A Monster Calls meets The Shining in this haunting YA dark fantasy about a monster that breaks free from a story into the real world.
Sean hasn’t been able to speak a word since he was put into care, and is sent to live with his grandad, a retired author whom he has never met before. Suddenly living an affluent life, nothing like the world of the estate he grew up in, where gangs run the streets and violence is around every corner, Sean spends his time drawing, sculpting and reading his grandad’s stories.
But his grandad has secrets of his own in his past. As he retreats to the shed, half-buried in his treasured garden, Sean finds one of his stories about The Baku, a creature that eats the fears of children.
Plagued by horrible, vivid nightmares and with darkness spreading through the house, Sean must finally face the truth if he’s to have a chance to free himself and his grandfather from the grip of the Baku.
<aside> 📕 FOR READERS OF PATRICK NESS AND MAGGIE STIEFVATER — Perfect for fans of A Monster Calls and The Dream Thieves looking for emotionally driven stories about teenagers, hidden family secrets and the supernatural creatures that take shape around them.
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<aside> 📕 BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS ARE UNIVERSAL — Draws on fictional books and writing about writing, a trend popular across The Library of the Unwritten, House of Leaves, The Midnight Library and many more.
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<aside> 📕 POSITIVE REPRESENTATION OF DISABILITY — Features a positive presentation of physical disability. The main character has arthrogryposis, which is presented with sensitivity and giving him full agency.
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<aside> 📕 “Eerie, tense and relentlessly inventive, The Book of the Baku haunts and delights in equal measure.” - J. S. Barnes, author of Dracula's Child and The City of Dr Moreau
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<aside> 📕 “The Book of the Baku quickly hooks the reader with its compelling protagonist: a boy without a voice, caught in a web of dark mysteries stretching into his past and future. R.L. Boyle paints a convincing portrait of a teenager growing up special in an indifferent world full of flawed adults, and also reminds us of the importance of the stories we tell, not just to others, but to ourselves. A dark tale with a big heart, and a masterful debut.” - Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters
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<aside> 📕 “An unsettling blend of dark social realism and surreal nightmarish images, RL Boyle's YA supernatural fantasy calls to mind Issa López’s 2019 film Tigers Are Not Afraid. And the Baku – a dark dream deity, drawing from a deep well of botanical and body horror as it manifests its way into the waking world – is such an impressively scary creation!” - Ally Wilkes, author of All the White Spaces
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<aside> 📕 “An engrossing read about a mythical creature that devours nightmares... but they sometimes come back to haunt you. An inventive use of Japanese lore with a few surprises in store for the reader.” – A. J. Elwood, author of The Cottingley Cuckoo
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<aside> 📕 “The author has brought [the Baku] to life in an imaginative way, imbuing it with a whole new level of creepy.” – Schizanthus
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UK Publisher: Titan Books, June 2021
UK Editor: George Sandison
Primary agent: Veronique Baxter
Film/TV agent: DHA (Georgie Smith)
Extent: 57,000 words
Co-Agents: Chinese - Andrew Nurnberg Associates; Japanese - Japan Uni
Rights Sold: All Rights Available
Rosanna Boyle studied Classical Civilisation at the University of Leeds, after which she worked in a variety of jobs – none of which had anything to do with her degree. Her debut, The Book of the Baku will be published in 2021. Rosanna lives in Leeds with her husband and three sons.
<aside> 📕 “This book has a loud and resonant heart in the shape of Sean, the bravest boy I have yet to encounter in the pages of a book...A simply stunning novel, and I cannot say anymore than that as my throat is sore with tears and my words are just not elegant enough to explain.” – Rachel Read It
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