Tantrum - by Rachel Eve Moulton (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In this electric horror novella from the author of The Insatiable Volt Sisters, an exhausted mother thinks her newborn might be a monster. She's right. Thea's third pregnancy was her easiest. She wasn't consumed with anxiety about the baby. She wasn't convinced it was going to be born green, or have a third eye, or have tentacles sprouting from its torso. Thea was fine. The baby would be fine. Then they handed Lucia to her, and Thea knew. Not only was Lucia born with a full set of teeth and a devilish glint in her eye, but she is always hungry. Indiscriminately so. Thea learns quickly that she needs to keep Lucia away from the chickens and watch her closely around her baby brother. Thea doesn't know whether to be terrified or proud of her rapacious baby girl. But Lucia's rapid growth starts to bring dark memories to the surface. Flashes from Thea's childhood that won't release their hooks from her heart. Lucia wants to eat. Thea might just let her"--

Book Synopsis

In this electric horror novel from the author of The Insatiable Volt Sisters, an exhausted mother thinks her newborn might be a monster. She's right.

Thea's third pregnancy was her easiest. She wasn't consumed with anxiety about the baby. She wasn't convinced it was going to be born green, or have a third eye, or have tentacles sprouting from its torso. Thea was fine. Her baby would be fine.

But when the nurses handed Lucia to her, Thea just knew. Her baby girl was a monster. Not only was Lucia born with a full set of teeth and a devilish glint in her eye, but she's always hungry. Indiscriminately so. One day Lucia pointed at her baby brother, looked Thea dead in the eye and said, "I eat."

Thea doesn't know whether to be terrified or proud of her rapacious baby girl. And as Lucia starts growing faster and talking more, dark memories bubble to the surface--flashes from Thea's childhood that won't release their hooks from her heart. Lucia wants to eat the world. Thea might just let her.

Crackling with originality and dark humor, Rachel Eve Moulton's Tantrum is a provocative exploration of familial debt, duty, and the darker side of motherhood.

Review Quotes

"Tantrum takes a parent's worries to their logical extreme, in this darkly funny take on a mother's fear of her own harmful legacy . . . Tantrum serves as a fascinating metaphor for the feral nature of girlhood and how society conspires to restrict women, physically and mentally." --CrimeReads

"Who says babies can't be scary? In Tantrum, Rachel Eve Moulton weaves together a horror story that will undoubtedly speak to the fears of anyone who has ever thought long and hard about motherhood." --Harper's Bazaar

"Dazzingly dark and strange and furious . . . a poignant, squirm-inducing examination of how early traumas can rebirth themselves later in life, just when we least expect them. Rachel Eve Moulton is always a must-read!" --Nat Cassidy, author of When the Wolf Comes Home

"Rachel Eve Moulton is a demonic doula, a midwife for monsters, and what she has delivered into this world is truly savage. Tantrum wails with vibrant life, an ouroboros of generational rage encased in scales and fangs. Yet another testament to Moulton's ascent as one of horror's most hauntingly provocative authors." --Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

"Tantrum is a deliciously dark tale about the parasitic nature of trauma and the emotional cannibalism of parenthood. Rachel Eve Moulton mixes opposing forces--light and dark, humor and horror, the realistic and the surreal--as an artist mixes paints, creating colors as vibrant and revelatory as any in modern fiction." --Scott Thomas, author of Midwestern Gothic

"A wildly entertaining homage to every woman who's felt something monstrous lurking inside her--and later experienced its delicious liberation. Tantrum will act as a balm for anyone who's ever feared what she might become." --Anne Heltzel, author of Just Like Mother

"Luxuriant with rage, Tantrum is a book for every woman's exhausted, furious heart. Rachel Eve Moulton has created the monster we need right now, and she's here with bared teeth to devour the horrors women carry but can't express." -Aimee Pokwatka, author of Self-Portrait with Nothing

"With humor and ferocity, Moulton pries open the powerful maw of motherhood, womanhood, and childhood, examining how the choices we make and are made for us can starve or sustain, can be a choking hazard or a feast." --Alice Carriere, author of Everything/Nothing/Someone

"A quick, witty, visceral story about a woman who's convinced her infant daughter is a monster--and she's right." --Emily C. Hughes, Jump Scares

"For fans of Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage and Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova, Tantrum investigates the darknesses of childhood and motherhood all at once. Buckle up the car seat for one hell of a dark ride." --The Lineup

About the Author

Rachel Eve Moulton earned her B.A. from Antioch College and her M.F.A. from Emerson College. Her work has appeared in Chicago Quarterly Review, Cream City Review, Bryant Literary Review, Narrative Magazine, Southwest Review, New Ohio Review, Button Eye Review, and The Bangalore Review among other publications. Her debut novel--Tinfoil Butterfly--was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and nominated for both a Shirley Jackson Award and a Bram Stoker. Her second novel--The Insatiable Volt Sisters--was named as one of the top ten horror novels of 2023 by the NYT Book Review. She's spent most of her life as an educator, writer, and editor. She lives with her husband and two daughters in the mountains east of Albuquerque.