A Novel by E.J. Westcroft
Some people pass through your life. Others make you rearrange it — and you don't always realise which is which until the furniture won't go back where it was.
"Obsession doesn't announce itself. It arrives quietly, like a background process you don't notice until your system starts running slower."
Published
2026
Publisher
Already Dead Creations
Genre
Psychological Fiction
Country
United Kingdom
From the Novel
I noticed Tory the way you notice weather changing, without thinking about it at first. A shift in pressure. The room didn't stop for her, nothing dramatic like that, but there was a reorganisation. Chairs angled slightly. Voices softened or sharpened depending on who was speaking to her.
People adjusted themselves around her without knowing they were doing it, and I remember thinking that if you charted it on paper it would look like gravity.
She was laughing when I first really saw her, head tipped back, one hand pressed to her throat as if laughter was something that needed anchoring. Not a polite laugh. Not a performative one. It escaped her. The sound cut through the low noise of the bar and landed somewhere behind my ribs.
I didn't feel anything special then. No lightning, no recognition. But I registered it. Filed it. Like you do with details that might matter later.
I watched without staring. I've always been good at that. People like to believe attention is obvious, that it comes with eye contact and leaning forward and visible interest. It doesn't. Attention can be quiet. It can sit back and observe. It can collect.
She caught me looking anyway. It wasn't confrontational. Just a flick of her eyes in my direction, a half-second pause, then a smile that didn't ask permission.
From the Pages
E.J. Westcroft
E.J. Westcroft writes fiction that sits in the uncomfortable space between observation and obsession — where logic is impeccable and conclusions are terrifying.
Bleeding Hearts is a debut novel that announces a distinctive voice: precise, controlled, and unnervingly credible. The narrator's intelligence is the trap. You find yourself nodding along before you realise what you've agreed to.
Published in 2026 through Already Dead Creations, the novel is printed in the United Kingdom and available through direct enquiry.
Get in Touch
For enquiries about Bleeding Hearts — availability, press, or anything else — reach out directly below.
E.J. Westcroft will be in touch. Thank you for reaching out.
