To Be Read (Next): The Girl

It's been a hot minute since I've really properly blogged aside from the odd review or collaboration. (Seriously, I looked at the amount of blog posts I've managed this year and it saddens me a little that this passion project felt a bit to the wayside due to work and personal stressors all throughout this year.) I'm determined to change that come 2023, and while I can't promise consistency right away, I did find myself eager to try out a few new things to see what clicks. And To Be Read (Next) is one such new feature! To Be Read (Next) is the start (I hope!) of a new blog series where I talk about a book (or maybe more than one in the future) that's coming up next in my reading queue, including telling you more about it and why I'm personally excited to be reading it.

I'm excited to be featuring The Girl by Victory Witherkeigh today, as it's one of the only physical books I'll be taking along with me on my trip to the Philippines this month! It seemed a fitting choice, what with this title being by a Filipina author and the story itself being inspired by an aspect of Filipino mythology. Those are, of course, two of the reasons that I'm personally looking forward to picking this one up. More reasons that I'm excited to pick this one up include: it's a coming-of-age story (my favorite), the fantastical twist (bonus points) and an anti-heroine main character (which I generally enjoy). I'm hoping to be able to share my final thoughts when I'm back from my trip at the end of the month, but I'm certainly hoping to really like this debut novel! 

I'm including more official information about the book and the author below, if you'd like to check it out. If you've read The Girl or are planning to add it to your TBR, definitely let me know! The book is available for purchase today, December 6, 2022.

Publication Info: December 6, 2022 from Cinnabar Moth Publishing, LLC

Summary: The Girl follows a nameless main character only known as The Girl. She’s been told since a very young age that she was a mistake, a demon who shouldn’t have been born. Shunned by her parents, she’s shuffled between her parents’ and grandparents’ homes until her eighteenth birthday. The Girl is baffled by her ordinary life in Los Angeles. For all intents and purposes, she’s just like everyone else. That is, until the Demon comes to claim her.

About the Author: Victory Witherkeigh is a female Filipino/PI author originally from Los Angeles, CA, currently living in the Las Vegas area. Victory was a finalist for Wingless Dreamer’s 2020 Overcoming Fear Short Story award and a 2021 winner of the Two Sisters Writing and Publishing Short Story Contest. She has print publications in the horror anthologies Supernatural Drabbles of Dread through Macabre Ladies Publishing, Bodies Full of Burning through Sliced Up Press, and In Filth It Shall Be Found through OutCast Press. Written during NaNoWriMo, Victory’s first novel, set to debut in December 2022 with Cinnabar Moth Publishing, has been a finalist for Killer Nashville’s 2020 Claymore Award, a 2020 Cinnamon Press Literature Award Honoree, and long-listed in the 2021 Voyage YA Book Pitch Contest. Find out more about her at: https://victorywitherkeigh.com/ | Facebook: @victorywitherkeigh | Twitter: @witherkeigh | Instagram: @victory_witherkeigh