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The Girl from Rawblood: A Gothic Horror Story Paperback – March 7, 2017

by Catriona Ward (Author)

3.8 209 ratings

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"An impressively hectic spin on the Gothic tradition"―Telegraph

The winner of BEST HORROR NOVEL at the British Fantasy Awards by the author of The House on Needless Street!

What if it's not your mansion that's haunted―it's you?

Young Iris Villarca is the last of her family's line. They are haunted by "her," a curse passed down through the generations that marks each Villarca for certain heartbreak and death. For generations, the Villarcas have died young, under mysterious circumstances.

But Iris dares to fall in love, and the consequences of her choice are immediate and terrifying. As the world falls apart around her, she must take a final journey back to Rawblood where it all began, and where it must all end…

Perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson, Susan Hill, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Girl from Rawblood will pull readers through time into the early 1800s and 1900s, mesmerizing them with this lyrical story of cunning folk horror right until the breathtaking finish.

Praise for The Girl from Rawblood:

"Superb debut....Ward perfectly balances sensory richness with the chills of the uncanny."

―Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

"The Girl from Rawblood makes a powerful contribution to the British literature of the fantastic…There's a touch of Ted Hughes here, Emily Bronte and M.R James in this eerie and by turns moving story that spans generations…A definite book of the year for me."

―Adam Nevill, award-winning author of The Ritual and No One Gets Out Alive

"The Girl from Rawblood weaves a spell that both terrifies and mesmerizes. As each layer of mystery is peeled away, more haunting truth is revealed. The book leaves the reader breathless in its gothic tale of fear, family, blood, and love."

―Simone St. James, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel

Print length

368 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication date

March 7, 2017
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.92 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10

1492637424
ISBN-13

978-1492637424
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"...superb debut....Ward perfectly balances sensory richness with the chills of the uncanny." ― Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

"Ward’s layered and skillfully crafted novel weaves elements of classic gothic and horror into a remarkable story populated by unforgettable characters, palpable atmosphere, and rich lyricism. Imagine the darkest and goriest undertones of Edgar Allan Poe, the Brontës, Charles Dickens, and Shirley Jackson, and you’ll have an idea of what Ward offers here." ― Library Journal

"The Girl from Rawblood is a cleverly interwoven Gothic tale of love and madness. Ward’s atmospheric writing and chilling story drew me in from the first page, and kept me up at night, right through to the disturbing and tragic ending." ― Claire Fuller, author of Our Endless Numbered Days

"The Girl from Rawblood makes a powerful contribution to the British literature of the fantastic. It's an epic family saga incorporating a great Gothic house, built upon a lyrically rendered regional landscape, from which the numinous rises as if it is a natural function of the setting. There's a touch of Ted Hughes here, Emily Bronte and M.R James in this eerie and by turns moving story that spans generations. It filled my head for several evenings, and will linger there too . . . A definite book of the year for me" ― Adam Nevill, author of The Ritual

"Brilliant – The Girl From Rawblood is the old-school gothic novel I have been waiting for. While it delivers everything I want from a ‘haunted house/family curse’ story, it is still stunningly original. I have never read anything like it and that’s saying something." ― Mike Mignola, creator of the Hellboy comic book series

"Beautifully written, in equal parts both terrifying and heart-breaking, The Girl from Rawblood is a dazzlingly brilliant Gothic masterpiece" ― Sarah Pinborough

"an extended stalk through the history of the English ghost story . . . the pleasures of the ghost story are presented in such abundance, and carried off in such fine style . . . savor the allusive gusto" ― Literary Review

"genuinely frightening . . . Like the best classic Gothic novels (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Castle of Otranto), The Girl from Rawblood relies on partially informed narrators telling their own stories . . . As a meta-examination of the Gothic genre and as a straightforward tale of grisly haunting, Ward’s novel is remarkably successful" ― Spectator

"an impressively hectic spin on the Gothic tradition" ― Telegraph

"The ghost story is back" ― Guardian

"A lush, macabre, chillingly good tale. From the modern horrors of man – medical experiments, war – to the ancient power of the natural world, The Girl from Rawblood is not only a ghost story of the highest order, but a sublime meditation on the things that hold us captive: fidelity, fear, memory, love. " ― Leslie Parry, author of The Church of Marvels

"From Victorian ghost story to anti-war polemic and back again: I raged, wept and hid under the bed covers. As full of science as it is the supernatural, this is a hauntingly brilliant virtuoso performance." ― Emma Healey, best selling author of Elizabeth is Missing

"Gloriously dark and claustrophobic, The Girl from Rawblood is a haunting gothic novel of intelligence and complexity. It has many echoes of the classics but is entirely its own book." ― Essie Fox, author of The Somnambulist

"The Girl from Rawblood is a fiercely original work of horror fiction that draws from its antecedents not in the manner of a vampire sucking blood, but of a thirsty artisan raising water from a well . . . a damn fine story, well paced and genuinely disturbing and achingly sad. This is one of those novels that leaves you loath to read anything else for a while, the world it evokes is so complete and so richly imagined. The Girl from Rawblood delivers all the mystery and menace that one might hope for in a classic ghost story. Moreover, it does not shrink from the ineffable. Fans of supernatural horror need not be disappointed: in The Girl from Rawblood, the ghosts are real." ― Strange Horizons

"With a ghostly face at the window, inexplicable events and a sense of menace hanging over every page, this is one chilling gothic novel." ― Daily Mail

"A ghostly, achingly sad, yet excruciatingly beautiful debut . . .Catriona Ward has created a moving, original tale of love and destruction, one that is truly enthralling and memorable." ― LoveReading

"If you want to read a gripping ghost story and be kept awake all night . . . you must read The Girl From Rawblood" ― Bianca Jagger

"[an] atmospheric debut" ― Booklist

"A gripping and gruesome story of death, war, mental health, scientific experimentation, opium addiction and ill-fated, fateful love. Chillingly good." ― Express

"Beautifully written Gothic. It is rare to find such sumptuous prose." ― A.K. Benedict, author of The Beauty of Murder and Jonathan Dark, or the Evidence of Ghosts

"The Girl from Rawblood is a mesmerizing debut novel. It will haunt your dreams." ― Miranda Seymour, author of Thrumpton Hall

"The Girl from Rawblood is a precisely and beautifully woven tapestry through which threads of darkness wind their inevitable way. Ward has crafted a sweeping saga of madness in all its forms that will chill you to the bones and draw you into its murky depths." ― Charlie Lovett, New York Times bestselling author of The Bookman’s Tale and The Lost Book of the Grail

"A story to satisfy the most gothic of hearts. I was hooked on the very first page and The Girl from Rawblood never let me go. Sentence by sentence, Catriona Ward made herself one of my very favorite writers." ― Kelly Link, 2016 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, author of Get in Trouble

"The west-country moors have been the setting for some of the most memorable of unsettling stories in British literature; there's something about that unconquerable space that threatens us, even now. The Girl from Rawblood is a continuation of our long-standing fear of the bleak expanse of the wide-open, so far from shelter or from normality, and it's brilliant." ― Den of Geek

"The Girl from Rawblood weaves a spell that both terrifies and mesmerizes. As each layer of mystery is peeled away, more haunting truth is revealed. The book leaves the reader breathless in its gothic tale of fear, family, blood, and love." ― Simone St. James, award-winning author of The Haunting of Maddy Clare

"With a nod to the Gothic novels of old, the narrative travels back in time and from England to Italy, in order to bring to life this haunting, mysterious tale." ― Bookish

About the Author

Catriona Ward was born in Washington DC and grew up in the US, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen and Morocco. She studied English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford followed by the UEA Masters in Creative Writing. After living in New York for 4 years where she trained as an actor, she now works for a human rights foundation and lives in London.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sourcebooks Landmark (March 7, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1492637424
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1492637424
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.92 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #980,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,902 in Gothic Fiction
- #2,978 in Ghost Fiction
- #44,793 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
3.8 209 ratings

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Catriona Ward

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CATRIONA WARD was born in Washington, DC and grew up in the United States, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, and Morocco. She read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia.

'The Last House on Needless Street' (Viper Books, Tor Nightfire) was a Times Book of the Month, Observer Book of the Month, March Editor’s Pick on Open Book, a Between the Covers BBC2 book club selection, a Times bestseller, and is being developed for film by Andy Serkis’s production company, The Imaginarium.

'Little Eve' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2018) won the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award and the August Derleth Prize for Best Horror Novel at the 2019 British Fantasy Awards, making her the only woman to have won the prize twice, and was a Guardian best book of 2018. Her debut Rawblood (W&N, 2015) won Best Horror Novel at the 2016 British Fantasy Awards, was shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award and a WHSmith Fresh Talent title. Her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies. She lives in London and Devon.

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5

209 global ratings

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Liz C.

A masterpiece

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2022

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The Girl from Rawblood is a masterpiece. I've never seen a writer so in control. Every sentence is breathtakingly beautiful, even when it's horrifying. It's a hell of a ghost story and a hell of a love story.

7 people found this helpful

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JayCee

Haunting, Moving, Holds its Own with the Best Gothic Classics

Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

This novel drew me in—haunting, atmospheric, tragic characters steeped in local color. A ghost story that delivers a blow to the heart. Huge fan of Gothic literature, classic and modern and Ms. Ward holds her own with contemporaries like Joyce Carol Oates, Sarah Waters and Susan Hill.

6 people found this helpful

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ABookwormWithWine

Not my favorite, but dark and gothic!

Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2022

Verified Purchase

I have read quite a few of Catriona Ward's newer books now and hearing that her newest Little Eve may or may not be a follow-up to The Girl from Rawblood meant I had to read it first. Little did I know this is actually her debut, and I am seriously in awe that she spent like 6 years writing it. I loved the gothic and slight horror vibes to the story, and of course, ghosts always make me happy. There are a lot of characters and a lot of different time periods though and that made this story somewhat confusing. Ward did add a small family tree-type graphic to the front of the book, but for the most part, it was pretty unhelpful for me. This is also a VERY slow burn, and not a lot of action happens. Honestly, I was also hoping for even more of a creep factor and I think the slowness of the plot and all of the time period changes kind of took away from that potential.

I did really enjoy the audiobook of The Girl from Rawblood which is narrated by a full cast - also a bonus! Liz Pearce, Steven Crossley, John Keating, Elizabeth Sastre & Jenny Sterlin were all great, and I loved my time with them, but because of the different characters and time periods, I actually think reading the book would have been the better way to go. The ending made no sense to me at all, and I definitely feel like I missed something. This might be the ONLY book that I didn't love that I would be willing to do a reread of, and I swear that is saying something about Ward's writing, but also my need to see if the end actually makes sense in my head. I bought a copy and have every intention of hanging onto it, and there was also a great conversation with the author at the end of it as well. I am telling you now that if you read (or listen to) The Girl from Rawblood, you MUST make sure you get that in your copy. The audio didn't have it and I would have been sad if I hadn't gotten to read it. CHILLS man, that is all.

2 people found this helpful

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Fruit

Another amazing Ward novel.

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2022

I love Catriona Ward's writing, and this book is no exception. She's so in tune with the setting, the characters, the plot. I often put her books down to reconsider the way I know myself and the world. Every sentence is beautiful. I think some readers miss the clues in her symbolism and metaphor, assume she's just babbling, but it's all relevant to plot and character arcs. My only issue with this book is that Iris's main objective, as implied repeatedly, is never accomplished and never mentioned at the end, but the rest is so good, I don't care. Can't wait for Looking Glass Sound in March 2023.

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T. Sparks

A sweeping family saga dripping with gothic atmosphere

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2023

The Girl From Rawblood was originally published in 2015 (and won a British Fantasy Award in 2016) and was Catriona Ward’s first book, and I’m very glad it’s been rereleased, otherwise I might never have read it. This was an unexpectedly emotional read for me, reducing me to tears at the end. I suspect a lot of that has to do with Ward’s lush prose, which brought this grim, gothic tale to life, an emotional story full of interesting characters who find themselves in dire situations. This isn’t a happy tale by any means, and it took me a solid week to read, even though the page count is fairly low. Ward has written a dense, atmospheric story about several intertwined families and how they are linked together by a curse. If you’re a fan of gothic classics like Wuthering Heights or Frankenstein, you will probably love this as well.

The story is told in multiple timelines and roughly spans the years between the mid-1800s and 1919. We first meet Iris Villarca in 1910 when she is eleven years old. Iris and her father live in seclusion at Rawblood, an old, decrepit mansion that has been in the Villarca family for years. Iris has a friend named Tom Gilmore, but her father Alonso has raised Iris to follow a strict set of rules that discourage interaction with other people. According to him, the Villarcas are cursed with a disease called horror autotoxicus, a wasting illness that ends in death, brought on by high emotions. Alonso has forbidden Iris to spend time with Tom, her only friend, but she manages to sneak away and see Tom despite her father’s warnings. The two become close over the years, but Tom eventually goes to war, leaving Iris to a terrible fate.

The story then jumps back in time to 1881. Alonso welcomes Charles Danforth to Rawblood, where the two men begin a series of secret medical experiments revolving around antibodies in the blood. Alonso has an ulterior motive for their experiments, although he doesn’t reveal it to Charles until much later.

In other timelines we meet more members of the Villarca and Gilmore families, including Iris’s mother Meg and Alonso’s mother Mary, both who have the “sight” and can predict future events. Tying all these time periods and family members together is the Rawblood ghost, a woman in white who is closely connected to the family curse and the real source of Alonso’s fictitious horror autotoxicus.

Ward includes a family tree at the beginning of the book, which came in very handy as I was reading. There are many connections among the characters which aren’t apparent at first, but eventually the reader learns about the surprising ways they are related, both by blood and circumstance. At first it was jarring to jump from one character to the next. I loved reading about Iris, and I thought the story was going to focus on her life. But although she is the “girl from Rawblood” in the title, there are many more characters who play important roles in the story, even if it doesn’t seem that way at first. For a debut, I thought this book was brilliantly crafted. Ward unveils secrets as if peeling back the skin of an onion, revealing each horrifying layer with meticulous skill.

The supernatural elements are subtle. The “ghost” is merely an idea at first. Only certain people can see her, and she’s more legend and rumor than anything else. Because of the rumors, servants don’t stay long at Rawblood and the townspeople avoid the Villarcas whenever possible. The appearance of the ghost can only mean one thing: death will soon follow. There is a horrifying twist at the end that reveals a connection between Iris and the ghost, but you have to be paying attention to the clues along the way.

The story has so many emotional elements. Ward brings the horrors of WWI to life, as boys and men are forced to go to war. In Tom’s case, his father has died and he has no where to go, and so he enlists, even though it means leaving Iris behind. There’s also a harrowing section that takes place in a mental asylum, where Iris winds up after a tragic event at Rawblood. The scenes between Alonso and Charles are both fascinating and horrifying. At one point the two men decide to play a game of sorts, where they secretly dose each other with drugs. Alonso develops a life-long addition to opiates because of this, and it was heartbreaking to see how it affected his life. Ward has clearly done lots of research into this time period, which by the way was not a good time to be a woman.

Despite all the drama and sorrow, though, The Girl From Rawblood is also a love story. Iris and Tom fall in love, although their relationship is ultimately doomed. Meg is determined that her fourth pregnancy will yield a child, and her love for her unborn baby is fierce. Even Alonso’s and Charles’s relationship veers towards love, as does the unlikely friendship between Mary Hopewell, Iris’s grandmother, and her traveling companion Hephzibah Brigstocke. And probably the strongest example is Alonso’s love for his daughter. He will do anything to save Iris from the family curse, even if that means hiding her away from the world.

Readers who don’t mind a slower paced, emotionally charged story will find a lot to love in The Girl From Rawblood. Highly recommended.

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Erin

Tedious however well written…

Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2022

Verified Purchase

Reminiscent (at least to me) of Brontë’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ and Dickens’ ‘Hard Times,’ but much more exhausting and slow paced. Well written and evocative of gothic horrors; but too much of a task to read. A long, drawn out one, from which one wishes to be free.

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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer

Trying too hard

Reviewed in Canada on August 24, 2023

Verified Purchase

It was a rough read. It started out fine and I liked it but then it just dragged on and became unreadable for the last quarter.
The most annoying aspect was the horribly forced sounding prose. It read like the author was desperately trying to sound poetic. Honestly, it was awful. Cringe even.
I did like The Last House on Needless Street and another novel by the author. But this one was just...not it.

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