# The Stepdaughter by Caroline Blackwood (Paperback)

**Discover Caroline Blackwood's darkly brilliant debut - a perfect rediscovered classic for fans of Shirley Jackson and Ottessa Moshfegh**  
  
**'A bracingly nasty book . . . Splendid, dark, often very funny' MEGAN NOLAN, _Telegraph_**  
  
A lavish Upper West Side apartment is the site of a familial cold war about to enter a phase of dangerous escalation.  
  
J is a lonely woman without the luxury of being alone. Her husband has fled to Paris with his latest flame, leaving J with not only their own four-year-old daughter, Sally Ann, but the sulky, cake-mix addicted, thirteen-year-old Renata, a leftover from his previous marriage.  
  
Writing letters in her head to imaginary friends, J delights in dwelling on the hapless Renata, who 'invites a kind of cruelty'. This is an invitation J fully intends to take up - and like so many stepmothers before her, she will find that wickedness, once indulged, is a difficult habit to kick. A mordant black splinter of a book, Caroline Blackwood's first novel is a testament to her razor-sharp mastery - and mockery - of the darkest depths of human feeling.  
  
'**Contained and ferocious' _TLS_**  
  
**'Punchy . . . a clever and perfectly formed novel' _The Times_**  
  
**'One of the greatest, darkest writers who ever lived' VIRGINIA FEITO**  
  
**'Witty, observant, clever' _Guardian_**  
**_  
'_The perfect book for people who find Joan Didion too even-keeled, Renata Adler too fair-minded . . . In its own way, it's a perfect novel . . . It deserves to be a cheeky summer hit'** **_LA REVIEW OF BOOKS_**  
**  
'Blackwood was in fact a writer of rare distinction, the author of wit-drenched books about the wages of class, women's inhumanity to women, bitchiness, greed, abjection, family, monsters' _NEW YORKER_**  
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'Caroline Blackwood sits firmly alongside the greats like Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith. Her writing is smart, economical and as dark as night' ARAMINTA HALL**

## Details

- **Price:** 8.99 GBP
- **Vendor:** Little, Brown Book Group Limited
- **Tags:** All, Thrillers

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 8.99 GBP | In stock |

## Images

- The Stepdaughter by Caroline Blackwood (Paperback)

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> Source: [Somiibooks](https://somiibooks.com/products/the-stepdaughter-caroline-blackwood-9780349019468)
> Updated: 2026-09-16