Slashed Beauties - by A Rushby (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Seoul, present day. Antiques dealer Alys's task is nearly complete. She has at last secured Elizabeth, the final anatomical Venus in a dangerously intertwined trio. Crafted in eighteenth-century London and modeled after real-life sex workers to entice male medical students to study female anatomy, these eerie wax figures, known as slashed beauties, carry unsavory lore. Legend has it that the figures are bewitched, and come to life at night to murder men who have wronged them. Now Alys embarks for England, where she knows what she must do: sever her cursed connection to the Venuses once and for all.

London, 1769. Abandoned and penniless in Covent Garden, wide-eyed Eleanor and another young woman, Emily, are taken under the wing of beautiful and beguiling Elizabeth, one of the city's most highly desired courtesans. But as Eleanor is seduced deeper into a web of money, materialism, and men, it seems that Elizabeth may not be the savior she appears to be.

As past and present begin to intersect, it becomes clear that the women's stories are linked in deeper, darker ways than it initially seems. And that the only method for Alys to end the witchcraft that binds her legacy is to gather all three models in one place and destroy them.

The problem is that Elizabeth is not ready to burn. Far from it. Centuries on, she is determined to rise again, and she will obliterate anything standing in her path. Including Alys herself.

Review Quotes

"Rushby takes readers on a globe-trotting, timeline-straddling journey...brisk and entertaining... Rushby's characters are richly realized, and she doesn't shy away from depicting the high risk of their lives as sex workers or society's cruelty and indifference toward women on the margins. Tense and fast-paced with refreshingly unique supernatural elements." - Publishers Weekly

"Deftly pivoting between the past and the present day, Rushby constructs an ingeniously menacing plot that slowly suffuses readers with a growing sense of dread, only to be shattered by the book's jaw-dropping conclusion...A fiercely feminist take on gothic fiction." - Library Journal (starred review)

"As the timelines converge, readers will be treated to a bewitching tale that shines a light on the horrific realities for women of the era and an original, terrifying, and compelling supernatural horror story." - Booklist

"Rushby's prose is lush and vivid, her characters are tragically complex...Ferociously feminist body horror with a sentimental heart." - Kirkus

"A feminist body horror that's the perfect fall escape... While deftly exploring themes of bodily autonomy, queer love, and female friendship, A. Rushby paints a gripping portrait of the historical confinement of women and the lengths that the exploited will go to in search of revenge." - Ms. Magazine

"Slashed Beauties is the warped, witchy lovechild of Madame Tussaud and Jack the Ripper - an engrossing gothic tale of friendship, misogyny, and the murderous consequence of denying women's autonomy." - Ellie Marney, New York Times bestselling author of None Shall Sleep

"Utterly compelling from the first page to the final, shocking twist, Slashed Beauties is a darkly exquisite story that explores the corrosive effects of misogyny and the enduring power of female love." - Christine Wells, author of The Paris Gown

"An extraordinary tale. Slashed Beauties left me spellbound.'"- Emma Grey, author of Pictures of You

"Easily one of the best books I've read this year... Captivating from start to end and tells a haunting tale of feminine rage." - Abbie Eaton, author of Dragonhart

"Adored this gorgeous, sumptuously gothic feminist novel. Slashed Beauties moves from present-day Seoul to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens of Georgian London in a colourful riot that examines the macabre world of the anatomical Venus and the seedy underbelly of the modern-day antiques trade, with a dash of witchcraft thrown in. It's also about sisterhood, friendship and the ties that bind a beautifully-rendered love story that spans centuries. I loved it." - Emma Cowing, author of The Show Woman

About the Author