Jawbone (novel)

Jawbone (Spanish: Mandíbula) is a novel by Ecuadorian writer Mónica Ojeda, published in 2018. The novel became a bestseller and Ojeda's most popular book to date. It received critical acclaim and was one of the ten finalists of the Mario Vargas Llosa Biennial Novel Prize in 2018. Its English translation was also well received and was a finalist of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction in 2023. The novel narrates the story of Fernanda, a school student obsessed with horror stories, who is kidnapped by her language teacher. One of the other major characters, Annelise Van Isschot, had already appeared before in Ojeda's previous novel. The themes explored in the book include relationships between mothers and daughters and among adolescent women, and various facets of feminism.