2009: Tender Morsels

Molested by her father, gang raped by her peers, Liga wishes for death but instead find herself delivered to a magical haven, safe from all sexual violence. But as she raises her two daughters there, overlaps begin to appear between her world and the one she's left. Now a decision needs to be made – should the three women remain in the safe, but predictable Liga? Or is it now time to go back to the real world? A world that is enticing, vibrant and energetic but at the same time is also the ugly, violent world that Liga hid from so many years ago.Why it's on the listTender Morsels is a brave, beautiful, but not untroubled book. In the line of McKinley's Deerskin, it manages to do what most novels are better off not even trying: combine rape and fantasy, without distorting one or diluting the other, to paint a heart-breaking and heart-building portrait of sexual trauma.This is a hauntingly beautiful book that has you scared to turn the page just in case something horrifying happens… and then anxious to turn the next one just to see what happens next. It is very seldom that a book can excite such conflicting emotions.Read if you likeDark Fantasy covering real world issues