Looking for a CP for YA Fantasy Thriller (twisted hansel & gretel)

[Loretta]

Hello, Everyone!

I am looking for a critique partner---or even better a group---to swap and share chapters as they are completed. I have the first ten right now, and I would LOVE to swap with someone in a similar genre.

I absolutely love a book that sucks me in and I would really appreciate forming a long-term partnership with a fellow writer. This is my fourth novel. I have included my working query so that you can have an idea of what my story is and just a little bit about me to see if we would work well together. The word count is not at all accurate. It is just a ballpark for the completed novel. Please, if you are interested, comment or message me. I am grateful to all of you for your help!!

I am seeking representation for my 80000 word YA fantasy thriller novel, THE WITCH OF THE WOOD: a twist on the age-old classic story of Hansel and Gretel. Early readers have compared it to Madeline Miller’s CIRCE meets THE VISIT, as well as whimsical, dark writing in the vein of Edgar Allan Poe, Neil Gaiman, and V.E. Schwab.

Makatzah’s only desire is freedom. She feels the heavy weight of Akiva—her older brother—and his oppressive protection every day. But when a frantic race through the woods after a wayward dog quickly takes a dangerous turn, she finds herself grateful her brother followed after her. A massive winter storm leaves them stranded in whipping winds and frigid air. In the morning, the world has changed. The snow is gone and spring birds sing. Just beyond the outcropping where they weathered the storm, a beautiful mansion stands, the young woman inside welcoming and kind.

But beauty is not always trustworthy. Death peeks around the corner, and its eyes are trained on Makatzah. The beautiful mansion is changing, falling to pieces by the day. The frescoes are shifting, animals becoming bones and women shredded scraps of skin. Reality and fiction are blending together, leaving the twisted halls of the mansion with ghosts of broken bodies, flashes of bloody women, and littered with long-dried bones. Something is hunting Makatzah, and she cannot outrun it. For the first time in her life, her loyal and protective brother doesn’t care whether she lives or dies, and Makatzah is left to defend herself from the storybook horrors of her childhood.

I am a librarian and artist. I have won several local awards for my writing and have written three novels. If, in my spare time, I am not immersed in a good story—whether written, composed, or painted—I am with family and animals, running through the forest like a wild woman, or winning card games. I am an environmentalist, which has heavily influenced the idea for this book, as well as a Neurodivergent woman.

[Ray]

Id be intresting in a CP, i have a a completed 159k word YA fantasy.
message me on here on email me @ ray.damin23@gmail.com

Thanks!