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A Novel
by Neena Viel
A suffocating and sharp narrative horror novel for fans of Victor LaValle and The Reformatory from "addictive" (Publishers Weekly) horror author Neena Viel, I'll Watch Your Baby is a haunting reimagining of Linda Taylor—known as the original Welfare Queen―pursued, scrutinized, celebrated and vilified, and the impact her image has had for generations.
1974. Lottie Turner is already infamous. Running a wheel of schemes and scams, she's willing to work for what she wants in…creative ways. But no business is more lucrative than desperate families looking to adopt a child―and there's only one way to procure children quickly.
And the only way to take what's owed you is to cross the line no one else is willing to cross.
1994. Bless has finally found the family she deserved. After suffocating slowly with lackluster parents and a non-starter past, she's found the friends that means everything to her. That she'd live and die for. As they make their way across the country, one smash and grab at a time, Bless is used to acting fast and thinking on her feet.
But someone is playing a long game. Someone has unfinished business. Soon Bless is trapped in a web of horrors past and present, where the only escape hatch is a path only she can walk, if she finds the courage to take it.
"Viel (Listen To Your Sister) skewers the racist stereotype of the "welfare queen" in this delightfully gruesome larvae-infested tale...Readers will find these antiheroines' fierceness and determination to survive in a world that hates them impossible to look away from." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Deliciously terrifying and belly laugh-inducing...Viel incorporates well worn genre tropes in new ways and provides plenty of bloodcurdling surprises along the way." —BookPage (starred review)
"Anxiety metamorphoses into terror for a young Black woman fiercely protecting her own... A relentless descent into familial fears made manifest, both haunting and terribly familiar." —Kirkus Reviews
"Evocative... A thought provoking climax examines the lingering impacts of generational trauma and misogynoir. For fans of novels that combine supernatural horror with social commentary, like the works of Tananarive Due and LaTanya McQueen." ―Booklist
"Sure to be one of the year's most unforgettable horror novels." ―Library Journal
This information about I'll Watch Your Baby 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.
Neena Viel is a horror writer who lives in a cabin in the Washingtonian woods with her husband and the best dog on the planet. Her passion for philanthropy (almost) rivals her love for ghost stories. Listen to Your Sister is her debut novel.
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