Lost In The Dark has finally cemented John Langan as a new favourite, auto-buy author.
Historical Horror
Review: The Terror by Dan Simmons
Synopsis: The men on board the HMS Terror — part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage — are entering a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, stranded in a nightmarish landscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, they struggle to survive with […]
Review: The Brides by Charlotte Cross
Synopsis: ‘Come to me, and be mine for eternity’ 1884. When Mafalda journeys to Budapest to care for her grieving aunt, her secret love, Lucy, hurries from London to comfort her, with chaperone and lady’s maid in tow. But lady’s maid Alice, blessed and cursed with the Sight, is tormented by terrifying visions. When chaperone […]
On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah Yah Scholfield
On Sundays She Picked Flowers is a haunting, provoking fairytale-like story. An absolutely stunning debut!
Review: This House Will Feed by Maria Tureaud
Synopsis Amidst the devastation of Ireland’s Great Famine, a young woman is salvaged from certain death when offered a mysterious position at a remote manor house haunted by a strange power and the horror of her own memories in this chillingly evocative historical novel braided with gothic horror and supernatural suspense for readers of Katherine […]
Review: Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies by John Langan
Corpsemouth & Other Autobiographies is a fantastically tantalising set of dark tales, with a deep mythology to be uncovered as you scratch away at its surface, revealing something sinister between the words on the page.
Review: Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead by K.J Parker
Synopsis: Not even the Church of the Invincible Sun is invincible – and somebody has to do its dirty work. Enter Sister Svangerd and her accompanying priest, both accomplished practitioners. Their mission is simple: to make a meddlesome princess disappear (permanently). To get to her, they must attend the legendary Ecumenical Council, the once-in-a-century convening […]
Review: Trad Wife by Sarah Langan
Synopsis: Your favourite influencer is about to be exposed . . . Every day, millions watch Mia Wright, the “trad wife” queen, on her idyllic 300-acre farm. With her handsome husband, seven perfect children, and a life of from-scratch meals, she’s an icon of modern femininity. But behind every perfect image is a lie. Desperate […]
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.
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: The Witch of Willow Sound by Vanessa F. Penney
Synopsis A spooky, atmospheric, and fast-paced feminist tale about women called witches and the parts of our history we’d rather forget Madeline is missing. Ordered to find her, Madeline’s estranged niece, Fade, must return to the lonely forest of Willow Sound, Nova Scotia. There, Fade discovers her aunt’s once-cozy cottage empty and rotting. The ominous […]
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 […]