She Made Herself a Monster A Novel

"Deliciously monstrous and demanding of our attention, Anna Kovatcheva crafts a feminist vampire story like no other. Filled with folklore, witchcraft, ruminations on agency and storytelling, this debut novel will have you questioning who the real monsters are."
-Ms. Magazine

"Kovatcheva debuts with the sharp tale of a fraudulent vampire slayer who comes to the aid of an oppressed teen girl in 19th-century Bulgaria...With colorful folklore, grisly details of Yana's alleged vampire killings, and the characters' intense desires, this clever gothic novel offers readers much to savor."
-Publishers Weekly

"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."
-Sequoia Nagamatsu

"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."
-Library Journal

"Arresting and atmospheric. . . a tale of man-made monsters, feminine rage, and collective trauma that will appeal to fans of...Ottessa Moshfegh."
-Booklist

"A tale of dark humanity that sticks like a brick in the mouth."
-Kirkus

"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

"Kovatcheva has woven a darkly mesmerizing tale of folklore, witchcraft, and monsters that will linger at the corners of your dreams long after you've finished reading. She Made Herself a Monster is the best kind of vampire story-one in which the real evil is us."
-Peng Shepherd, author of All This and More and The Cartographers

"Gorgeous and gruesome, Anna Kovatcheva's bold and atmospheric debut marks her as a star on the rise. She Made Herself a Monster pulses with folklore and reads like the best literary fiction, but at heart this is the scariest kind of fairy tale: the kind that asks you if you truly know what you should be afraid of. "
-Julia Fine, author of Maddalena and the Dark