A01=Lauren Du Plessis
Author_Lauren Du Plessis
body horror
Category=FB
Category=FBA
Category=FKM
debut author
debut fiction
debut novel
debut novelist
eco fiction
environmental fiction
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
feminism
feminist fiction
folk horror
independent publishing
indie publishing
influx
influx press
lauren duplessis
tender
womens fiction
Product details
- ISBN 9781914391606
- Dimensions: 130 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 25 Sep 2025
- Publisher: Influx Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Nell has curated a perfect museum of the self: a successful career in archaeobotany, a pastel Instagram filled with flowers, and an uncompromising manicure routine. She’s convinced that her veneer of perfection will mask the parts of her she’d rather not think about.
When two ‘bog bodies’ are discovered in elaborate floral graves in a Somerset fen, Nell seizes the opportunity to excavate their secrets. But the deeper she digs into the fertile, waterlogged earth, the more she uncovers memories of her unsettled childhood and strained relationship with her sister… and the more her body manifests her own wildness in ways she can’t ignore.
Under the pressure of a blazing summer, Nell whirlwinds into toxic romance, intense friendships, and the brutal process of reconciling her past and her future before the weight of it all buries her, too.
Blending folkloric horror with explorations of womanhood against a backdrop of eco-anxiety, Tender burrows into the quiet violence of overcoming and accepting our darkest sides.
When two ‘bog bodies’ are discovered in elaborate floral graves in a Somerset fen, Nell seizes the opportunity to excavate their secrets. But the deeper she digs into the fertile, waterlogged earth, the more she uncovers memories of her unsettled childhood and strained relationship with her sister… and the more her body manifests her own wildness in ways she can’t ignore.
Under the pressure of a blazing summer, Nell whirlwinds into toxic romance, intense friendships, and the brutal process of reconciling her past and her future before the weight of it all buries her, too.
Blending folkloric horror with explorations of womanhood against a backdrop of eco-anxiety, Tender burrows into the quiet violence of overcoming and accepting our darkest sides.
Lauren du Plessis is a British writer of speculative, folkloric, and weird fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Litro and Mslexia among others. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Literature at Oxford Brookes University, and has worked across marketing and narrative writing, mostly for games.
She lives in the bluebell-saturated chalk hills of the Chilterns with her family. Tender is her first novel.
