She isn’t sure which is worse—not knowing who she is, or learning the truth.
After waking up naked and alone but with no memory of her past, the girl called Ann would rather not know what happened to her. The horrific scars covering her body tell a tale of terror she is sure she would rather forget forever. But to the doctors and benefactors overseeing her care, the possibly sordid details of her past are too enticing to ignore. She is forced to undergo a hypnosis session to unlock the secrets of her past.
But once that door is open, it is impossible to close.
The memories Ann recall are scant except for one—her name is Eve. And the man who inflicted the damage upon her body gave her that name. One at a time, the doors of Eve’s mind open, and she cannot help but walk through them, revealing horror after horror until she is no longer sure who the real monster is.
Fans of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and Margret Atwood’s Alias Grace are sure to love this blend of Gothic and horror from the pen of Leigh Anderson.
Excerpt
When I was discovered—rescued, really—dirty, lost, confused, I was brought here, to the Stonehill Sanitorium. It’s a lunatic asylum. A comfortable one, to be sure, but an asylum nonetheless. I am glad, at least, that I was not taken to jail for vagrancy or sent to a workhouse for paupers. When I was first examined, they noted that my hands showed no signs of being a worker woman and my face had the clarity of a woman who could afford expensive creams and tinctures. I believe they think I may be a woman of high birth who was kidnapped and abused. They think if my parents discover me here safe and sound, they will pay a handsome reward for my discovery and care. More than once I have seen an elderly couple—a man with his hat in his hands and a woman crying into her handkerchief—peek at me through the large windows of our parlor. The woman always runs away, crying even more than she had been before, while the man shakes his head sadly and follows after her.I am not the daughter they are looking for.
Dr. Carver aims to help me remember who I am through his endless questions. But I have told this story before. To the police. To the doctors. It always begins with me waking up on a wooden table. Wet. Scared. Alone. And ending up here. Nothing before. And I assume there will be little to tell of my life after.
I do not entertain hope that my memory will return or that my family will find me. I only agreed to meet with Dr. Carver because it gets me out of kitchen duty.
I am not sure I want to remember.
Every night I take off my clothes and see the scars. They are horrid. They are where my arms and legs connect to my torso, along my chest, between my breasts, down my stomach, across my lower waist. And around my neck. As though I had been dismembered, disemboweled, and stitched back together by someone who had no skill with a needle.
Do I really want to know what horror was inflicted upon me to cause such scaring?
Do I want to remember what he did to me? Whoever he is.
Whether I remember or not, would I have a life if my parents did find me? When they see what abuses, what mutilations happened to their child, could they live with the despair. I could never marry. I could never let a man who was not a doctor see me…see my body. And no man who knew my past would want me.
No, I am sure it is better for all parties involved if I don’t remember. It is better that I forget and am forgotten.
I would rather be Ann Banks and spend the rest of my life in an asylum than risk remembering who I really am and him finding me.
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Tour Wide Giveaway
To celebrate the release of THE CREATION OF EVE by Leigh Anderson, we’re giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to one lucky winner!
GIVEAWAY TERMS & CONDITIONS: Open to internationally. One winner will receive a $25 Amazon gift card. This giveaway is administered by Pure Textuality PR on behalf of Red Empress Publishing. Giveaway ends 11/5/2018 @ 11:59pm EST. Limit one entry per reader. Duplicates will be deleted.
About the Author
LEIGH ANDERSON loves all things Gothic and paranormal. Her master’s thesis was on vampire imagery in Gothic novels and she met her husband while assuming the role of a vampire online. She currently teaches writing at several universities and has a rather impressive collection of tiny hats. She lives in a small town in the mountains with her husband, human child, and two fur-children. She is currently working on too many writing projects, and yet not enough.