The Cold Is in Her Bones
-
-
4.5 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- $8.99
-
- $8.99
Publisher Description
“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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This feminist retelling of the Medusa legend by van Arsdale (The Beast Is an Animal) brims with raw emotion and offers adult crossover appeal. Isolated on her parents' rural farm and forbidden from contact with the outside world, 16-year-old Milla leads a sheltered life. She is desperate to please her parents, who view her with fear and disappointment, and her only consolation is her older brother, Niklas, who is being inexorably pulled away from her by new responsibilities. When Iris, a young woman from the village, comes to stay with her grandparents nearby, Milla finds a true friend for the first time in her life. It's through Iris that Milla learns the dark truth about a demon claiming girls and women in the village. Even worse, Milla begins to experience changes that raise terrifying questions about her own identity. Lush with detail and symbolism and filled with strong characters who defy basic labels, the tale brings into sharp relief the experiences of the disenfranchised, the angry, and the powerless. Van Arsdale unrolls an artfully constructed series of events that will engage, frighten, and delight. Ages 12 up.
