Description:
Darling has its demons.
Cherry LaRouche escaped the claws of Darling, Louisiana at sixteen. When she returns after her mother's death, Cherry and her children are forced into a nightmare where evil spreads like infection and the house itself demands her bones.
While Cherry tries to separate fact from fantasy, the locals discover the bodies of several murdered children. When Cherry's own daughter goes missing, she's forced to face everything she had fled from and confront the true monsters of Darling.
From Mercedes M. Yardley, three-time Bram Stoker Award winner for Little Dead Red, Love is a Crematorium, and "Fracture," comes a stunning revised edition of Darling. This Southern Gothic tour de force is the first novel in the interconnected world of The Hunger Garden, where demons and delights both await you.
Review Quotes:
"Darling is an unflinching horror novel--an unsettling story about what constitutes true evil."
--Catherine Thureson of Foreword Reviews
"Mercedes M. Yardley's epic novel Darling is written with the eloquence that makes Yardley's work stand out. It is an emotionally raw and thrilling novel. The twists and turns will keep you guessing. And for me, that's always a good thing... Highly recommend."
--Cindy O'Quinn, Bram Stoker Award-winning author
"Mercedes M. Yardley's mad, pantheistic, breathtaking vision of a natural world both insane and profound--where houses hunger, men smile like sharks, even flowers have teeth, and the moon can devour the sky--is authentically shocking and ecstatically alive. She conjures pages draped in brilliance. And my soul feels heard."
--John Skipp, bestselling author of This Is Splatterpunk and The Change
"Mercedes M. Yardley writes with a knife in one hand and a lullaby in the other. Darling is a Southern Gothic that understands the deepest truth of horror fiction: that dread means nothing unless you love the people in danger. Cherry LaRouche and her children will stay with you long after the last page."
--Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of It Came From Neverland
"Mercedes Yardley's Darling blossoms with grief and anxiety. And when the blossoms wither, the ovary swells. The fruit is sweet, and tart, with a heart like a stone, and a touch of cyanide if you bite down too hard."
--Sarah Read, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Atropine Tree