A round of emails between
Laura Lippman,
Megan Abbott,
Ace Atkins and myself somehow wound its way to Laura recalling a "terrifyingly amoral" character from literature: the Patchwork Girl
of Oz! Laura sent me this picture which indeed gives hints of terrifying amorality. I believe Laura is looking for some text to back up the description. In the meantime I
checked wikipedia, for what it's worth, and found an allusion to THE PATCHWORK GIRL OF OZ's "deleted Chapter 21... 'The Garden of
Meats.'" If I am skimming wikipedia's claims correctly, this chapter was about plant people who grew human children FOR FOOD!