Shortlisted for Best Novella in the 2017 British Fantasy Awards

Den of Geek Top Books of 2016

Ginger Nuts of Horror Top 20 Books of 2016

After ministering to fallen women in Victorian London, Evelyn has suffered a nervous breakdown and finds herself treated by the Water Doctors in the imposing Wakewater House, a hydropathy sanatorium.

Years later, Wakewater House is renovated into modern apartments and Kirsten moves in, fresh from a break up and eager for the restorative calm of the Thames. But her archivist neighbour, Manon, fills her head with the river's murky past and with those men of science and art who were obsessed with the drowned women who were washed up on its banks.

As Kirsten learns more about Wakewater's secrets, she becomes haunted by a solitary figure in the river and increasingly desperate to understand what the water wants from her.

A gorgeously gothic intrigue, whose watery world draws in and seeps into its heroines and the reader alike. -- Alison Moore

About the Author
V. H. Leslie's stories have appeared in Black Static, Interzone, Weird Fiction Review and Strange Tales IV. She has also had fiction and non-fiction published in Shadows and Tall Trees and writes a monthly column for This is Horror. Her story 'Namesake' was recently selected for Best British Horror and 2013 also saw her win a Hawthornden Fellowship and the Lightship First Chapter Prize.

Reviews

Relishing in its genre coding and richly atmospheric, Bodies of Water is a fascinating debut and demonstrates the promise of V.H. Leslie as a novelist. It's a book for reading by the fire with a blanket ready to draw around yourself as the brilliant chill sets in and takes hold.

-- Becky Lea * Film and Other Assorted Buffery *

Bodies of Water is a modern Gothic masterpiece, a haunting and moving story filled with rich, tender writing and an ending that manages to be both melancholic and uplifting at the same time, it is a confident start to Leslie's novel writing career.

-- Jim Mcleod * Ginger Nuts of Horror *

it excels is in its commentary on the treatment of Victorian women as well as its hair-raising and unsettling tone.

-- Erin Hull * The Bookbag *

Bodies Of Water is a solid article. It's well-researched and it puts a different spin on a well-used format. It's got enough of the history that intrigues many people without treading the same path. Recommended.

* The Worm Hole *

And, in the end, neither the heart of this book nor the nature of woman can possibly be reached, for to reach such ends would be to destroy them. The book's ramifications shimmer on - frightful and transcendent in tidal irresistibilities.

* Dreamcatcher *

The writing is simply gorgeous, at times lyrical and beautiful in its simplicity, with hints of magical realism/folklore and fantasy and the tension was always present throughout. It is quite a creepy, eerie and very atmospheric read and, for someone who has never liked the water much, a damn scary one at times.

* Book Magpie *

Millie remains a haunting presence and influences both outcomes for Evelyn and Kirsten. A real ghostly presence or imagined through some mental disintegration of our protagonists? I'm not quite sure and I don't think it matters. For some reason that I can't articulate, I really liked the book, even though it is a million miles from my preferred reading genre.

* Col's Criminal Library *


Awards
Short-listed for British Fantasy Awards 2017 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781784630713
Author V.H. Leslie
Format Paperback
Page Count 144
Imprint Salt Publishing
Publisher Salt Publishing
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 10mm