The Thornbacks (Chloe Wilson, Hamish Hamilton)

Chloe Wilson’s debut novel, The Thornbacks, follows stepsisters Gertie and Tabitha: a pair of morticians who – apart from a sinister hobby – are mostly harmless. Come “date night”, they trawl dating apps using photos of Poppy, one of their decedents. She had been young and beautiful before she was killed by her partner, who got away with it. Gertie and Tabitha take turns choosing Poppy’s dates, luring them out to a bar, then slipping something into their drink. Rather than a simple revenge plot, The Thornbacks confronts the abject in a kind of memorial to forgotten bodies: murdered women, the decay of past love, fly-by funerals, overcrowded morgues, even quick-sale steak from the supermarket. Gertie and Tabitha care for these outcasts with unsettling tenderness, like spiders wrapping their prey in silk. Written in a mesmerising dual first-person narrative that defies easy comparison, the novel draws on Wilson’s background in poetry to create a sensory experience. Lulled by the stepsisters’ soothing cadence, wry humour and the captivating details of their trade, the tension builds with a constant yet almost imperceptible pace, and the climax sneaks up and takes you by surprise. Wilson (Hold Your Fire) delivers a rare, startlingly original book. Readers drawn to unsettling, offbeat fiction with a taste for dark humour in the vein of Ottessa Moshfegh and to feminist-revenge stories such as those by Layne Fargo and Kirsten Miller will love this one.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Kate Dunphy is an emerging writer and bookseller based in Meanjin. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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