When homeless schoolgirl, Jenny, meets demon, Luc, they make a
dangerous pact.
Both have been scarred by the same childhood event – the day Jenny’s soul was stolen by Luc’s father. Now Luc has promised to return it, but can a demon be trusted? Jenny must find the courage to follow Luc into Hell and save him from the darkness that waits.
The stunning debut novel from the Times/Chicken House Children’s Competition 2022 Chairman’s Choice Prize winner, Jess Popplewell.
Dante’s Inferno meets the 2006 UK TV series Skins in this fresh contemporary YA.
Jess Popplewell is the author of The Dark Within Us, winner of the Chairman’s Prize in the Times/Chicken House 2022 competition.
She was raised in the historic city of York, so she absolutely thinks about the Roman Empire more than is normal. And the Danelaw. And the Harrying of the North, which she still hasn’t forgiven the Normans for.
Jess got her undergraduate degree in English and Creative Writing from Lancaster University in 2011 and her MA in Creative Writing from York St John University in 2016. She’s also a former gothy emo kid, traits which continually crop up in all her writing.
Having experienced insecure housing as a teenager, Jess is passionate about preventing homelessness for young people. She was a host for the York-based charity SASH for three years, offering her spare bedroom to young people in need of emergency accommodation.
She is represented by Louise Lamont at LBA Books.
