You can't choose your family... but you can eat them
Completely absurd, violent and absolutely wonderful. Perfectly blending eldritch horror with family drama that's both tender and hilarious. The world said, "You shouldn't go around making people feel warm and protective over an eyeball-eating serial killer with hidden tentacles" and CM Rosens said, "Try and stop me". Hester Steel, author of The Faceless Thing We Adore C.M. Rosens is in a league of her own, something I say with both love and enthusiasm. In Thirteenth, she takes the idea of the Chosen One by the horns and then covers it in eldritch tentacles and teenage rage. It was an absolute joy to read. … It’s a brilliant story. Somehow, in the midst of some very gory transformation sequences and a lot of murder, it is incredibly emotionally touching. … the ending was so satisfying that I nearly screamed… Meredith Debonnaire, author of Tales from Tantamount I was so excited to read this book, seeing as the first book (The Crows) was absolutely amazing.With this fast-paced read, it was great to catch up on familiar characters, and go through everything they went through. Packed with twists and turns that keep you guessing and wanting more, this was difficult to put down. I look forward to more from C.M Rosens. Leanne Blakey-Novis, co-founder of Red Cape Publishing BOOK DESCRIPTION Katy Porter is the thirteenth child of a thirteenth child in an inbred family of eldritch horrors, and her own eventual metamorphosis will change her into a creature that hungers for her family's flesh. To some, she's a threat - to others, a weapon. All Katy wants to do is finish college and go backpacking with her mates, but as her Changes creep ever closer and her protector is horribly murdered, that's not looking too likely.Katy needs allies, but she's stuck with her oldest brother, Wes, a drug-addled, insanity-inducing playboy who voted for her death but claims he's had a change of heart, and her eyeball-eating, god-like cousin, Ricky, whose idea of protecting her involves abduction, dark rituals, and encouraging her homicidal side.If anyone is going to survive Katy's transformation, including Katy herself, scores need to be settled and fears need to be faced - and Katy is not the only one who needs to face them... A witty, dark and utterly bewitching eldritch family drama with a Lovecraftian twist set in East Sussex. THIRTEENTH is available in eBook and paperback. You can listen to it for free on Season 2 of my podcast, Eldritch Girl: Weird Gothic Stuff and Nonsense. READER ADVISORY: This is a book containing Weird Fiction and Gothic Horror tropes, dealing with familial trauma and generational abuse cycles, which explores the toxic dynamics inherent within an inbred family of eldritch horrors. There is a lot of violence but no sexual threat. Humour is used throughout by the characters themselves and can be found in their interactions with each other, but the topics in the book are not taken lightly, nor is it the intent to make light of them. This is a book for people who find dark humour cathartic, and/or enjoy bathetic family drama with tentacles.There is a lot of recreational alcohol and drug use with a darker, and in one case coercive, undertone/context. There is no sex nor current sexual attraction between the blood-related main characters, but there is a complex history between two cousins. There is one on-page interrupted sex act [fellatio] between consenting adults in a long-term relationship. Two MCs are sex-positive and sexually active: an adult playboy (with enthusiastically consenting adults) and his teenage sister (with teenage boys her age). There is a central sexless but intimate queerplatonic relationship between two other adult characters, one of whom is on the asexual and aromantic spectrums and is uncomfortable with sex when it’s discussed. The following list is advisory not comprehensive: I may have missed your particular trigger but take this as a general flavour of content and use your own discretion. MENTAL/PHYISICAL HEALTH-addiction, including addiction to a person in a literal sense-altered reality, drug-taking and on-page trips by POV character-some instances of depersonalisation, derealisation, questioning reality by POV character, who also has some incoherent thought patterns and memory issues relating to his drug use-alcohol use/abuse/relapse by a male character inside his POV, involving a total lack of self-awareness-issues with emotional disregulation-disordered eating (male), binges and vomiting-self-harm (teenage girl, makes reference to historic cutting but currently uses her own nails and bites her cheeks), self-destructive behaviour of adults-a reference to gender dysphoria-emesis (repeated, different characters, as a stress reaction and rotten food + drug trip reaction) ABUSIVE/DISTURBING DYNAMICS-abduction of a minor by family member (no sexual threat)-toxic, dysfunctional inbred/incestuous (siblings/cousins) monster family, inc. bullying, boundary-crossing-one partner literally addicted to another to the point that withdrawals cause self-harm-adult male sexual arousal/fellatio (in context of dubious power dynamics in an m/f relationship)-historic dubious consent/sexual harassment of asexual character with on-page memory depicted (m/m, first cousins, both teens)-a homophobic serial killer father who targets teen girls, cold/emotionally neglectful mother-NO CSA but historic child neglect and manipulation, emotional/psychological/physical abuse – character has positive memories and a complicated loyalty to their abuser, whose manipulation they didn’t see as ‘bad’ at the time. HORROR TROPES-violence and gore, violent deaths in an inbred eldritch familial context-body horror [eldritch, mutation/transformational, parasitic/worm-adjacent]-cannibalism-very strong language throughout-entrail-reading (birds), [wild] animal cruelty/death
