Overview

Judith is a successful novelist, but she's a little sensitive. She's from a good family, even if that family favours her more beautiful sister. She loves a drink (or three) but isn't sure if she loves the handsome doctor who is courting her. She yearns for a romance to yield to but remains a virgin. Judith receives visions from the saints. Then Judith meets Gavin, a handsome and charming baron, at a wedding on the Cornish coast. His love transforms her from a plain, lonely girl into a beautiful, glamorous woman overnight. After a whirlwind honeymoon in Paris, he whisks her away to a Gothic castle in the countryside. But soon her perfect marriage begins to fall apart and she finds herself trapped in a nightmare, as her husband's mysterious nature, and his alternation of charm and violence, become more and more confusing and frightening. And then there are those whispers amongst the staff, unsettling rumours from London, and strange rattlings from the crypt...

Full Product Details

9781804291856

Table of Contents

Reviews

"Biller puts genre to the test of do-it-yourself artistry, and puts feminist ideology itself to the test of style * New Yorker * An astute and provocative thinker * RogerEbert.com * Shot and designed with admirably compulsive attention to tone and composition, ""The Love Witch,"" Ms. Biller's second feature, is a hothouse filled with deadly and seductive blooms. The fear of female sexuality has been a staple of horror movies forever, but ""The Love Witch"" does more than simply subvert or parody the erotic underpinnings of the genre. Ms. Biller's movie, like its heroine, presents a fascinating, perfectly composed, brightly colored surface. What's underneath is marvelously dark, like love itself. * New York Times * L.A. film-maker Anna Biller achieves an ecstasy of artificiality in this amazing retro fantasy horror, delivered with absolute conviction. It's drenched in the Technicolor 60s: there are touches of Italian horror, Hammer and late Hitchcock. Biller devises a feminine sensibility for exploitation to match the macho connoisseurship of Tarantino or Rodriguez * Guardian *"

Biller puts genre to the test of do-it-yourself artistry, and puts feminist ideology itself to the test of style * New Yorker * An astute and provocative thinker * RogerEbert.com * Shot and designed with admirably compulsive attention to tone and composition, The Love Witch, Ms. Biller's second feature, is a hothouse filled with deadly and seductive blooms. The fear of female sexuality has been a staple of horror movies forever, but The Love Witch does more than simply subvert or parody the erotic underpinnings of the genre. Ms. Biller's movie, like its heroine, presents a fascinating, perfectly composed, brightly colored surface. What's underneath is marvelously dark, like love itself. * New York Times * L.A. film-maker Anna Biller achieves an ecstasy of artificiality in this amazing retro fantasy horror, delivered with absolute conviction. It's drenched in the Technicolor 60s: there are touches of Italian horror, Hammer and late Hitchcock. Biller devises a feminine sensibility for exploitation to match the macho connoisseurship of Tarantino or Rodriguez * Guardian *

"Anna Biller has real style ... It's one of this novel's immediate pleasures that everything is everything you expect, and more. -- Cal Revely-Calder * Telegraph * A story which is as gripping as it is troubling - and as relevant now as it has ever been. -- Barry Didcock * Herald * Grippingly intense and emotionally resonant, Bluebeard's Castle plants the reader firmly in the mind of a woman being masterfully manipulated, stripping bare any clichés and misconceptions about domestic violence. The result is a brutally honest glimpse into the tragedy of intimate partner violence that millions of women around the world have experienced. -- Sirena He * Esquire * To its final page, Bluebeard's Castle is as much an excavation of the insidious tactics of abusers as it is the culture that belittles and maligns victims, that teaches them to 'fix' their abusers or suffer the consequences. -- Kylie Cheung * Jezebel * A perfect literary debut for a one-of-a-kind filmmaker. And that cover! -- Sophia Stewart, Most Anticipated Books of 2023 * The Millions * A provocative work that adds layers of meaning as one becomes addicted to this page-turner of a book, Bluebeard's Castle is a bit of Alfred Hitchcock mixed with André Breton's Nadja. -- Tosh Berman, author of <i>Tosh: Growing Up in Wallace Berman's World</i> Written by the filmmaker of 2016's The Love Witch, this debut novel has a similar romantic haze and a retro hyper-aesthetic swirl.stylish, scary, and peak modern Gothic. -- Maggie Lange, Most Anticipated Books * Bustle * Anna Biller's sly feminist dissection of gothic tropes is as lush and layered as her cinema...Biller skillfully portrays the gaslighting and abuse that reduce her heroine to making excuses for her boorish husband. -- Molly Odintz, Most Anticipated Books * CrimeReads * Though the story is set in the present day, Biller paints a beautifully creepy atmosphere full of billowy dresses, darkened woods, burning candles, and castle corridors full of ghosts and secrets. The novel's timeless quality helps drive home the unending nature of male violence against women. * Kirkus Reviews * Apparently, there's nothing Biller can't do, because she's bringing her gothic-meets-midcentury-camp aesthetic to the page with Bluebeard's Castle, a retelling of the famous fairy tale that also seems to be in conversation with Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. * BookPage (""Most anticipated mystery and suspense"") * Bluebeard's Castle is a truly great novel...it's a delightful page-turner; multilayered and multi-dimensional. While a book of this nature is a risk in any era, it's safe to say that Anna Biller can now add novelist to her sensational register of artistic achievements. * We Are Cult * Equally steeped in the traditions of the Gothic genre and the women's picture, Bluebeard's Castle follows a romance novelist, Judith, as she's dragged into a whirlwind marriage with the dangerously charming Gavin. Its horror stems not just from the crumbling and potentially haunted castle, but from the terror of being trapped with a man who is a relative stranger to her. -- Alexandra Coburn * Screen Slate * This gothic thriller cheekily transports readers to a bygone era by drawing heavily upon classic horror movies and literature, utilizing highly stylized language, tropes, and dated gender roles while generating conversation regarding contemporary issues of consent, agency, domestic abuse, and gaslighting. The author contextualizes the self-sabotage that perpetuates toxic relationships, and fans of the author's film The Love Witch (2016) will enjoy this gothic novel. * Booklist * Biller flexes her mastery of pastiche, vividly sumptuous detail, and the subversion of classic female archetypes. In this, her first novel, a tale that begins in the style of gothic romance turns legitimately terrifying, rooted in the all too real fear of sociopathic male violence. -- Rufus Hickok * BUST * [Biller has] given the classic folk tale a feminist makeover. Call it an erotic Jane Eyre - one that both revels in and subverts the genre tropes to explore, among other things, why women like her heroine, Judith, stay in bad relationships with brooding men. * Everything Zoomer * Bluebeard's Castle is clever, disquieting, and as rich artistically as it is disciplined-in other words, everything you would expect from Anna Biller. Highly recommended! -- Brian W. Walter, professor, author, and editor of <i>The Guestroom Novelist</i>"

Author Information

Anna Biller is an independent filmmaker. The New York Times called her film The Love Witch “a hothouse filled with deadly and seductive blooms;” Indiewire called it “a spellbinding feminist delight;” and Rotten Tomatoes listed her as one of “The 21 Masters of Horror Shaping the Genre Right Now.” The hashtag #thelovewitch has gone viral on Tiktok, with over 72 million views to date. She is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the writer’s branch, and is represented for her film work by WME. She is currently in talks with production companies about the movie version of Bluebeard's Castle.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available