Haunting Magical Realism: Read an Extract from Blood to Poison by Mary Watson

Haunting Magical Realism: Read an Extract from Blood to Poison by Mary Watson
1
BABY

I am troubled by a memory that never happened.

We’re running, Freda and I. She’s ahead, her long hair streaming. The night is unnaturally bright, but not because of the stars. Freda turns to me, holding out a hand:

Faster, Savannah.

My bare feet beat the hard earth. Fear tightens my chest.

I glance behind me and see the world burning. The orange blaze, the hidden depths within the curling flames.

And from those depths, something comes for us.

I reach for Freda, grasping at her billowing nightgown. She looks back again and her face contorts with terror.

That is where the memory ends.

It feels real. But we’ve never escaped a fire.

Freda, my aunt, my second mother, was killed in a car accident nearly ten years ago. It is an impossible memory.

Continue reading the extract here…

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Reviews

Engrossing YA Fantasy: Read Our Review of Blood to Poison by Mary Watson

Review | Our Review

13 April 2022

Engrossing YA Fantasy: Read Our Review of Blood to Poison by Mary Watson

Publisher details

Blood to Poison
Author
Mary Watson
Publisher
Bloomsbury
Genre
Children’s Fiction
Released
12 April, 2022
ISBN
9781526619174

Synopsis

Seventeen-year-old Savannah is cursed. It's a sinister family heirloom; passed down through the bloodline for hundreds of years, with one woman in every generation destined to die young. The family call them Hella's girls, named for their ancestor Hella; the enslaved woman with whom it all began. Hella's girls are always angry, especially in the months before they die.

The anger is bursting from Savannah – at the men who cat-call her in the street, at her mother's disingenuous fiancé, even at her own loving family. Each fit of rage is bringing her closer to the edge and now Savannah has to act to save herself. Or die trying. Because the key to survival lies in the underbelly of Cape Town, where the sinister veilwitches are waiting for just such a girl.

Blood to Poison is a furious and mesmerising story about discovering magic, historical rage and love in all its guises.

Mary Watson
About the author

Mary Watson

Books by Mary Watson

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