The Library at Hellebore

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A deeply dark academia novel from USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw, perfect for fans of A Deadly Education and The Atlas Six who are hungry for something a little more diabolical.

A gorgeous hardcover edition featuring cobalt blue sprayed edges!

This school will eat you alive.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told when she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

But there’s more to Hellebore than meets the eye. On graduation day, the faculty go on a ravenous rampage, feasting on Alessa’s class. Only Alessa and a group of her classmates escape the carnage. Trapped in the school’s library, they must offer a human sacrifice every night, or else the faculty will break down the door and kill everyone.

Can they band together and survive, or will the faculty eat its fill?

Also by Cassandra Khaw:

The Salt Grows Heavy

Nothing But Blackened Teeth

A Song for Quiet

Hammers on Bone

The Dead Take the A Train (co-written with Richard Kadrey)

Reviews

Praise for The Salt Grows Heavy
A Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award finalist! • A Best Horror Book of 2023 (The New York Times, Library Journal) • A Best Book of 2023 (NPR) • An Indie Next Pick

“Khaw’s poetic prose and stylish approach to gore make it a blood-soaked, unforgettable gem.” —The New York Times

“Devastatingly effective…a folklore-infused world that feels wholly unique. Expertly blending a gothic atmosphere with elements of splatterpunk, this brilliant novella is not to be missed.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

“With this brilliantly constructed tale that consciously takes on a well-known story and violently breaks it open to reveal a heartfelt core, Khaw cements their status as a must-read author.” —Library Journal, STARRED review

“A feverishly gory, grotesquely beautiful and baroque fairy-tale-meets-love-sonnet. Cassandra Khaw’s imagination is limitless.” —Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts

“The Salt Grows Heavy will hit you in your heart and in your gut at the same time, while never losing its grip on the gorgeous prose that makes Khaw’s work so spellbinding. It’s another riveting success from one of horror’s finest storytellers.” —Paste Magazine

“The bones of a fairy tale sunk deep in a charnel house of descriptive prose, an elegant confection with a blood-soaked core.” —T. Kingfisher, multi-award winning author of What Moves the Dead and Nettle & Bone

“[B]eautiful in its darkness; much like the mermaids of lore — before they were transformed into manatee-sweet, soft-haired sirens — it has teeth. Readers in the mood to savor a silver-tongued little nightmare will sink happily into its depths.” —NPR

“Khaw has cemented their status as horror royalty, once and for all, with The Salt Grows Heavy….a grotesquely perfect feast.” —Locus

Praise for Nothing But Blackened Teeth
A USA TODAY BESTSELLER • A Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Award Finalist! • An Indie Next Pick! • An October LibraryReads Pick!

“Brutally delicious!” —N.K. Jemisin, New York Times bestselling author

“It is beautiful and it is brutal and it is heartbroken. Absolutely recommended.” —Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author of Every Heart a Doorway

“Sharp, playful, and nasty as hell.” —Paul Tremblay, author of Horror Movie

“Khaw’s prose oozes dread.” —Publishers Weekly

“Khaw’s got a sterling premise, enduring lore, and the fresh talent to voice it.” —Josh Malerman, New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box

“Delicate and disgusting.” —T. Kingfisher, author of What Moves the Dead

“Reading Khaw is akin to watching a nightmare ballet, full of beauty and elegance, pain and fragility, and breathless terror.” —Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Ararat and Red Hands

“It’s got a smile so wicked you might just have to grin along with it. I know I did.” —Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author

“Japanese mythological creatures come to life in this dynamic, unique tale that will satisfy horror readers eager for fresh blood.” —Booklist

About the Author

CASSANDRA KHAW is the USA Today bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth and the Bram Stoker Award-winner, Breakable Things. Other notable works of theirs are The Salt Grows Heavy and British Fantasy Award and Locus Award finalist, Hammers on Bone. Khaw’s work can be found in places like The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Reactor. Khaw is also the co-author of The Dead Take the A Train, co-written with bestselling author Richard Kadrey.