In “Lonely Crowds,” we follow the complex relationship between protagonists Ruth and Maria. The two meet as children at their all-girls Catholic school in New England and become fast friends. Ruth is the only child of recent immigrants, and Maria is an orphan under the care of her mentally ill aunt, and the two are someRead More
A Beautifully Melancholic Read: Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens
Briefly, A Delicious Life has been on my radar for years—a literary novel with a sapphic ghost main character? I’m listening. But it made its way to the top of my TBR after I read and loved Nell Stevens’s 2025 release, The Original. This one follows Blanca, who died when she was 14 years oldRead More
A Dizzying Fever Dream of a Horror Novel: The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling Review
Caitlin Starling continues to wow with The Starving Saints, a dizzying yet lush horror novel set during a siege of a fantastical medieval fortress. At the start of the novel, the siege has run long. Provisions are depleted, water is short, and even the resident order of nuns cannot conjure up enough of a miracle toRead More
A Disappointing Carmilla Retelling: Hungerstone by Kat Dunn Review
Hungerstone was one of my most-anticipated books of 2025, but it ended up being a disappointment. I love Carmilla and queer Carmilla retellings, not to mention sapphic vampire stories in general, so I thought this would be an easy win. Instead, I ended up feeling like this was a novel split in two, where theRead More
A Deliciously Toxic Sapphic Gothic Thriller: A Slow and Secret Poison by Carmella Lowkis
You know when a bunch of factors work together in your favour to make a book particularly immersive for you? This was my experience, earlier during a holiday weekend (late October), when I read Carmella Lowkis’s sophomore novel A Slow and Secret Poison (February 10, 2026). A wonderfully atmospheric and twisty, somewhat slow-burn sapphic horror thrillerRead More
A Claustrophobic Sapphic Gothic: The Salvage by Anbara Salam Review
Before I get into it, I will say that my favourite part of this book was how information was slowly revealed, so I recommend going into this without knowing much about it. If you’re in the mood for a claustrophobic gothic novel set on a small, frozen-over island, pick this one up and skip overRead More
A Bloody Gothic Love Story: My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen
Roos has been kept small her whole life. First, when she was five years old, hiding under the floorboards to help her mother fake seances. Then, when she got older and began participating in these seances herself, she was kept underfed to appear younger and more delicate. But while her abusive mother kept her isolated,Read More
A Dread-Filled Gothic Thriller: The Salvage by Anbara Salam
The Salvage by Anbara Salam is a gothic literary thriller set on a small Scottish island in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The protagonist is Marta, a trailblazing marine archaeologist sent to investigate a Victorian shipwreck on behalf of a local wealthy family descended from the ship’s captain. On her first dive, she seesRead More
An Instant Classic of Sapphic Historical Fiction: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Admittedly, I am extremely late to the game when it comes to Yael van der Wouden’s 2024 debut novel The Safekeep (Simon & Schuster); however, I now regret not picking this one up sooner. The Safekeep has the lasting impact of an instant classic alongside the gripping and propulsive plot of any good story. Set in 1961 inRead More
Daphne Fama on the House of Monstrous Women and the Genius of Filipino Horror Lore
House of Monstrous Women is Daphne Fama’s stunning debut novel out August 12, where, “a young woman is drawn into a dangerous game after being invited to the mazelike home of her childhood friend, a rumored witch, in this gothic horror set in 1986 Philippines.” I found it as deeply unsettling as it was tender, andRead More
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