Kiran wrote... The Deathless Girls

Teen

Longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Award. Shortlisted for the Foyles Children’s Book of the Year, the YA Book Prize 2020, and the Diverse Book Awards 2020.

Gothic, intoxicating, feminist, darkly provoking and deeply romantic – this is the breathtakingly imagined untold story of the brides of Dracula, by bestselling author Kiran Millwood Hargrave in her much-anticipated YA debut.

They say the thirst for blood is like a madness – they must sate it. Even with their own kin.

On the eve of her divining, the day she’ll discover her fate, seventeen-year-old Lil and her twin sister Kizzy are captured and enslaved by the cruel Boyar Valcar, taken far away from their beloved traveller community.

Forced to work in the harsh and unwelcoming castle kitchens, Lil is comforted when she meets Mira, a fellow slave who she feels drawn to in a way she doesn’t understand. But she also learns about the Dragon, a mysterious and terrifying figure of myth and legend who takes girls as gifts.

They may not have had their divining day, but the girls will still discover their fate…

Special edition available here.

Reviews...

The Deathless Girls is exquisitely written, as we have come to expect from Millwood Hargrave, but it is also riveting, intoxicating, and utterly unputdownable.

Louise O’Neill, author of The Surface Breaks

Hargrave is a deceptively modern writer who finally invests Dracula’s beleaguered brides with some feminist clout.

Emily Bearn, Daily Telegraph (five star review)

Kiran's book goes beyond just being a good old Transylvanian romp with Count Dracula and his brides. It is a multi-layered book about age- long divisions, whether expressed through Travellers and Settlers, wolves and bears, colour of skin, trust between friends, and even sisters. It is a story about loss and survival: the survival of love, loyalty, sisterhood, and hope. Kiran holds up a mirror into the world of Dracula, but in which we see our own world reflected back.

Jamila Gavin, author of Coram Boy

A wonderful idea, brilliantly told, about the girls who end up being Dracula's brides. I literally could not put it down; in fact, I resorted to stirring porridge with one hand while holding Kiran's novel in the other.

Francesca Simon, author of The Monstrous Child