Anna Kovatcheva

This exciting, gorgeous novel reminded me why I love vampire stories. Rooted in folklore and peopled with characters who are hauntingly real, She Made Herself a Monster never looks away from the consequences of burying humanity's evils too shallow and too near. I still have chills.

Kate Heartfield, author of THE EMBROIDERED BOOK

Poetic, visceral, dark, Kovatcheva captures the monstrous in both the mythical and the mundane. A terrifying read that will leave you looking over your shoulder long after you finish reading

Isabelle Schuler, author of LADY MACBETHAD

Gorgeous and gruesome, pulses with folklore and reads like the best literary fiction

As a longtime fan of Anna Kovatcheva’s shorter fiction, this deliciously dark debut novel delivers the same dreamlike prose I’ve come to admire, but digs far deeper into labyrinths of belief, desperation, and illusions of necessity. By turns horrific, atmospheric, and tender, this is a spell book that practices the best kind of magic—revealing the monsters embedded within and around us

A poetic exploration of the power of stories. Inspired by Slavic folklore, the novel uses lyrical prose, realistically drawn characters, and multiple points of view to expose the monsters created to make sense of the shadows

Yana, a vampire hunter, arrives in the cursed village of Koprivci promising salvation. But there is more to the village than meets the eye. And Yana is not what she pretends to be. 
 
'It's dangerous to go alone at night...' 
 
Yana, a vampire hunter, rides into Koprivci promising salvation. The village’s curse has endured for many years and rumour has it that Anka – whose parents died on the night of her birth – is to blame. But enduring the villagers’ suspicion is the least of Anka’s worries; now she has reached womanhood, she can no longer avoid the odious marriage that seems to be her only option. 
 
When animal corpses start to appear in the village square and eggs filled with blood are found in the chicken coops, panic rises. The villagers look to Yana for hope. She knows all about the monsters that stalk the night, monsters that only she can vanquish. But Yana is a liar. And monsters come in all different forms. 
 
Yana and Anka become unlikely allies in hatching a plot to save both Koprivci and Anka from their fates. But then their plan takes on a horrifying life of its own...

Anna Kovatcheva

Praise for She Made Herself A Monster

This exciting, gorgeous novel reminded me why I love vampire stories. Rooted in folklore and peopled with characters who are hauntingly real, She Made Herself a Monster never looks away from the consequences ...

Poetic, visceral, dark, Kovatcheva captures the monstrous in both the mythical and the mundane. A terrifying read that will leave you looking over your shoulder long after you finish reading

Gorgeous and gruesome, pulses with folklore and reads like the best literary fiction

This exciting, gorgeous novel reminded me why I love vampire stories. Rooted in folklore and peopled with characters who are hauntingly real, She Made Herself a Monster never looks away from the consequences ...

Poetic, visceral, dark, Kovatcheva captures the monstrous in both the mythical and the mundane. A terrifying read that will leave you looking over your shoulder long after you finish reading

Gorgeous and gruesome, pulses with folklore and reads like the best literary fiction

This exciting, gorgeous novel reminded me why I love vampire stories. Rooted in folklore and peopled with characters who are hauntingly real, She Made Herself a Monster never looks away from the consequences ...

Poetic, visceral, dark, Kovatcheva captures the monstrous in both the mythical and the mundane. A terrifying read that will leave you looking over your shoulder long after you finish reading

Gorgeous and gruesome, pulses with folklore and reads like the best literary fiction

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter