“You exist because of a crime, because of a curse, and because of a trick...”
Blodeuedd never asked to be made.
Created from flowers of oak, broom, and meadowsweet to marry a man cursed never to have a human wife, Blodeuedd has no knowledge of the world, no family outside the marriage, and no power to choose. But a caged animal still has claws, and Blodeuedd will find a way to be free, whatever the cost.
Gwydion knows what it is to be unmade.
Haunted by the years he served in animal form as punishment for his brother's crimes, Gwydion has turned his tricks to his nephew's happiness – and the creation of Blodeuedd is the greatest trick of them all. But his creation asks questions he cannot answer and drags from the depths of the forest the past he has been trying so hard to forget.
Now they both must face their unmaking.
From the author of The Wolf and His King comes a spellbinding new novel retelling the medieval Welsh story of Blodeuwedd in a profound exploration of cyclical trauma and transformation.
THE ANIMALS WE BECAME is coming this November from @gollancz, and next year from Erewhon Books for North American readers. I am excited (and a little nervous!) to bring you all this book about gender, trauma, and compulsory heterosexuality, as expressed through nonconsensual animal transformations and deeply unreliable narrators. Also a fair smattering of medieval Welsh law, to be honest.
It is both like TWAHK (it's medieval, it's about bodies in crisis, I got carried away with the historical thesaurus while editing it) and entirely unlike it (there's no romance, the sex is slightly more explicit, and I would describe the mood as less melancholy but angrier and certainly not *happier*). It also has more women in it, though the gender of the protagonists is a bit of a shrug and a noncommittal hand gesture situation. It is a very trans book. They're all having an absolute time of it with gender in this one.
More details and preorder links are on my website! Why not pre-order while you're buying TWAHK in paperback? ;)
Cover art once again by the wonderful Tom Roberts, who also did the art for TWAHK :)
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