If you love gods made from soil and roots, feral forest sisters, and extremely pretty art, then you’re going love this as much as I do! My preorder campaign for The Seventh Sister has officially launched so get those receipts ready.
The artists are @_.starry.knights._ and @eeurekaa and I’m blown away by their incredible talent in bringing Clem, Juniper, Hazel, Ivy, Holly, Willow and Poppy to life.
Here is a closer look at the gorgeous artwork:
Seven girls, rigid as iron, colorful as a kaleidoscope. Vestiges of a system their hedonistic parents implemented when a new child arrived. Assigning a name and a color was the most Hillary and Peter Ward ever did for their children.
Purple, orange, yellow, green, blue, and red.
A little Ward rainbow.
They are not the girls they were last season. They no longer bathe very much, preferring to run into the rain and dance the grime away, or to sink into the algae-riddled lake like alligators. They no longer wear shoes; their feet grow tough and dirty, in order to commune with Daudir, the Forgotten God, who is Father. Who is Mother.
Every preorder of THE SEVENTH SISTER will help feed children in schools across the globe in communities where hunger and poverty prevent children from getting an education.
Part of this is personal for me. I grew up in Africa, where hunger wasn’t an abstract idea, it was something that shaped the lives of many children around me—myself included. And, in a quieter way, it’s connected to the story itself. Without spoiling anything, The Seventh Sister is a book where hunger and isolation both haunt the lives of vulnerable children. Folk horror often deals with the darker edges of human experience in a needed and cathartic way, but in the real world, no child should have to live with that kind of deprivation.
Mary’s Meals can feed a child at school for an entire year for just £19.15, which is an extraordinary gift. If you choose to buy the book, you’ll also be helping feed a child.
Thank you for being part of that. 🖤
The Seventh Sister is my adult botanical forest rot folk horror about Clem Ward, third of seven sisters, who must return to the island where she grew up to confront the imaginary forest god she created with her sisters. It’s a feral, gender-bent Lord of the Flies meets Yellowjackets with sporror, botanical body horror and a forest rot haunting. Out April 7, 2026 from Thomas & Mercer.
Barnes & Noble, Amazon US, Bookshop, Books-A-Million, and Indigo. Don’t forget to add it on Goodreads too!
In other news, I got to draw a map for The Seventh Sister (or was the map actually drawn by little Clementine…?) and they actually put it in the book??? Cue: delirious glee! Here’s a closer look:
I’m excited for you to meet the Ward sisters, as well as Daudir, Forgotten God of the Woods.
Stay feral,
Dawn
