Méduse

She has been called Medusa for so long she forgot her real name. She walks with her head down, her face hidden behind the wildness of her hair, sparing people the sight of her Deformities – a pair of eyes so horrendous they repulse women and petrify men. She has never dared to look at herself in a mirror.

Banished from her family’s home, she is locked up at the Athenæum, an institute for misshapen girls that stands on the shores of a jellyfish-infested lake. In the depths of this sinister place where Benefactors play cruel games with their protegés, Medusa gradually discovers the prodigious but frightening faculties of her Revoltings.

Freed by a man who soon becomes another prison, she experiments with her abilities, learning to control and magnify their fury, wreaking destruction in her wake.

As Medusa strives to exact her final revenge upon the Benefactors, she must face the treacherous eyes of her sworn enemy, and the deadly stare of her own Abominations.

In this dark and provocative book, Martine Desjardins offers a radical tale of oppression, shame, and female force. With a contemporary, feminist twist on a gothic universe, this novel sheds a crude and refined light on monstrosity.

An English translation is available.