Chloe Timms

The Seawomen

The Seawomen are taught to be the evils of the deep surrounding Eden's Isle, but in time Esta finds out the real evil is in the hearts of men in this magical, debut novel.

Esta has known nothing but Eden’s Isle her whole life. Raised by her grandmother, after a fire claimed her parents and scarred her face, she's instructed to piety, to deference, and acquiescence by a religious society that will not suffer anything else. Cut off from the moral iniquity of the mainland, the island believes it can stay free of the Seawomen - creatures from the water that came upon land to corrupt God's creation and Man according to The Great Book. The inhabitants fear the water and believe the only way to remain virtuous is to never enter it, and for the women to be married and conceive within 12 months of their appointed motheryear.

If they do not conceive, they're cast back into the ocean as a sacrifice in an act called the Untethering. Esta witnesses such an act as a child and growing up on the island is fraught with tension as she comes to the terms with the prohibitive malaise of the culture she finds herself in. Before long, she gets a taste of freedom, falls in love, and the potential of the world grows much larger. Will she conceive a child in her loveless arranged marriage, or suffer the same fate of many women before her, and be Untethered in the name of salvation? Or will she find a way to live the life she now desires?

Publisher: Hodder Studio
Publication Date: June 14, 2022
ISBN: ‎ 978-1529369564

'An unsettling and lushly-written reimagining of witch trials. The Handmaid's Tale meets The Shape of Water' KIRSTY LOGAN

Available for order:

AMAZON UK | WATERSTONES

Chloe Timms is a writer and former teacher from the English Kent coast. After an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Kent, Chloe has gone onto be Bridport longlisted, a Stylist novel prize runner up and awarded a scholarship at the Faber Academy. Chloe has Spinal Muscular Atrophy and is a passionate disabled rights activist. The Seawomen is her debut novel.

https://www.chloetimms.co.uk/

Tags: Adult, Dystopian, Literary, Magical Realism, Speculative Fiction/SFF