Curious creatures

Within the framework of international criticism, a unanimous consensus has been reached: it is considered that Rotten creaturesAmy Twigg's literary debut is a subversive, extraordinarily well-written novel, a work that elevates the category of cult literature. Therefore, it is a brilliant and significant achievement that this contemporary marvel is now part of the Ediciones de la Ela Geminada catalog, with a splendid translation by the writer Anna Carreras i Aubets. Interestingly, the title is a quote from a letter that Vita Sackville-West sent to Virginia Woolf, a brilliant correspondence that is another of the undisputed gems in the catalog of this formidable and daring Girona-based publisher.

The story Twigg presents is captivating and dark, winding and wild, and in the right hands, it could be a great film with Lynchian or even Cronenbergian undertones. The protagonist is Iris, a thirty-two-year-old living a depressing existence. She has just broken up with her dull partner, returned to the house where she grew up to live with her widowed mother, with whom cohabitation is not easy, and works in a supermarket—a decent job, but one that doesn't fulfill her. In this miserable situation, she suddenly discovers an enigmatic character, Hazel, who fascinates her and eventually introduces her to Left House and its matriarch, Blythe. While from the beginning the place seems like a perfect paradise where a community of women can escape their problems and enjoy empowerment and sisterhood, as the story unfolds, we witness increasingly uncomfortable and unsettling situations and dynamics. Amy Twigg offers no solace: she places a slightly distorted mirror before us where, if we dare to look, we can contemplate murky beauty and fierce lucidity.

Rotten creatures, Amy Twigg's book is not only a visceral and raw reflection on structural misogyny, but also, and above all, an investigation into cult-like systems dominated by rigid hierarchies, emotional manipulation, and episodes of cruelty. Like a porthole, this brutal fiction offers us a privileged perspective from which to analyze some crucial themes, such as the need to connect, the desire to belong to a group, and the desperate yearning to find our place in an increasingly chaotic, unforgiving, and violent world. With an acerbic and sordid pen, Twigg confirms that certain idyllic aspirations in utopian projects ultimately shatter against the brutal gears of reality. I hope this book becomes a success in our home and that, I would gladly sign up, it opens a window of opportunity that helps us examine our social and individual weaknesses, our yearning for stable refuge, and our willful blindness.