A stylish, seductive new novel from Rebecca Sarah Ley, winner of a Betty Trask Prize and the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize


'A stylish and gripping take on the campus novel – witty, incredibly sharp, and compulsively readable' Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure




'I loved it: a bleakly funny, off-kilter examination of the dynamics of power and attraction. I raced through it' Rebecca Wait, author of I'm Sorry You Feel That Way



Sofie Muller can make you into a better writer.


That's why Alice and Walt are desperate to be in her creative writing class. She can spot talent and apply pressure, hone you – if you’re good enough, if you want it enough – into something more elegant, original, daring.


Alice wants it. She wants Sofie's hand guiding hers to greatness, then the book deal, then the prizes and the plaudits.


Still, there is gossip. Sofie will kill your darlings. Sofie will drive you too hard. Sofie’s boundary-pushing is not just professional, it is personal. By the time Alice realises the rumours may be true, is it too late to wriggle free? And if not, is it worth it to get what she always dreamed of?



BAD FICTION is a timely, brilliant novel about fame and mentorship, betrayal and submission, from one of Britain’s brightest young writers.