Lament
On sale
22nd April 2027
Price: £24.99
‘A daring, gothic, coastal feast. Lament is a stirring coastal folk horror reminiscent of The Woman in Black and Widow’s Bay. This will be a classic’ Lucy Rose, author of The Lamb
A mother’s curse, a town’s ruin . . .
Streanshalt, 1824. Under the veil of darkness, a woman wades into the sea carrying the lifeless body of her young daughter. Standing on the shore, her thirteen-year-old son Alfie watches in helpless agony as the two people he loves the most are submerged in the freezing water, his mother’s final words a curse on the entire, wretched town.
Ten years later, Streanshalt still shuns Alfie as they did those ‘Alum witches’ before him, but Alfie can’t bear to leave the only place he has ever called home.
It’s another dark night when Alfie stumbles across a mysterious woman who has washed up on the tide. She carries with her a small leather trunk, her secrets locked inside . . .
Lament is a haunting tale of folk horror set in a fictionalised Whitby, perfect for readers of Lucy Rose, Sophie Mackintosh and Kirsty Logan.
‘Jessie Elland is a singularly talented writer. Uncanny, tragic and hauntingly beautiful’ Emma Van Straaten, author of This Immaculate Body
‘With rich prose, a warm but piercing voice and a perfectly unravelling plot, you won’t be able to look away’ Charlotte Paradise, author of Overspill
A mother’s curse, a town’s ruin . . .
Streanshalt, 1824. Under the veil of darkness, a woman wades into the sea carrying the lifeless body of her young daughter. Standing on the shore, her thirteen-year-old son Alfie watches in helpless agony as the two people he loves the most are submerged in the freezing water, his mother’s final words a curse on the entire, wretched town.
Ten years later, Streanshalt still shuns Alfie as they did those ‘Alum witches’ before him, but Alfie can’t bear to leave the only place he has ever called home.
It’s another dark night when Alfie stumbles across a mysterious woman who has washed up on the tide. She carries with her a small leather trunk, her secrets locked inside . . .
Lament is a haunting tale of folk horror set in a fictionalised Whitby, perfect for readers of Lucy Rose, Sophie Mackintosh and Kirsty Logan.
‘Jessie Elland is a singularly talented writer. Uncanny, tragic and hauntingly beautiful’ Emma Van Straaten, author of This Immaculate Body
‘With rich prose, a warm but piercing voice and a perfectly unravelling plot, you won’t be able to look away’ Charlotte Paradise, author of Overspill
Reviews
A daring, gothic, coastal feast. It's like reading a cursed fever dream or a breathtaking campfire story. LAMENT is a stirring coastal folk horror reminiscent of The Woman in Black and Widow's Bay, and Jessie Elland haunts with this seamlessly crafted story which feels lifted from another time. This will be a classic
Jessie Elland is a singularly talented writer with precise, powerful prose; she weaves a deeply atmospheric world in which we are trapped. Immersive and strange, I could feel the salt and the damp and the desperation of the fading, failing northern seaside town and its people. The story feels both ancient and new, such that even as the events surprised and confound me, they still retained the tragic inevitability of a fairytale. Uncanny, tragic and hauntingly beautiful. I cannot wait to read Jessie Elland's next book, and the next, and the next
Lament is a deeply human and haunting folktale and Elland a master of atmosphere and character. This novel is a grip on your wrist that makes you feel your heartbeat under it, and that slowly pulls you under. With rich prose, a warm but piercing voice and a perfectly unravelling plot, you won't be able to look away from Lament