Tor Nightfire buys 'deliciously dark' literary horror debut novel Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell

The deal was done by Tor Publisher, Gillian Green, via Rachel Mann at CAA on behalf of Hillary Jacobson at CAA for British Commonwealth rights, with US rights going to Bloomsbury and Canadian rights to Simon & Schuster.

Described as ‘Katherine Arden meets femgore’ by the publisher, Honeysuckle is a dark twisted horror-tinged fairytale that is loosely inspired by the Welsh Blodeuwedd myth.

In Honeysuckle, a lonely boy is given a girl made of roots, branches and flowers as a playmate but every season she slowly rots and must be remade. And as the boy grows up he takes over the seasonal rebuilding of his best friend and his thoughts turn to darker things . . .

Nightfire will publish simultaneously with North America in March 2026.

Gillian Green says: ‘Imagine the literary folklore retellings of Katherine Arden put through a horror blender – this is a feminist Frankenstein with flowers – a dark, beautifully written fairy-tale with rot at its core. Honeysuckle will appeal to femgore fans as well as readers of Eowyn Ivey, Alice Hoffman and T. Kingfisher as well as anyone who grew up reading Alan Garner!’

Bar Fridman-Tell says: ‘I'm absolutely thrilled that Honeysuckle has found its perfect home in the UK. It still feels surreal that my debut novel will be published by Tor, the home of authors I deeply admire, both as a reader and a writer. I'm incredibly grateful to be working with Gillian and the amazing teams at Tor Nightfire UK, Bloomsbury US and Simon & Schuster Canada.’

About the author
Bar Fridman-Tell a BA in Art History and an MA in English Literature. (She gleefully wrote her thesis about Victorian vampires.) She has worked as a bookseller and a Hebrew-English translator, and is about to start her Master's in Library and Information Sciences. She currently lives in Toronto with her professor husband and two very fluffy cats.  

About Tor UK
Tor UK specializes in speculative fiction and is a destination for the best in imaginative storytelling. A sister company to Tor Books in the US, Tor UK publishes an impressive array of award-winners, bestsellers, household names and talented debut authors. Tor’s mission is to publish out-of-this-world genre fiction and bring readers books that spark joy. It strives every year to increase the diversity of its list, publishing authors from minority backgrounds and increasing positive representation of gender issues through fiction. 

Launching in Spring 2025, Nightfire is a boutique horror list at Tor, showcasing the very best of literary and commercial fiction. (www.panmacmillan.com/tor)

About Pan Macmillan
Pan Macmillan is an international consumer book publisher based in the UK, publishing a very broad range of books in all formats, including print, ebook and audio, for today’s readers. Its adult book imprints include Bluebird, Macmillan, Macmillan Business, Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Collector’s Library, Mantle, One Boat, Pan, Picador and Tor. Children’s Book imprints include Macmillan Children’s Books, Campbell, Kingfisher and Two Hoots. (www.panmacmillan.com)

Pan Macmillan is part of Macmillan Publishers International Ltd (MPIL), a division of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (www.holtzbrinck.com), a large family-owned media company based in Stuttgart.