january sale
25% off selected Scottish titles
25% off selected Scottish titles
Independent Scottish Bookshop
Every book chosen by a bookseller.
Independent Scottish Bookshop
In stock
Author: Tori Bovalino
£8.95 3 for 2
A dark horror-fantasy retelling of Goblin Market in which a young woman must infiltrate a disappearing goblin market to save her kidnapped teen aunt — perfect for readers who enjoy eerie magic, coming-of-age tension and gothic undertones in fantasy.
dispatched by Royal Mail Tracked 48
We found Not Good for Maidens dark, thoughtful, and sharply written. It is a haunting take on folklore and inheritance, where magic is never free and survival always demands a choice.
As Independent Scottish booksellers, we write all of our descriptions personally, we hope you enjoy this one.
Louisa has always trusted what she can see and touch. Magic belongs to stories, not to her small town or her fractured family history. That certainty breaks when her aunt Neela is taken, pulled into a place her mother has spent years refusing to name.
In Not Good For Maidens, the goblin market is not a fable but a living maze, vanishing as easily as it appears. Its streets glitter with fruit and jewels, bargains and threats woven together, and its inhabitants remember old debts. Years earlier, Lou’s mother and aunt escaped this place at a terrible cost, one that still shapes their silences.
With the market set to disappear in three days, Lou must step into its rules and rituals, learning songs meant to deceive and promises meant to bind. What waits there is not only violence, but hunger and vengeance sharpened by time.
Rooted in folklore and family trauma, Not Good For Maidens is a dark, unsettling exploration of inheritance and sacrifice, where rescue demands more than bravery, and survival leaves its mark long after the doors close.
Crime & Mystery
Modern Fiction