First published 2014
Godwin Baxter finds a drowned woman and brings her back to life, transplanting an infant's brain into her adult body. The result is Bella Baxter, a beautiful woman with childlike wonder who becomes sexually voracious as she develops. Godwin hopes to shape her into his perfect companion, but his plans unravel when Dr. Archibald McCandless falls in love with Bella and seeks to possess her. As Bella grows more independent and assertive, she defies both men's attempts to control her destiny. McCandless tells his version of events, painting himself as the wronged lover and Godwin as the mad scientist. But then Bella herself takes up the pen to tell her own story, revealing truths that contradict McCandless's account. Her narrative exposes the gap between how men perceive women and how women see themselves. The novel becomes a battle between competing versions of reality, with Bella fighting to define herself on her own terms rather than accept the roles that others have written for her.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, thought-provoking
Tropes: competing-narratives, unreliable-narrator
336 pages · ebook · Bloomsbury Publishing
Content warnings: body-horror, medical-trauma