[QCRIT] Adult Comedic/Satirical Horror, COUNTRY CLUB COVEN (84k, 2nd attempt)

Hi all!

I got some great feedback on my last attempt so back for round two! Hopefully I’ve included more of the plot so what actually happens/motivations are clearer.

Thanks in advance!

QUERY:

COUNTRY CLUB COVEN is a comedic horror with speculative elements complete at 84,000 words. Filled with glitter, margaritas, and blood, it satirizes life in the uppity and quietly racist St. Louis suburbs (where I grew up) where a ritzy and image-obsessed society secretly flourishes. It will appeal to fans of Ottessa Moshfegh’s dry-witted, unlikeable protagonists, the surreal horror of Mona Awad’s Bunny, and the insatiable appetites found in Chelsea G. Summers’ A Certain Hunger. Think Mean Girls meets American Psycho with a witchy twist.

Beauty-hungry Sylvia is insatiable. After a cheating husband and inconveniently deported nanny leaves her caring for two kids on her own, she hopes the new Plain-Jane nanny will relieve some of her stress. Sure, Grace is annoying and greasy, but at least Sylvia now has time to rededicate herself to her looks. And if she’s learned one thing from her narcissistic mother, it’s that looks are everything.

However, when Sylvia finds her beauty violently deteriorating while Grace’s dramatically improve, she falls into a spiral of insecurity, vanity, and suspicion. Sylvia’s sure Grace is fucking with her, but she can’t just fire her. She’s also vomiting up cockroaches––she needs answers. The confrontation ends with a knife in Sylvia’s hand and a choice: follow a ritual that will allow her to feed off the beauty of others to temporarily restore her own or resign to her new face and risk losing everything––her friends, her boyfriend, and the rare compliment from her mother. If she chooses herself, it will mean hurting the people she loves. And she would never wish this trauma on them––unless it’s not really love driving her relationships, but jealousy. In that case, a “temporary” ritual might not be enough, and a knife will do her little good.

A fork, however…

[bio/salutation]