Synopsis The lives of those residing in the isolated town of Burnt Sparrow, New Hampshire, are forever altered after three faceless entities arrive on Christmas morning to perform a brutal act of violence—a senseless tragedy that can never be undone. While the townspeople grieve their losses and grapple with the aftermath of the attack, a young teenage […]
Gothic
Review: The Fisherman by John Langan
The Fisherman is a solid tale, with a great sense of cosmic myth in this tragic, grief veined fable.
Review: Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher
Synopsis: I saw the devil in these woods.” Sonia Wilson is a talented scientific illustrator—but she is only able to follow her dream because of her father’s reputation as a renowned scientist. Such is the lot in life for a woman in science in 1899. And after his death, she is left without work, prospects, […]
Review: The Graceview Patient by Caitlin Starling
The Graceview Patient is the polar opposite of a feel-good story.
It is confusing, delirious, claustrophobic, at times downright bleak, and frankly horrifying for so many reasons. Yes, I can almost guarantee that Starling’s raw and brilliant fever dream of a medical-horror novel will haunt you. Why? Because it is, to date, the cleverest and truest show of an unreliable narrator that I have read, while also presenting intelligent and nuanced studies into chronic illness, bodily autonomy, medical ethics, healthcare systems that seem to care more about profit margins than the lives they’re supposed to be saving, and disability. What happens when you cannot trust our own mind? Can things be too good to be true?
Eleni’s Top Reads of 2025
I couldn’t really pick a top five, nor a top ten this year. So you get the fun of a top 15! Like last year then, I’ll just be sharing all of their glorious covers and if I reviewed the book itself I’ll be linking the rambles in their titles so you can see if they are the books for you, at your leisure.
These are all books that kept me up till the very small hours of the night, some even made me see the first inklings of dawn and deprived me of even the little sleep I do get. But! I have no regrets whatsoever and neither would you, I believe, if you gave them a go!
Review: Alone in the Dark (2024)
ALONE IN THE DARK (2024) is the latest incarnation of the classic survival horror video game franchise that started before Resident Evil was just a glint in Shinji Mikami’s eye. It has had its ups and downs over the years but never quite managed to bottle lightning the way its first game did with Detective […]
Review: The Haunting of Sorrow’s Leap by Chris Sorensen
Synopsis Ellen Marx used to talk to the dead. Now they’re ghosting her… With her psychic gifts on the fritz, she’s been demoted to hawking discount crystals at third-rate paranormal conventions. But when she inadvertently solves a supernatural challenge at New Jersey’s Hooky Spooky Convention, she catches the eye of the event’s reclusive sponsor: a […]
Review: Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
Synopsis: 2025Lee can’t remember exactly where he hid the body, but he can remember the blood. Hiding out at his father’s centuries-old home in Japan, Lee knows something is wrong with him, and he knows it has something to do with his mother’s disappearance almost a decade ago. 1877A female samurai, Sen, stalks the borders […]
Review: House of Beth by Kerry Cullen
Synopsis: After a heart-wrenching breakup with her girlfriend and a shocking incident at her job, Cassie flees her life as an overworked assistant in New York for her hometown in New Jersey, along the Delaware. There, she reconnects with her high school best friend, Eli, now a widowed father of two. Their bond reignites, and […]
Review: Her Wicked Roots by Tanya Pell
Synopsis In this queer retelling of Nathaniel Hawthorne classic gothic story, Rappaccini’s Daughter, a young woman is lured to a lush estate owned by a botanist who might be hiding dark secrets. Cordelia Beecher is on the run. In search of her missing brother Edward, she has fled the oppressive charity school she was raised in, […]
Review: Her Wicked Roots by Tanya Pell
Synopsis: Cordelia Beecher is on the run. In search of her missing brother Edward, she has fled the oppressive charity school she was raised in, desperate to find the only family she knows. Using clues from his past letters, she sets off for the sleepy town of Farrow but everyone there claims to have never […]
Review: Slashed Beauties by A. Rushby
Synopsis A gothic feminist body horror in two timelines revolving around three Anatomical Venuses—ultrarealistic wax figures of women—that come to life at night to murder men who have wronged them. Seoul, present day. Antiques dealer Alys’s task is nearly complete. She has at last secured Elizabeth, the final anatomical Venus in a dangerously intertwined trio. Crafted […]