A seductively gothic reimagining of the original femme fatale, about an adrift American journalist who accepts an alluring stranger's invitation to stay at her home in a small French town, only to uncover a dangerous family history that could alter the course of humanity.
"Smart, thoughtful, and sensual." -Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists
A gothic-tinged fever dream that reimagines the young American in France, Salome follows an adrift journalist who accepts an alluring stranger's invitation to stay at her home in a small French town, only to uncover a dangerous family history that could bend the course of humanity.
Don't open your eyes...
Courtney notices Salome the moment she steps onto the plane. She's magnetic, quicksilver, and, best of all for incurable Francophile Courtney, French. So when Salome invites Courtney to her mother's town in northwestern France, Courtney doesn't even have to think about it.
But things are, almost immediately, surreal. Despite feeling right at home with Salome, Courtney is confronted by a house outfitted with cameras and the dark, watchful presence of Salome's mother. Courtney senses she should leave, but with Salome she feels as if she's rediscovered the "French Courtney," an alternate version of herself who made a life in France.
That is, until she starts to experience paralyzing nightmares in which strange voices intone Don't open your eyes . . . and encounters Salome's charismatic stepfather, Marco, whose pyramid-scheme vitamin company offers a tempting segue into an even more insidious group obsessed with eternal life. Or is it an actual cult? And how much does Salome really know? As a conspiracy unfurls, Courtney is torn between her loyalty to Salome and what might be the story of a lifetime, the kind that could make a journalist's career-if it doesn't kill her first.
A modern reclamation of the original femme fatale whose story, until now, has been almost exclusively told by men, Salome is a tantalizing, feminist tale exploring power, loyalty, connection, and the measures we'll take to harness our deepest desires.
