Hot to the touch, a seductive modern gothic about a promising young filmmaker at a famous director’s summer home

In the midst of an unrelenting heat wave, up-and-coming filmmaker Ruby arrives at the summer home of her idol. Ellen, an iconoclastic feminist director known for mentoring other women, has offered Ruby a room of her own while she finishes her screenplay. Pitching Ruby as the next big thing, producers are clamoring for a “female story” mined from her past, and the deadline is fast approaching.

When Ruby arrives in the countryside, Ellen’s house emerges like something out of a dream—grand and imposing, surrounded by sprawling gardens and a shimmering swimming pool. But tension thrums beneath the picture-perfect surface. Ellen’s reputation is under fire after she’s accused of appropriating a story that wasn’t hers to tell. Meanwhile, Ellen’s mercurial daughter, Lara, lounges by the pool under the blistering sun, drawing her mother’s latest houseguest toward her like a moth to a flame.

Ruby’s aspirational summer of artistic retreat spirals into an all-consuming affair as she finds herself trapped, waiting for the heat to break. Even the house itself begins to feel haunted, and Ruby has the unnerving sensation that she’s not the first promising young woman to fall under its spell.

Hot to the touch, Imogen Crimp’s Give Me Everything You’ve Got is a spellbinding fever dream of a novel, exploring the dark corners of ambition, exploitation, and what it takes to be a woman artist.