No Child of Mine

by Nichelle Giraldes

Overview

"No Child of Mine is a hauntingly powerful, equal parts a ghost story and a tale of what we are prepared to do for love. " — Darcy Coates, USA Today bestselling author

There's something in the dark. And it's starting to whisper...

Essie Singh has defined herself by her ambitions, a fiercely independent woman whose only soft spot is her husband, Sanjay. She never imagined herself as a mother. It was never a part of the plan. But then she finds out she's pregnant. As her difficult pregnancy transforms her body and life into something she barely recognizes, her husband spends the nights pacing in the attic, slowly becoming a stranger, and the house begins to whisper.

As Essie's pregnancy progresses, both her and Sanjay's lives are warped by a curse that has haunted her family for generations, leaving a string of fatherless daughters in its wake. When she's put on bedrest, Essie trades the last aspects of her carefully planned life for isolation in what should be a welcoming home, but she isn't alone. There's something here that means to take everything from her…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728270371
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	09/12/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	529,506
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

A lifelong book lover, Nichelle Giraldes writes female-centered horror. She earned her BA from Colorado College where she studied in religion and mathematics. She currently lives in Colorado, where she teaches math to middle and high school students.

Editorial Reviews

07/03/2023

A family curse spanning multiple generations turns a young wife’s difficult pregnancy into a gothic nightmare in Giraldes’s underplotted debut thriller spun from two alternating narrative threads. In one, Essie, a law student in her final year of studies, and her architect husband, Sanjay, have just moved into their first house when Essie discovers that she is unexpectedly pregnant. In the other, set in an unspecified (but presumably 19th-century) past, the newly married Isabel schemes to save her lover, Ana, and Ana’s newborn daughter, Maria, from the clutches of Ana’s abusive husband. Readers will quickly intuit that the family “curse” which Essie’s mother and grandmother have warned her about—that women in their family give birth only to female children, and then lose their husbands within the year that follows—is the consequence of unholy negotiations that Isabel, their forebear, made to rescue Ana. Though the inevitable convergence of the two story lines keeps the pages turning, Giraldes’s frustratingly circumspect treatment of the shadowy supernatural forces behind the curse offers little insight into their nature and motives. As a result, the resolution feels hasty and improbable. Horror fans will be underwhelmed. Agent: Claire Friedman, InkWell Management. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"A haunting and eerie melody of love and loss, No Child of Mine…will claw at your heartstrings and chill your spine. This book will settle deep into your bones and stay there—I highly recommend it." — Amy Lukavics, author of Daughters Unto Devils

"No Child of Mine is hauntingly powerful, equal parts a ghost story and a tale of what we are prepared to do for love. " — Darcy Coates, USA Today bestselling author

From the Publisher