Jo Baker
Something Dead This Way Comes
Seventeen-year-old Patience is in love with her best friend Lissa. But Lissa is promised to another, bound by her cruel father’s debts. So when a wolf-spider with an unsettling yellow eye crawls from her beloved guardian’s grave and offers a way to be together, Patience accepts – with deadly consequences.
Now the snow won’t stop falling, and Patience is trapped. As her choices unravel, she must confront the monstrousness within herself. And whether she’s willing to lose the love of her life to do what’s right.
Set in a little queer family haunted by loss, Something Dead is a lyrical YA folkloric horror for fans of She Is a Haunting, The Honeys and Bitterthorn – a story of love, buried grief, and the terrible bargains we make to survive.
Jo Baker (she/her) is a psychotherapeutic counsellor and writer whose work has been listed for awards including Searchlight (twice), Guppy Books, and PFD’s Queer Prize. She has previously studied with the Golden Egg Academy, and recently achieved an MA in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University.
She lives in Lewes, East Sussex with her partner and son who both accommodate Jo’s fascination with all things strange and deadly with kindness – and no little sense of bemusement.
Jo is represented by Silvia Molteni at Peters Fraser and Dunlop. Contact: smolteni@pfd.co.uk