Such Pretty Things

A terrifying story of ghosts and grief, perfect for fans of Shirley Jackon's The Haunting of Hill House and Henry James The Turn of the Screw, in award-winning author Lisa Heathfield s first adult novel.

Following their mother’s accident, Clara and Stephen are sent to stay with their aunt and uncle. It’s a summer to explore the remote house, the walled garden and woods. Beyond it all the loch sits, silent and waiting.

Auntie has wanted them for so long - real children with hair to brush and arms to slip into the clothes made just for them. All those hours washing, polishing, preparing beds and pickling fruit and now Clara and Stephen are here, like a miracle, on her doorstep.

But as they explore their new home, the children uncover ghosts Auntie buried long ago. As their worlds collide, Clara and Auntie struggle for control. And every day they spend there, Clara can feel unknown forces changing her brother. Haunted and bewildered, this hastily formed family begins to tear itself apart.


Genre: Horror

"A wonderfully creepy and unsettling account of the terrors of a child trapped in an uncertain adult world. The suspense grows as that world becomes increasingly untrustworthy and dangerous, resulting in the steady disintegration of normality. A terrific read." - Alison Littlewood

"A masterful modern day Gothic that is dread inducing and melancholic in equal measure, Such Pretty Things is a thoughtful rumination on the wonder and horror of grief, of what it can become. By the end, holy hell, the book is a fist that slowly closes around your heart and squeezes." - Paul Tremblay