Tender: A Novel

Tender: A Novel

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Author/Contributor(s): Du Plessis, Lauren
Publisher: Diversion Books
Date: 4/20/2027
Binding: Paperback
Condition: NEW
A debut, folkloric, body horror-tinged novel following a botanist who is tasked with unearthing truths about several bodies discovered in ritualistic, floral graves in South West England and who ends up digging deeper into her own unsettling past.

Nell has curated a perfect museum of the self: a successful career in archaeobotany, a pastel Instagram filled with flowers, and an uncompromising manicure routine. She’s convinced that her veneer of perfection will mask the parts of her she’d rather not think about.

When two "bog bodies" are discovered in elaborate floral graves in a Somerset fen, Nell seizes the opportunity to excavate their secrets. But the deeper she digs into the fertile, waterlogged earth, the more she uncovers memories of her unsettled childhood and strained relationship with her sister… and the more her body manifests her own wildness in ways she can’t ignore.

Under the pressure of a blazing summer, Nell finds herself in a whirlwind of toxic romance, intense friendships, and the brutal process of reconciling her past and her future before the weight of it all buries her, too.

Blending folkloric horror with explorations of womanhood against a backdrop of eco-anxiety, Tender burrows into the quiet violence of overcoming and accepting our darkest sides.