The debut novel from Verity Holloway, Pseudotooth is an adult take on ‘portal fantasy’, boldly tackling issues of trauma responses, social difference and our conflicting desires for purity and acceptance. Aisling Selkirk is a young woman beset by unexplained blackouts, pseudo-seizures that have baffled both the doctors and her family. Sent to recuperate in the Suffolk countryside, she seeks solace in the work of William Blake and writing her journal, filling its pages with her visions of Feodor, an East Londoner haunted by his family’s history back in Russia. The discovery of a Tudor priest hole and its disturbed former inhabitant lead Aisling into a meeting with the enigmatic Chase and on to an unfamiliar town where the rule of Our Friend is absolute and those deemed unfit and undesirable have a tendency to disappear into The Quiet… This bold new work of literary fantasy blurs the lines between dream and reality, asking troubling questions about those who society shuns, and why. REVIEWS Pseudotooth is a compassionate fever dream of a book and an achingly beautiful narrative about difference and self-acceptance. Holloway is a conjurer of the beautifully grotesque, an architect of the vivid, who’s writing is so lyrical and evocative it makes your teeth itch. — Disclaimer Magazine [Pseudotooth] is a multi-layered novel, one that excels in its use of ideas and with realities like Russian nesting doll sets. This is a book that will reward further reading, a rich tapestry of truth and fiction, with a gratifying wealth of detail to supplement the main story and some excellent characterisation. – Black Static Dizzyingly imaginative... Its scope is ambitious, with multiple interlinked plot strands and a vividly-drawn cast of characters shaped in part by their respective pasts. Pseudotooth is one of the most original and immersive novels I've read in a long time. – Breakfast at Libraries Holloway’s writing is sure and inventive; her language choices interesting yet clear. I really appreciated that Holloway remained true to the traumas and consequences in Aisling’s life, and that she didn’t give in to the easy fixes. As a reader, I was wholly in tune with Aisling’s character. – Andromeda Spaceways Magazine