Not since Frankenstein’s monster has man’s quest for Godlike power resulted in such unimaginable horror. This is a difficult story to read filled with images no one really wants as well as those of great beauty. It is a mirror held up to our society and the damage we pass to our children in our quest for perfection.
In a growing New England town designed for perfection and run by a purity-obsessed mayor at the turn of the last century, a pretty, beloved young girl on the edge of womanhood begins to smell—a putrid, rotting stench from within, so vile it permeates the air and repulses all she nears. Her first love must abandon her, and soon even her devoted parents can no longer get close enough to offer comfort.
Despair and isolation drive her family to a desperate attempt to end the foul odor through drastic medical measures. The result of their well-meaning efforts—and the Mayor’s relentless quest for the ideal—is a soul-crushing tragedy years in the making, born of long-hidden sins. Unknowingly, they create a monster who will lay a terrible curse upon their pristine town.
We cannot hide all the ugliness in our world. When we try, it finds a way to break free and thrive. A monster can be made anywhere—even in a lonely little girl.
About the Author:
Jennifer Dolce is a debut novelist from Northport, New York, where she lives with her husband, son and two stepdaughters. She has spent many years immersed in the world of theater, an experience that shaped her deep love of storytelling, character, and emotional atmosphere. Time spent both on and behind the stage gave her a strong sense of dramatic structure and the power of visual, immersive narrative—elements that now define her fiction.
A lifelong reader with a fascination for the shadowed corners of human nature, Jennifer has always been drawn to dark fiction and horror. She is especially interested in stories where beauty and brutality coexist, and where emotional truth lingers long after the final page. Her writing blends theatrical intensity with haunting, character-driven storytelling.
ELEANOR is her first novel.
