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A Novel
by Mallory Pearson
Five young women eager for success rely on the unspeakable to make their dreams come true in a chilling novel about martyrdom, ritual, and obsession by the author of We Ate the Dark.
Art student Jo Kozak and her fellow classmates and best friends, Caroline, Finch, Amrita, and Saz, are one another's muses―so close they have their own language and so devoted to the craft that they'll do anything to keep their inspiration alive. Even if it means naively resorting to the occult to unlock their creativity and to curse their esteemed, if notoriously creepy, professor. They soon learn the horrible price to be paid for such a transgressive ritual.
In its violent aftermath, things are changing. Jo is feeling unnervingly haunted by something inexplicable. Their paintings, once prodigious and full of life, are growing dark and unhealthy. And their journey together―as women, students, and artists―is starting to crumble.
To right the wrong they've done, these five desperate friends will take their obsession a step too far. When that happens, there may be no turning back.
"[L]ush and propulsive...Vivid descriptions, believable emotional stakes, and deeply creepy horror elements keep the pages flying as Pearson probes the experience of queer womanhood and the toll of ambition. This stuns." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Voice Like a Hyacinth blends the seductive decadence of Saltburn with the fierce, feral femininity of Yellowjackets to conjure a spine-tingling story of ambition and obsession that deserves to be an instant dark academia classic. You'll be desperate to join Mallory Pearson's indelible art school girl gang―and to read whatever her dark imagination conjures up next." ―Layne Fargo, author of The Favorites and They Never Learn
"Mallory Pearson's Voice Like a Hyacinth is lush chaos. Whatever your experience with codependent, homoerotic friendships, Pearson's feral quintet is on another level. 'I want to go home, but maybe home was years ago,' her narrator, Jo, thinks after reaping what they've sowed. If going home means putting down Pearson's novel and returning to my life, I'm not going without a fight." ―Ruth Madievsky, author of All-Night Pharmacy
"Voice Like a Hyacinth is violently delicious. Prose so vibrant it's neon. So skillfully messy, deep in the mess, obsessed with the mess. This book makes me want to learn how to write." ―Sarah Gailey, author of Just Like Home and The Echo Wife
This information about Voice Like a Hyacinth was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Mallory Pearson is the author of We Ate the Dark. She is a writer and artist portraying themes of folklore, queer identity, loss, and the interaction of these elements with the southern United States. She studied painting and bookbinding, and now spends her time translating visual art into prose. She is an avid fan of horror movies and elaborate stews cooked in big witchy pots, and her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Capsule Stories, and Haverthorn Press. Mallory was raised in Virginia and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her dearest friends. For more information, visit http://mallorypearson.com.
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