Sensual World - A Novel

A surreal, Midwestern campus gothic about two young women at an avant-garde acting school whose obsessive pursuit of their craft tests the limits of their bodies and their trust in each other

At seventeen, Bet Cowl desperately wants out of Junction X, a remote Kansas hamlet where her puberty is ushered in by bizarre household rites. But when she discovers the manuscript of a never-performed, supposedly cursed play by avant-garde playwright Una Flood, an escape path opens. She auditions for Flood’s infamous acting conservatory, the Con—and gets in.

At the Con, Bet must endure the faculty’s grueling tests of both her body and her mind while uncovering her mysterious connection to the legendary founder. She befriends the foul-mouthed, sexually expert Helen, a former child star who becomes the object of Bet’s suppressed desires. Together, they strive to become artists, until jealousy, betrayal, and Una Flood’s supernatural machinations tear the two apart in an act of spectacular violence. Only after years of estrangement can they finally reunite to rewrite their lives—if Flood’s unrelenting demands don’t threaten everything they’ve worked for.

A queer coming-of-age story featuring dog-crate kinks, demented plastic surgeons, abandoned human organs, and murder by mortar and pestle, Sensual World asks: Just how much of yourself will you sacrifice in the name of art?