Sixteen year old Winnie Campbell is becoming a serial killer. With her father blaming Winnie for her mother’s death and doting on her little sister while ignoring Winnie, his increasingly cruel punishments slip into torture territory. Winnie fantasizes about regaining some of her power back and begins killing small animals to channel her growing rage.
After accidentally killing an infant while babysitting, Winnie gets a taste of the power she’s been seeking. Unable to let it go, her obsession with killing grows out of control, as well as her fascination for Leigh—a young girl that reminds Winnie of her younger self.
Winnie wants to kill. She wants to die. She wants to be someone other than herself.
Why we’re excited about this book:
Relatively new to the horror fiction scene, Emma E. Murray is ready to hit the ground running with her first novel. Murray is the author of the novelettes Exquisite Hunger and When the Devil, with short fiction gracing the pages of such publications and anthologies as Cosmic Horror Monthly, Havok, Nocturne Magazine, Obsolescence, Bitter Apples, and What One Wouldn’t Do, among others. With Murray’s brutal debut novel, we witness the coming-of-age of a serial killer as her dark obsessions become violent realities. Eric LaRocca (Everything the Darkness Eats) says: “A shocking and utterly harrowing examination of the creation of a murderer. Although Crushing Snails excels in many areas, this novel is perhaps most skillful at effectively illustrating the very human compulsion for violence and depravity. Murray’s excellent novel showcases the very human possibility of carnage—the horrifying prospect of brutality—when curiosity is sated and when we finally surrender to our most feral desires.”, and Carson Winter (Soft Targets) says: “Sick, twisted, and compulsively readable—Emma E. Murray’s Crushing Snails is a coming-of-age story that goes to dark and darker places, leaving me constantly hanging between two modes of thought: one-more-chapter and holy-fucking-shit.”
Why Emma’s excited about this book:
“As far as why I’m excited, I have many reasons. First, it’s my debut novel! Second, I’m really proud of the emotional depth of the characters, digging into the gray morality of a protagonist that is simultaneously a victim and a perpetrator, and how I was able to play with the psychology of what makes a killer tick, from the classic nature vs. nurture to the role community and larger society plays to how family dynamics and complicated grief affect a person. I did a lot of research for this book, including reading and analyzing tons of case studies, and used my background in psychology to make it as “accurate” as such a fictional portrayal can be. This is super dark read but I’ve gotten lots of positive feedback, so I’m hoping it will find the right readership out in the world.”
Releasing from Apocalypse Party 6 August 2024, Crushing Snails by Emma E. Murray is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA