Woman, Eating

Lydia is hungry.

She’s always wanted to try sashimi, ramen, onigiri with sour plum stuffed inside – the food her Japanese father liked to eat. And then there is bubble tea and the vegetables grown by the other young artists at the London studio space she is secretly squatting in. But Lydia can’t eat any of this. The only thing she can digest is blood, and it turns out that sourcing fresh pigs’ blood in London – where she is living away from her vampire mother for the first time – is much more difficult than she’d anticipated.

Then there are the humans: the people at the gallery she interns at, the strange men who follow her after dark, and Ben, a goofy-grinned artist she is developing feelings for. Lydia knows that they are her natural prey, but she can’t bring herself to feed on them.

If Lydia is to find a way to exist in the world, she must reconcile the conflicts within her – between her demon and human sides, her mixed ethnic heritage, and her relationship with food, and, in turn, humans.

Before any of this, however, she must eat.

‘Witty and thought-provoking’ Stylist

‘Blistering’ Glamour

‘A modern day vampire thriller’ BBC

‘Unusual, original and strikingly contemporary’ Guardian

‘Deliciously fresh’ Waterstones

‘A wholly 21st century take on bloodsucking’ Observer

‘Fascinating’ BookRiot

‘Pumps fresh blood into the horror genre’ The Times

A BOOK OF 2022 IN HARPER’S BAZAAR, DAILY MAIL, GLAMOUR, BBC, HUFFPOST, TOR.COM

Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Imprint: Virago UK
Publication date: 06/04/2023