Leaving the city was not Vernon’s choice. Neither was moving into an old house in a bumpkin-run town in the Cascadian forest, where the shadows move and the stairs make a sound like dying crows. It’s a relief when Vernon discovers a space inside the walls of his bedroom, a space inhabited by a mysterious girl named Violet. Violet’s nothing like Vernon. She’s pretty and cool, and she has a closetful of cute clothes. But as Vernon and Violet become friends, Vernon starts to realize that she’s much more like him than he thought, leading him down a fairy-tale path of self-discovery. Out of the closet and into the world.

PRAISE FOR GIRL IN THE WALLS

Danger Slater, Wonderland Award-winning author of I Will Rot Without You, Puppet Skin, and more

“Heartfelt and full of wonder, Girl in the Walls further establishes Quinn as one of the rawest and realest fabulists writing today.”

Sam Richard, Wonderland Award-winning author of To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows

Katy Michelle Quinn is a profoundly important writer who has gifted us a story of uncertainty, pain—both physical and emotional—and the conflict of becoming one’s true self. Girl in the Walls is a staggeringly beautiful, heart-wrenching work that literally brought me to tears. Don’t just read this book, let it devour you whole.

Larissa Glasser, author of F4

Katy wrecks me every time. I don't read trans narratives with expectations, but Quinn's mastery of world-weaving, crisp imagery, soothing of human vulnerabilities--of hard-won queer self-discovery, of what it feels like to think you're alone in the world with your struggles but then to find galaxies of friends waiting just for you--you'll feel relieved that the emotional struggle was not only worth it, but essential for one's own growth and validation.

 Girl in the Walls is an intense, YA-appropriate (a content/triggerwarning of an essential plot element is given at the outset) novella all the more poignant and timely given the current uptick in disingenuous legislative backlash against trans youth in The United States. Trans stories save kids' lives, not just for the sake of allyship but for universal curricular standing among peers. Trans and queer youth design futures for everyone on the most practical level, and people ignore that at our own peril. Quinn is a testament to successes that occur when such a voice is given opportunities to speak for real.

Girl in the Walls is a searing, tender, timely parable that feels both familiar and fresh, and I'm really excited to see where she takes us next.

Jennifer Robin, author of Death Confetti and Earthquakes in Candyland

I will tell you: This book is beautiful. Katy Michelle Quinn is a word-musician whose voice is simultaneously immediate and ancient. Quinn succeeds, as she did with her previous novel, Winnie, in transporting the reader to an oracular world, that of the contemporary fairy tale. Quinn’s use of the surreal is subtle, and doesn’t announce itself, which I like—which is how life really unfolds. The narrative follows a youth misplaced in a conservative town, a youth trapped in a zone of squints and “who do you think you ares.” Adults believe they know what is best for Quinn’s protagonist, but their advice, if followed, would lead to a life of suffocation. Girl in the Walls is a balm for those who have felt the fists, and dead, crushing eyes of strangers. There is a magic in this book, one born of shed blood, and from the depths of acute aloneness. It takes so long in this life to find allies, or deep-down friends. It takes so long to get to the point where you don’t see every hour through a screen of hurt. In every life there are forces which push one to either madness or liberation, but there is a choice: Girl in the Walls reminds us that any power that comes in hiding oneself is limited; ultimately the power of becoming is stronger.

Jo Quenell, author of The Mud Ballad

Magical, heartfelt and powerful, Girl in the Walls cements Katy Michelle Quinn’s position as an important voice in modern queer fiction.

Katy is a queer transwoman who writes strange and sentimental horror-adjacent fiction. Her first novella, Winnie, was published by Eraserhead Press in 2018, and her stories can be found in Lazermall by Filthy Loot and The New Flesh by Weirdpunk Books, among other collections. She currently inhabits the forests of the Pacific Northwest with her partner and their three catchildren.

Follow her on Instagram @kittymyshellqueen

ISBN: 9781944866853