Four Terrible Parents
An addictive story of love, jealousy and the curse of trying to have it all | 'Beautifully plotted' Paula Hawkins
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Four Terrible Parents
Narrated by:
Kate Handford
Buy Now for £17.94
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Narrated by:
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Kate Handford
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By:
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Calla Henkel
'The prose is often beautiful and melodic . . . in this highly original and entertaining book' Sunday Times
'Henkel's comedy-slash-thriller is so fiendishly plotted' Guardian
'Four Terrible Parents is equal parts millennial fever dream and page-turner' Marie Claire
They thought with four parents, nothing could go wrong.
Once famous, indie-sleaze rock stars Valentine and Raul are now in their forties and their priorities are shifting. Valentine wants a family with her on-and-off partner Linh. Raul wants to marry his boyfriend Banner. They both know it's time to get out of Berlin, but Valentine, who wants it all - doesn't want to let their band go.
When Valentine's father dies, she inherits a Southern gothic hotel and it feels like fate. Val convinces Raul, Banner and Linh, to move to South Carolina to renovate the crumbling and possibly haunted hotel. There they will build an alternative family and raise a child together. With four parents, no one would have to compromise their entire identity. They could all still be artists. All able to live fully.
But as the four of them navigate their new home and welcome their daughter, August, into the world, their relationships start to tilt. On the night of the hotel's grand opening, what's meant to be an evening of celebration turns into a nightmare as August goes missing.
Soon the parents turn on each other. And then the world turns on them.
Four Terrible Parents is a story of love, jealousy and the curse of trying to have it all.
Readers love Four Terrible Parents
'One of my favourite books of 2026' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Every single character was mesmerising' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'I want everyone to read this' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Beautifully written' ⭐⭐⭐⭐
'A delicious read' ⭐⭐⭐⭐©2026 Calla Henkel (P)2026 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
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Critic reviews
The prose is often beautiful and melodic . . . in this highly original and entertaining book
Witty, incisive and beautifully plotted, Four Terrible Parents is a vivid, breathless tale of art, love, family and murder. Perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn and Torrey Peters (Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of)
Henkel's comedy-slash-thriller is so fiendishly plotted you might not even notice all she has to say about art, love, friendship and family
Calla Henkel's brilliantly offbeat new novel begins as a story about chosen family and creative reinvention before spiralling into a gripping literary mystery . . . Four Terrible Parents is equal parts millennial fever dream and page-turner
Incredibly charming, fun and relentlessly whipsmart . . . Brilliant (Kim Gordon, singer of Sonic Youth and author of)
Calla Henkel is unparalleled-her plots intricately built, her characters wholly original, and her skill at balancing chaos and narrative drive is without peer. Four Terrible Parents is all of those things but it's also brimming with unexpected warmth and bursting with Henkel's trademark sly wit. A story of a disappearance, it's also a hectic manual of self-discovery, and like all things Henkel: it does both with verve and joy. Sheer perfection. (Katy Hays, bestselling author of)
Darkly funny and brilliantly biting, this book punches right to the heart. Calla Henkel just gets better and better every time (Tobi Coventry, author of)
Four Terrible Parents is what they call a page-turner, full of fascinating characters who feel familiar yet mysterious, tight psychological nuance, gleeful suspense and the sharpest writing. I could not stop reading this book (Michelle Tea, author of)
Henkel's perspective-switching narrative immediately drops another intense development into the mix; at first, like Donna Tartt's The Secret History, the initial mystery is how things arrive at a devastating crime, and the second mystery is how the crisis resolves. Four Terrible Parents relishes each switch in character point of view, smartly building reader knowledge alongside the changing understandings of each partner/parent. . . the ride is so thrilling and the characters so lovable (messiness, imperfections, bad choices, and all) that the pages can't turn fast enough
A darkly humorous novel
Praise for Calla Henkel
Blackly humorous and enjoyably twisted (Paula Hawkins, author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN)
A sparkling debut . . . a very good plot-driven thriller dressed in a glittery jumpsuit
Brutal, glamorous and genuinely unpredictable, it will blow your mind until the very last page
Hugely entertaining
Other People's Clothes is a gritty take on toxic female friendships . . . Expect a slow burn that's deliciously dark
Thrilling
Totally gripped
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