The Cold Is in Her Bones

"A dark and enchanting tale." —Bustle "Fiercely written and beautifully feminist." —Lisa Maxwell, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Magician One girl must uncover secrets of the past to save her friend from a terrible curse in this "dark, angry fairy tale" (BCCB, starred review) filled with love, revenge, and redemption that is inspired by the myth of Medusa. Milla knows two things to be true: Demons are real, and fear will keep her safe. Milla's whole world is her family's farm. She is never allowed to travel to the village and her only friend is her beloved older brother, Niklas. When a bright-eyed girl named Iris comes to stay, Milla hopes her loneliness might finally be coming to an end. But Iris has a secret she's forbidden to share: The village is cursed by a demon who possesses girls at random, and the townspeople live in terror of who it will come for next. Now, it seems, the demon has come for Iris. When Iris is captured and imprisoned with other possessed girls, Milla leaves home to rescue her and break the curse forever. Her only company on the journey is a terrible new secret of her own: Milla is changing, too, and may soon be a demon herself. Suspenseful and vividly imagined, The Cold Is in Her Bones is a novel about the dark, reverberating power of pain, the yearning to be seen and understood, and the fragile optimism of love.

Peternelle van Arsdale is a book editor, essay and short story writer, and the author of The Beast Is an Animal and The Cold Is in Her Bones. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she is at work on her third novel. Visit her at PeternellevanArsdale.com.