One of Literary Hub’s Favorite Books of the Year “Seethingly assured…like all the best horror, [Follow Me to Ground] is an impressive balancing act between judicious withholding and unnerving reveals.” —The Guardian A “legitimately frightening” (The New York Times Book Review) debut novel about an otherworldly young woman, her father, and her lover that culminates in a shocking moment of betrayal. “You’ve never encountered a father-daughter story like Rainsford’s slim debut” (Entertainment Weekly). Ada and her father, touched by the power to heal illness, live on the edge of a village where they help sick locals—or “Cures”—by cracking open their damaged bodies or temporarily burying them in the reviving, dangerous Ground nearby. Ada, a being both more and less than human, is mostly uninterested in the Cures, until she meets a man named Samson—and they quickly strike up an affair. Soon, Ada is torn between her old way of life and new possibilities with her lover, and eventually she comes to a decision that will forever change Samson, the town, and the Ground itself. “Visceral in its descriptions…this unworldly story is a well-crafted and eerie exploration of desire…beautifully intoxicating” (Shelf Awareness). In Ada, award-winning author Sue Rainsford has created an utterly bewitching heroine, one who challenges conventional ideas of womanhood and the secrets of the body. “A triumph of imagination and myth-bending…equal parts beauty and horror [Follow Me to Ground is] unlike anything you will read this year” (Téa Obreht).

This book comprehensively describes the biological underpinnings of red meat production, discussing the current state of the science in the context of the provision of red meat products perceived by consumers to offer a quality eating experience. Covering advances in the science of red meat production, it focuses on production system elements that affect product quality. The chapters explore the latest developments in the determination of consumer preferences, and interpret of these preferences in terms of quality characteristics of red meat, investigating the science-based orchestration of red meat production to achieve product consistency. The book highlights topics such as consumer preferences, the biological and production system elements affecting red meat safety, and the intrinsic (appearance, aroma, and sensory quality) and extrinsic (humane animal and environmentally friendly production) characteristics of red meat. For each characteristic, it discusses the underlying biological and biochemical processes and examines means of altering production systems to impact consumer eating experiences. The book also features a perspective on creating holistic integrated systems for producing red meats to meet consumers’ expectations around the globe. Written by leading authorities in the area of global red meat production systems, it is a comprehensive resource for consumer-oriented red meat producers.