Girl in the Walls

A dark & sweet coming of age fairy tale about becoming who you are.


Leaving the city was not Vernon's choice. Neither was moving into an old house in a bumpkin-run town in the Cascadian forest, where the shadows move and the stairs make a sound like dying crows. It's a relief when Vernon discovers a space inside the walls of his bedroom, a space inhabited by a mysterious girl named Violet. Violet's nothing like Vernon. She's pretty and cool, and she has a closetful of cute clothes. But as Vernon and Violet become friends, Vernon starts to realize that she's much more like him than he thought, leading him down a fairy-tale path of self-discovery. Out of the closet and into the world.


¿PRAISE FOR GIRL IN THE WALLS


"Magical, heartfelt and powerful, Girl in the Walls cements Katy Michelle Quinn's position as an important voice in modern queer fiction."


Jo Quenell, author of The Mud Ballad




"Heartfelt and full of wonder, Girl in the Walls further establishes Quinn as one of the rawest and realest fabulists writing today."


Danger Slater, Wonderland Award-winning author of I Will Rot Without You, Puppet Skin



"Katy Michelle Quinn is a profoundly important writer who has gifted us a story of uncertainty, pain-both physical and emotional-and the conflict of becoming one's true self. Girl in the Walls is a staggeringly beautiful, heart-wrenching work that literally brought me to tears. Don't just read this book, let it devour you whole."

Sam Richard, Wonderland Award-winning author of To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows


"Girl in the Walls is an intense, YA novella all the more poignant and timely given the current uptick in disingenuous legislative backlash against trans youth in The United States. Trans stories save kids' lives, not just for the sake of allyship but for universal curricular standing among peers. Trans and queer youth design futures for everyone on the most practical level, and people ignore that at our own peril. Quinn is a testament to successes that occur when such a voice is given opportunities to speak for real. Girl in the Walls is a searing, tender, timely parable that feels both familiar and fresh, and I'm really excited to see where she takes us next."

Larissa Glasser, author of F4




Katy is a queer transwoman who writes strange and sentimental horror-adjacent fiction. Her first novella, Winnie, was published by Eraserhead Press in 2018, and her stories can be found in Lazermall by Filthy Loot and The New Flesh by Weirdpunk Books, among other collections. She currently inhabits the forests of the Pacific Northwest with her partner and their three catchildren. Follow her on Instagram @kittymyshellqueen