"A Picture of Dorian Grey meets A Cure for Wellness in this suspenseful, horror-tinted thriller set at an exclusive health retreat on a remote Scottish island, where miraculous treatments offered to wealthy clientele may not be precisely what they seem.
Perfection comes at a cost.
Jaimie Vane used to measure her life in concert halls and standing ovations. Now she measures it in symptoms. The chronic illness that ended her career as a cellist doesn't have a name or a cure-just a long list of things her body can't do anymore.
When her wild child younger sister Sybil reinvents herself as a live-in staffer at an ultra-exclusive wellness retreat, Jaimie assumes it's another phase.
Until her messages stop.
Until the voucher arrives.
Talamh Dhubh, a black-sand island in the middle of a wintery sea and home to Saoghal Spa, is a place for guests to be reborn. The founder, the enigmatic and glamorous Cyan Blache, promises restoration. Clarity. Transcendence. Whatever ails you, Saoghal will draw it from you. For guests willing to surrender completely, body and soul, the results are nothing short of miraculous.
Jaimie tells herself she's only there to find Sybil. Not to drink organic detox smoothies or pour herself onto canvas in art therapy. Not to lie in the mineral baths and bask in the curiously soothing black mud. Not to believe the guests and staff who say Saoghal changed their lives.
But the longer she stays, the lighter her body feels. The quieter her pain becomes. The easier it is to forget what she was like before she got sick.
At Saoghal, healing is real.
And so is the cost.
Because the island doesn't merely cure the visitors who revel in the embrace of its rich, black mud…it ensnares them. And the ones who arrive broken don't always leave.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
"
"In this hauntingly twisted tale, an author reconnects with an old boarding school friend, forcing her to reckon with their shared past and the imaginary creature she thought they left behind.
Touch a line, you break your spine.
Stacey is the dusty air, the cracked soil, the drought. To thirteen-year-old Bethany Sloane, she’s everything.
Abandoned by her mother at a remote African boarding school, Bethany will do anything to stay in Stacey’s good graces. And that means learning the rules of each twisted game.
Touch a crack, you break your back.
Years later, Bethany is a bestselling author. Disabled now, she can’t remember what happened back in the bush. But there’s no mistaking Stacey Preston’s name in her inbox.
Glassy, glassy, cut my arsey.
That email brings Bethany’s childhood rushing back. The Glass Man was just a story the Thorns invented, a game of wits. But every game has its rules—and consequences for breaking them. To stay alive this round, Bethany needs to play right into Stacey’s hands.
Dark and disturbing, The Thorns explores the horrifying world of adolescent abuse, controlling friendships, and blinding obsession."
"Award-winning author Dawn Kurtagich masterfully weaves a captivating tale of suspense and horror, in which Dr. Mina Murray returns to the windswept shores of Wales to help her childhood friend fight the mysterious illness that plagues her. When the lines between reality and delusion begin to blur, Mina must face off against a monstrous legacy-or be consumed herself.
Beware what waits in the shadows…
With one unexpected email from her estranged best friend, Lucy, Mina Murray's carefully curated life is turned upside down. Leaving behind her psychiatric practice in London, she returns home to the windswept shores of Wales. Faced with everything she's left behind, she soon discovers that Lucy's symptoms mirror those of her mysterious amnesiac patient hundreds of miles away.
With nothing but an untreatable sickness connecting the two women, and with Lucy's life on the line, Mina finds herself asking questions and being drawn ever-deeper into a web of secrets, missing girls, and the powerful, nameless force at its center-one that has been haunting her for years.
As terrible, ancient truths begin to reveal themselves, Mina prepares to confront her own darkest secrets, and with them, an evil beyond comprehension. Together with a group of smart, savvy women, Mina seizes one last, desperate chance to stop the cycle that began so long ago. But there are dangers to inviting the attentions of what might not be a man, but a monster…
"
"Three generations of women uncover an ancient evil in this epic genre-bending horror-fantasy -- a 'fearless' Faustian tale perfect for fans of Kendare Blake and Ransom Riggs (Cat Winters).
Before the birth of time, a monk uncovers the Devil's Tongue and dares to speak it. The repercussions will be felt for generations . . .
Sixteen-year-old photography enthusiast Zoey has been fascinated by the haunted, burnt-out ruins of Medwyn Mill House for as long as she can remember -- so she and her best friend, Poulton, run away from home to explore them. But are they really alone in the house? And who will know if something goes wrong?
In 1851, seventeen-year-old Roan arrives at the Mill House as a ward -- one of three, all with something to hide from their new guardian. When Roan learns that she is connected to an ancient secret, she must escape the house before she is trapped forever.
1583. Hermione, a new young bride, accompanies her husband to the wilds of North Wales where he plans to build the largest water mill and mansion in the area. But rumors of unholy rituals lead to a tragic occurrence and she will need all her strength to defeat it.
Three women, centuries apart, drawn together by one Unholy Pact. A pact made by a man who, more than a thousand years later, may still be watching . . .
This haunting, captivating, and 'delightfully disturbing' mystery redefines horror and fantasy (Kirkus)."
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