A rural gothic novel about a girl, her abusive father whom she loves, and the little thing growing inside her.
" “Tha’s a waste of spit, girl.”
That’s what Dad said about me. Me. His own spunk and sweat and bile made flesh. His own heaving, rutting, groaning fuck-wish come true. Did he hold me in his loving arms the day I dropped into this world with a tear of joy in his eye and a bursting rosebud in his heart? Did he breathe a whistle of happy fortune for his lovely perfect pink chirruping ten-fingered ten-toed cake of a new-born? He did not. He said, “It’s not a lad, then?” "
Lily Brakes has had enough.
Brought up in the middle of nowhere by her father who she loves, who abuses her, Lily relies on her vivid internal life and her dreams of her dead mother to get her through. But her boyfriend is moving away, the scarecrow in the barley is talking to her, telling her to do things, and there's something growing in her white belly.
The combination of a volatile and fractured young girl, an isolated and isolating rural landscape, a number of abusive men and manipulative friends and the menacing voice of the scarecrow can only lead to tragedy, as Lily decides enough is enough.