Description

‘A gruesome, blackly funny, utterly original feminist horror story’
New York Times, Notable Book of the Year

‘A buzz-worthy and ferocious horror comedy from one of the genre’s most promising voices’
Buzzfeed

Abby Lamb has done it. She’s found the Great Good in her husband, Ralph, and together they will start a family and put all the darkness in her childhood to rest. But then the Lambs move in with Ralph’s mother, Laura, whose depression has made it impossible for her to live on her own. She’s venomous and cruel, especially to Abby, who has a complicated understanding of motherhood given the way her own, now-estranged, mother raised her.

When Laura takes her own life, her ghost starts to haunt Abby and Ralph in very different ways. Ralph is plunged into depression, and Abby is being terrorized by a force intent on taking everything she loves away from her. With everything on the line, Abby must make the ultimate sacrifice in order to prove her adoration to Ralph and break Laura’s hold on the family for good.

Publisher Review

Gripping... A gutsy, gory mashup of domestic horror and dark humour * Observer * A gruesome, blackly funny, utterly original feminist horror story * New York Times, Notable Book of 2022 * A dark, moving, hugely entertaining slab of gothic horror....and also very funny * Metro * A disgusting and delightful romp of a book * Big Issue * Filled with sharp, crackling sentences, which bend variously sinister, humorous and sad, Ainslie Hogarth's new novel is a stunner. Like Mona Awad's Bunny or Ottessa Moshfegh's Eileen, Motherthing is a fabulous, frightening story built from fine, fine prose * Laird Hunt, author of the National Book Award finalist, Zorrie * This novel is bursting with smart, provocative, heart-breaking things to say about the nature of grief and its ability to take up just as much - if not more - physical space than the actual person lost. Motherthing is gory and irreverent and totally irresistible * Courtney Maum, author of Touch * A masterfully crafted horror novel that's by turns humorous and deeply unsettling... Packs a punch * Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW * Profane, insane, hilarious, disgusting - and unexpectedly moving * Kirkus STARRED REVIEW * A smart, taut, hallucinatory book about mothers, daughters, and relationships of care. And buckets of blood. * Ally Wilkes, author of All the White Spaces * One of my favourite books of the year so far... Sorrow and Bliss but make it haunted * Red, Blackwells Manchester *