meets Elly at Hex House, her life is in ruins. Once a promising filmmaker invited to the house to make a documentary with her brother, Theo, she's given up on her dream after witnessing unspeakable horrors there. Now, she spends her time drinking too much, toying with an older man in increasingly dangerous ways, and trying to get Theo to speak to her again. She ignores the scar on her stomach that never fully heals.

That is, until someone reaches out with news about Hex House that could change everything.

And Siobhan knows, deep down, that she was always destined to return.

Amy Jane Stewart is a writer living in the Scottish Borders. She was the winner of the New Writing North & Word Factory Northern Apprentice Award in 2021 and the Mairtín Crawford Prize for Short Story in 2022. She has been Highly Commended in the 2019 Bridport Prize and shortlisted for the 2023 Bristol Short Story Prize. Her work can be found in New Writing Scotland, Visual Verse and Test Signal. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from York St John University and is studying for a Creative Writing PhD at the University of Sheffield.