This book will keep you up all night and give you chills. Both relentlessly menacing and transgressively brilliant, In the Cut is a twisty, nerve-shredding reading experience. A rare breed of literary thriller that manages to be deeply disturbing, violently erotic, and truly unforgettable. (Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti)
I am in awe of In the Cut, a book about violence and sexuality that pays meticulous attention to language in a sharp, sardonic voice that calls to mind Lorrie Moore and Lydia Davis. It is extraordinarily unrestricted about female desire and sexuality, a completely propulsive reading experience and simply one of my favourite books. (Megan Hunter, author of The End We Start From)
I've never read anything like IN THE CUT. The lethal precision, repulsive and propulsive, cerebral and visceral, makes it the kind of intelligent thriller that takes you over completely. Seductively at first, then in a chokehold. When I finished I was ready to pass out. (Olivia Sudjic, author of SYMPATHY and EXPOSURE)
Strange, uncomfortable, compelling, shocking, hot, scary. The scariness of the book arises from what feels like being trapped in the protagonist's head - the way she treats the people around her like specimens, as though she's conducting a forensic autopsy on the world.
(Kristen Roupenian, author of CAT PERSON)
In The Cut is surely one of the most underrated books of all time. Moore navigates the claustrophobic streets of a seedy New York and the dark, hidden avenues of female desire with equal grace, rewriting the thriller template with an elegance that proves totally devastating. She looks unflinchingly towards the darkness and finds beauty there as well as old, inescapable truths about what it means to be a reckless woman in a world of dangerous men. (Sophie Mackintosh, author of THE WATER CURE)
A streamlined and elegant meditation on language, sexuality and violence. Flawless. (May-Lan Tan author of THINGS TO MAKE AND BREAK)
Riding shotgun on Frannie's chaotic descent is a difficult experience to shake. In the Cut is voyeuristic in content and by design, making us more queasily complicit with every page turned (and they turn fast). (Chris Power, author of MOTHERS)
Horrific, the sexiest book ever, vile, devastatingly true, not for the faint hearted. (Daisy Johnson, author of EVERYTHING UNDER)
'In the Cut blew me away. It's truly extraordinary. The writing is so precise and perceptive, the plot so disturbing, frightening and erotic all at once. It reminds me of Elena Ferrante's Troubling Love - this profoundly clever woman with her life in her hands.' (Lucie Whitehouse, author of BEFORE WE MET)
Brutal, witty and electrifying, this is one of the best and bleakest thrillers I've ever read. As stylish as Chandler, as savage as Dworkin, its uncompromising portrait of the erotic dynamic between men and women makes it essential reading in the dark waters of the 21st century. (Olivia Laing, author of THE LONELY CITY and CRUDO)
'Not a word is wasted in this examination of one woman's sexual odyssey as Moore builds to a shattering climax.' Sarah Hughes, the i
'A true original ... Disturbingly dark, explosively violent, powerfully erotic and brilliantly written.' Sunday Times
'Electrifying. Essential reading' Olivia Laing
'Taut and filthy and beautifully written' Evie Wyld
'Deep red and as hot as hell' Preti Taneja
'Compelling, shocking, hot, scary' Kristen Roupenian
'Horrific, the sexiest book ever, devastatingly true' Daisy Johnson
'Extraordinary' Lucie Whitehouse
'When I finished I was ready to pass out' Olivia Sudjic
'One of my favourite books' Megan Hunter
Living alone in New York, Frannie teaches creative writing to a motley bunch of students, and secretly compiles a dictionary of street slang: virginia, n., vagina; snapper, n., vagina; brasole, n., vagina.
One evening at a bar, she stumbles upon a man, his face in shadow, a tattoon on his wrist, a woman kneeling between his legs. A week later a detective shows up at her door. The woman's body has been discovered in the park across the street.
Soon Frannie is propelled into a sexual liaison that tests the limits of her safety and desires, as she begins a terrifying descent into the dark places that reside deep within her.