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Now Iris and her father will finally understand why ...
At the turn of England's century, young Iris Villarca walks the lonely halls of Rawblood. A curse passed down in ancient blood marks each Villarca for certain heartbreak, even death. And Iris is the last of her family's line.
Iris forsakes her promise to her father to remain alone, safe from the world. She 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 ...
From the sun-dappled hills of Italy to the biting chill of Victorian dissection halls, The Girl from Rawblood is a lyrical and haunting historical novel of darkness, love, and the ghosts of the past.
"A gothic tale of love and madness, this atmospheric and chilling story drew me in from the first page, and kept me up at night, until I reached the last."—Claire Fuller, author of Our Endless Numbered Days
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 4, 2017 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781501918780
- File size: 415587 KB
- Duration: 14:25:48
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from January 9, 2017
Born in England in 1899, Iris Villarca, the principal narrator of Ward’s superb debut, grows up without human company, except for Tom Gilmore, a farmer’s son with whom she forms a secret bond, and her father, Alonso, the only other surviving Villarca. She believes that a rare disease necessitates their seclusion at Rawblood, their Dartmoor estate, but as she matures, Alonso reveals the truth: isolation is the only way to save Iris from a ghostly presence that destroys the Villarcas when they fall in love, marry, or have children. As WWI begins, Iris violates her father’s interdictions with horrific repercussions for both of them. A flashback to 1881, related by Charles Danforth, a doctor privy to Alonso’s complex past, reveals other horrors. Later, new viewpoints, spanning the years from 1839 to 1919, focus on the family’s women as each negotiates the powerlessness of her situation and time. Sharply evoked particulars—Devon’s landscape and period medical science emerge with special vividness—help root the spectral phenomena. Wade perfectly balances sensory richness with the chills of the uncanny. Agent: Sam Copeland, Rogers, Coleridge & White (U.K.).
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