Jawbone

Monica Ojeda

Translated by Sarah Booker

New Ruins (imprint)

Dead Ink

Paperback

311pp

ISBN: 9781838171629

Fiction

Publication date: 27 October 2022

£9.99

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Fernanda and Annelise are so close they are practically sisters: a double image, inseparable. So how does Fernanda end up bound on the floor of a deserted cabin, held hostage by one of her teachers and estranged from Annelise?

When Fernanda, Annelise, and their friends from the Delta Bilingual Academy convene after school, Annelise leads them in thrilling but increasingly dangerous rituals to a rhinestoned, Dior-scented, drag-queen god of her own invention. Even more perilous is the secret Annelise and Fernanda share, rooted in a dare in which violence meets love. Meanwhile, their literature teacher Miss Clara, who is obsessed with imitating her dead mother, struggles to preserve her deteriorating sanity. Each day she edges nearer to a total break with reality.

Interweaving pop culture references and horror concepts drawn from Herman Melville, H. P. Lovecraft, and anonymous ‘creepypastas’, Jawbone is an ominous, multivocal novel that explores the terror inherent in the pure potentiality of adolescence and the fine line between desire and fear.

Monica Ojeda

Mónica Ojeda Franco is an Ecuadorian writer. She obtained her bachelor’s degree from the Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil, followed by a master’s degree from the Universidad Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona. She is currently working on her doctorate in Madrid. Ojeda has published in several genres, including poetry, novels, and short stories. In 2017, she was named as one of the Bogota39, a selection of the best young writers in Latin America