The Blondes is a hilarious and whipsmart novel where an epidemic of a rabies-like disease is carried only by blonde women, all of whom must go to great lengths to conceal their blondness. Hazel Hayes is a grad student living in New York City. As the novel opens, she learns she is pregnant (from an affair with her married professor) at an apocalyptically bad time: random but deadly attacks on passers-by, all by blonde women, are terrorizing New Yorkers. Soon it becomes clear that the attacks are symptoms of a strange illness that is transforming blondes- whether CEOs, flight attendants, students or accountants-into rabid killers. Emily Schultz's beautifully realized novel is a mix of satire, thriller, and serious literary work. With biting satiric wit, The Blondes is at once an examination of the complex relationships between women, and a merciless but giddily enjoyable portrait of what happens in a world where beauty is-literally-deadly.
"Sharp and fluid and legitimately disturbing. A THINKING PERSON'S NAILBITER."
Ben Lorry, author of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day
"LIKE THE LITERARY LOVE CHILD OF NAOMI WOLF AND STEPHEN KING, The Blondes examines our cultural attitudes about beauty through the lens of a post-9/11, high-alert nightmare. The result is a SPELLBINDING brew, both satirical and deeply satisfying."
Helene Wecker, author of The Golem and the Jinni
"The Blondes is intelligent, MESMERIZING, and fearless. An entirely original and beautifully twisted satire with a heart of darkness."
