The forest eats the girls who wander out after dark . . .

A dark, atmospheric and riveting debut, wreathed around a love story like no other Samantha Shannon, author of the million-copy bestsellerThePriory of the Orange Tree

Rooted in fairytales, folklore, and sapphic romance,The Maiden and Her Monsterby Maddie Martinez is perfect for fans of Katherine Arden, Ava Reid, and Naomi Novik.

As the healers daughter, Malka has seen how the forest’s curse has plagued her village. But the Ozmini Church only comes to collect its tithe, not to listen to heretics with false tales of monsters in the trees.

When a clergy girl wanders too close to the woods and Malkas mother is accused of her murder, Malka strikes an impossible bargain with a zealot Ozmini priest. If she brings him the monster, he will spare her mother from execution.

When she ventures into the blood-soaked woods, Malka finds a monster, though not the one she expects: an inscrutable, disgraced golem who agrees to implicate herself, but only after Malka helps her fulfil an ancient promise by freeing the imprisoned rabbi who created her.

But a deal easily made is not easily kept. And as their bargain unravels a much more sinister threat, protecting her people may force Malka to endanger the one person she left home to save and face her growing feelings for the very creature she was taught to fear.

A dark and endlessly enchanting fairy tale Ava Reid, No. 1New York Timesbestselling author ofA Study in Drowning

A dark, poignant fairy tale about resilience, faith, and redemption Allison Saft, theSunday Timesbestselling author ofA Dark and Drowning Tide