Lemon Sherbet: A haunting mix of memory, guilt, obsession, and dangerous desire

’GIRL A’ MEETS ’SHARP OBJECTS’ WHERE LIFE’S SOUR TWISTS LINGER ON THE BREATH OF A FINAL SWEET EXHALE.

LEMON SHERBET IS A WORK OF DARK WOMEN’S LITERARY FICTION FOR READERS OF LIANE MORIARTY AND DOUGLAS STUART.

When X is sectioned in a secure psychiatric ward, she is forced to confront the wreckage of her life: fractured memories, dangerous behaviour and a childhood she has spent decades trying to outrun. Raised in a children’s home controlled by the brutal Dr Fisher, X has survived punishment, neglect and the sweet lure of lemon sherbets from his antique jar. However, the guilt she carries from abandoning her friend Caramel during a life-changing assault has never left her. Now, as her psychiatrist begins to challenge the version of events she has always believed, X is forced to confront a series of devastating realisations. Cutting between childhood trauma, a turbulent foster home, destructive adult relationships and a spiralling obsession that ends in collapse, LEMON SHERBET is a vivid, unsettling journey through shifting shadows of memory and delusion. X is an enigma the reader will long to solve.

’My Page Turner Award winner 2024. Dark, immersive and emotionally charged, Rosie Beattie’s debut novel is a powerful, visceral journey.’ - Tracy Stewart Page Turner Judge/ Founder Freshly Press

’An astonishing, wholly original debut.’ - Alan Eyres Executive Producer Plimsoll USA

’Fresh. Brilliantly visual. Just begging for the screen.’ - Katie Bailiff CEO Women in Film and TV UK