Crustacean

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

'A harrowing, off-beat novella about the ways in which young teenagers process trauma -- think MY DARK VANESSA meets EARTHLINGS. A truly unique gut-punch of a read' Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller

'The Crustacean isn't a novel, it's an obsession . . . I would kill and die for this book' ALISSA NUTTING, author of Tampa

The year's most spiky and powerful novella

"When I was 13 I knew nothing about anything.

I only cared about love.

And the older man, who I thought I fell in love with, never told me he was divorced.

I made that up on my own."

Chichirim is a plain 13-year-old girl. An ordinary, misunderstood, lonely seventh-grader. A girl with a terrible secret.

Her dad is worse than useless. And her mum spends all her days tattooing thick ugly eyebrows on old women.

Her parents forget her birthday and her sister hates them so much she wishes they were dead.

Chichirim does bad things at school. And still, no one cares.

Until, one day, an older man picks her up on the side of the road.

He tells her she is pretty.

Her tells her what to do.

Underneath her hard outer shell, her softness is being exploited and destroyed by the people she trusts and loves the most.

"I want to come back as a crab. A crab's skin is made of bone and the flesh is inside the bone. But we're the opposite. We have bone inside flesh."

THE CRUSTACEAN is an intricately crafted novella exploring memory, exploitation, and the lasting effects of adult abuse and betrayal, for readers of My Dark Vanessa and Tampa.

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9781840919141
Published: September 2025

Number of pages: 192
Width: 134 mm
Height: 214 mm
Depth: 18 mm

Publisher: Octopus Publishing Group