​Lillian The Bookworm’s mother was consistently inventing imaginative ways of getting her daughter to stop devouring books and get to bed. “Books are always better after a good night’s rest,” she would say, and Lillian knew there was always truth to be found in her words. Now, having to face the challenges of the world on her own and make her own choices, Lillian was free to consume as many pages as she could until as late as she liked. Which she did, right up until the day she ate through the last page of the book in Sallyanne Marshall’s bedroom. On that day, Lillian The Bookworm crawled out of the now empty book she had always called home in search of her next meal.

Inch by inch, Lillian pushed her body down the wooden bookshelf and onto the cold floor below, where she used the gaps between the tiles…