Lily

"As Andersen has done for the book's beautifully bizarre yet detailed illustrations, Ford has filled his novel with customs and side stories-some no more than a sentence or two-that make the world feel real, wonderful, and horrifying simultaneously...this novel is at heart a fairy tale in the grand, dark tradition of the best of such stories; the book speaks to the reader's deepest fears and highest hopes, told through the odyssey of a girl who is scared by what is happening around her and within her." - Kirkus Reviews

"Not since Katherine Dunn's Geek Love has a cast of carnival workers been so darkly delightful or terrifyingly twisted. Lily's journey is a treacherous one, not only through the physical world but through the ethereal world, as she struggles to make sense of magic, religion, and 'the woman' growing inside her. You'll be as taken with Lily as is the joyfully mischievous Baba Yaga, as she shadows the girl's every move, acting as the fairy godmother you never knew you wanted. Michael Thomas Ford weaves a delicate tale of love and cruelty in Lily so expertly you will pray he never runs out of straw to spin." - Dayna Ingram, author of All Good Children