Mouthing The Words

Nov 26, 2025 10:37 PM

Author:Camilla Gibb

Mouthing The Words

Thelma is six years old. Life at home is unsettling and disturbing; her father's games are not enjoyable and her mother dotes on Willy, the favoured child. When her parents move to Canada, Thelma smuggles her imaginary friends with her in her suitcase.

By turns harrowing and wonderfully funny, Mouthing the Words tells Thelma's story of sexual abuse, anorexia, borderline multiple personality disorder and her return to England. Reminiscent of Jeanette Winterson and Sylvia Plath, Mouthing the Words is a remarkable and inspiring fiction debut.

Reviews

Gibb seduces the reader with sparky prose and charming storylines before drawing us onto a heart-wrenching rollercoaster ride

—— Guardian

Beautiful and compelling... an insightful and humane exploration of the space between reason and imagination

—— The Times

This is a bold and ambitious debut from a writer who sows the seeds of great promise

—— Daily Express

Fresh and original

—— Sunday Times

It's sassy, it's smart... Go girl!

—— Jeanette Winterson

An extraordinary, irreducible fantasy

—— Observer

Burgess's ambitious study of 20th-century history centers on the stormy relationship between an effete, popular novelist and a Faustian priest

—— Publishers Weekly

It is glitzy, glamorous, page-turning stuff with bite

—— Sarah Broadhurst

Chilling...will keep you guessing until the end

—— Psychologies

Chilling psychological thriller... Fact and fiction are cleverly blurred, and the intricately plotted spins and turns will keep you guessing till the end

—— Glamour

Intriguing... Real life tangles with his fantasy online world to create a heart-stopping page-turner

—— Good Housekeeping

Blueeyedboy is unquestionably a masterpiece of deception and fantasy

—— Oxford Times

A dark exploration into the mind of an internet-obsessed would-be killer

—— Red

Creepy psychodrama...BB's voice soon takes on the seductive cadences of her Gallic creations. Harris's triumph is to incorporate email-speak into this tale of rural nasties without frightening the horses

—— Independent

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