Review: Sleepers in the Snow by Joanne Harris
6 October 2026
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: 'Gothic', Book Reviews, Books, fiction, Horror, Joanne Harris, Sleepers in the Snow
My Five Word TL:DR Review: A Haunting With A Difference
Sleepers in the Snow is a story that seems to blend psychological and gothic horror and in terms of being creepy this is certainly a combination that works.
A man, buys an isolated house on the moor. He’s been through a divorce and longs for some peace and solitude and buying this cosy cottage seems to be the perfect fit. Surrounded by nature and within a five mile walk to the nearest village where cake and tea can be acquired at the local tea room, it really does feel like the ideal place for our divorcee to spend a little quiet time. And yet, as the autumn gives way to winter, the fog, the dark and the snowy depths begin to draw in and what started as a perfectly cosy home begins to feel like a dark and lonely place.
As usual with this author the writing is amazing. It was so easy to picture the house and the setting. The descriptions are perfect and some of the events that take place are perfectly unsettling.
That being said, this isn’t my favourite book by the author. Simply because it really is quite dark in tone. It’s definitely a thought provoking book and also a story that is really difficult to review without giving away spoilers.
What I really enjoyed. As I already mentioned above, JH is an excellent wordsmith. I’ve loved so many of her books that I will never fail to be excited when I realise a new release is on the horizon. She absolutely nails the terrible sense of isolation. The need to hear another voice, the feeling that you’re losing the plot.
Our central characters who remains nameless, initially seems to have fallen on his feet in some respects. He’s been able to buy this cosy cottage which comes fully furnished, even with clothes and kitchen ware – simply as though the previous inhabitants got up and left. In this respect its really quite clever because you’re never quite sure the age of the main character, where does he get his money, exactly what happened to push him to such lengths.
Then he finds diaries or journals from the previous inhabitants of the cottage and this immediately serves to crank up the tension. The local village refuse to talk of them and in fact everything begins to take on a very ominous tone. Where did the previous owners go and why did they leave everything behind.
Then there’s the haunting presence of the pylon itself, which sometimes feels like it’s watching him or whispering in the wind. Then there are the strange actions of the local wildlife not to mention these strange ‘offerings’ for want of a better word. Then we have an old phone that still seems to ring in the dead of night and the recurring appearance of a certain object that I’ll leave you to discover for yourself but is certainly a little bit creepy.
Now, bring on the stark winter months. The intense snow that cuts our MC off from any outside contact. It’s so lonely, cold and dark.
In terms of our MC, this is another element to the story that worked really well here. I would call him an unreliable narrator. He’s also a bit prickly, I found him difficult to get on with at times as he’s very quick to anger or to take affront.
And then of course we have the appearance of other characters who sometimes seem to manifest through the fog – which is totally fitting now I come to think of it.
In conclusion, this is a dark read, ominous and unsettling with a twist in the tale. It is, without doubt, a haunting with a difference and incredibly well executed. Would I say I loved it. No, to be fair. although I really do think it’s very clever. I think it’s maybe darker than I was expecting, or perhaps wanting, not to mention rather sad and packed with meaning that really only becomes relevant when you draw back with the benefit of the full picture. The kind of book that you could easily read again and find so many things that you perhaps didn’t realise were so significant on the first pass.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 3.5 of 5 stars rounded to 4
Can’t Wait Wednesday: Raven by Lyndsay Faye
12 August 2026
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: 'Gothic', Book Reviews, Books, Can't wait Wednesday, Horror, Jane Steele, Lyndsay Faye, Raven, Romance, Wishful Endings
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that was originally created by Breaking the Spine. Unfortunately Breaking the Spine are no longer hosting so I’m now linking my posts up to Wishful Endings Can’t Wait Wednesday. Don’t forget to stop over, link up and check out what books everyone else is waiting for. If you want to take part, basically, every Wednesday, we highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. This week my book is: Raven by Lyndsay Faye. I absolutely loved Jane Steele so have been waiting to read something by this author. Here’s the description and cover:
An orphaned young woman in antebellum Maryland is pulled into a maelstrom of passion, pain, and occult power in this Gothic homage to the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe.
I died a fortnight ago this coming Thursday. It was a terrifically unpleasant experience—being murdered, I mean to say.
Raven Helen Allan has always been haunted by witchcraft. Since the death of her beloved mother, she has soothed herself by speaking words into spells—a proclivity enhanced by time spent with her aunt’s library of occult books. She also finds a self-destructive solace in transmuting the pain in her heart onto her flesh.
After an itinerant childhood spent first with her mother’s traveling theater troupe and then being passed around from relative to relative, Raven is relieved to finally settle down with Aunt Berenice in her Baltimore townhouse—even if her aunt spends most evenings in a laudanum haze. There she finds a long-sought sense of belonging with the family of enslaved workers in her aunt’s household, especially the brilliantly odd youngest daughter Pym. Raven’s infatuation with her friend only grows more intimate as the girls become women together. But when the household is threatened with financial ruin, Raven must set out to earn her own living.
Taking a job as a paid companion, Raven arrives at the crumbling Moldavia Manor. Her charge is a delicate young invalid named Lenore Legrand who haunts the Gothic structure like a phantom. Living with them is Lenore’s devoted older cousin Travanion, who shares Raven’s interest in the occult and devotes his days to searching ancient texts for an Elixir of Life that might cure his cousin. Raven finds herself inexorably drawn to both cousins as well as to the secrets hidden in the shadows of Moldavia Manor. Will she find the answers she seeks in Trevanion’s alchemical texts? What is the meaning of glowing green light emitted from the tower windows? And is Raven truly narrating this story from beyond the grave—if so, who murdered her?
Gothic and atmospheric, Raven is an aching tale of loss, freedom, death, and resurrection by the celebrated author of Jane Steele and Dust and Shadow.
Expected publication: October 2026
Review: We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough
3 June 2025
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: 'Gothic', Book Reviews, Books, fiction, Review, Sarah Pinborough, We Live Here Now
My Five Word TL:DR Review: Again With The Twisted Ending
I do like Sarah Pinborough, she has a fantastic imagination and she is the Queen of Twists and in her latest novel she ramps up the tension and creates atmosphere that you could cut with a knife. On top of this she gives to us a couple and a setting where nothing is at it first appears. A haunted house with a difference and take a look at those crows on the cover – because they also play a role.
As the story begins Emily and her husband Freddie have moved into a new house in the country. A beautiful country home by all accounts and away from the hustle and bustle of London. Emily is recovering from a terrible accident and the peaceful setting will surely help with a speedy recover. Except, Emily finds the house unsettling, Freddie rushed into the move when she was in hospital and she clearly isn’t fully on board but it is what it is. This is their new home – bought as seen including things that go bump in the night.
This is a psychological novel. It insinuates itself, creeps under your skin little by little. Strange things happen in ‘the house’ and yet Emily is the only one who witnesses these occurences. Is Emily a reliable narrator or not? Also, the split povs definitely throw the cat amongst the pigeons as we get to hear the story from both Emily and Freddy’s perspective – and this definitely serves to illuminate some of the cracks appearing between the couple.
On top of this and the strange bumps in the night the house seems to be often shrouded in fog, but of course, winter is reluctant to give up it’s grasp. And then, we have more people introduced who quite simply serve to thicken the plot.
I had a really good time with this. The writing is pure Pinborough. She writes such great characters and her dialogue is always spot on plus the pacing is good and keeps you reading even when you should take care of other things – like sleeping.
The setting is easy to fall into – the house you will probably want to run out of – and the supplementary characters, the all knowing vicar, the enigmatic local artist and of course Freddy – who seems to be escalating in a very strange way – all complement the story really well.
If you fancy some gothic haunting with creepy goings on and unreliable characters, not to mention a twist, that I really didn’t see coming at all, then give this a try.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks, the above is my own opinion.
My rating 4 of 5 stars
Can’t Wait Wednesday : The House at Watch Hill by Karen Marie Moning
3 July 2024
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: 'Gothic', Books, Can't wait Wednesday, fiction, Karen Marie Moning, The House at Watch Hill, Wishful Endings
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that was originally created by Breaking the Spine. Unfortunately Breaking the Spine are no longer hosting so I’m now linking my posts up to Wishful Endings Can’t Wait Wednesday. Don’t forget to stop over, link up and check out what books everyone else is waiting for. If you want to take part, basically, every Wednesday, we highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. This week my book is: The House at Watch Hill by Karen Marie Moning. I’ve not read this author before but the promise of a gothic mansion definitely grabbed my attention.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Marie Moning is back with a gripping, imaginative, and seductive new series in which a young woman moves to Divinity, Louisiana, to inherit a large fortune and a Gothic mansion full of mysteries and ominous secrets…
Zo Grey is reeling from the sudden death of her mother when she receives a surprising call from an attorney in Divinity, Louisiana, with the news she has been left an inheritance by a distant relative, the terms of which he will only discuss in person. Destitute and alone, with nothing left to lose, Zo heads to Divinity and discovers she is the sole beneficiary of a huge fortune and a monstrosity of a house that sits ominously at the peak of Watch Hill—but she must live in it, alone, for three years before the house, or the money, is hers.
Met with this irresistible opportunity to finally build a future for herself, Zo puts aside her misgivings about the foreboding Gothic mansion and the strange circumstances, and moves in, where she is quickly met by a red-eyed Stygian owl and an impossibly sexy Scottish groundskeeper.
Her new home is full of countless secrets and mystifying riddles, with doors that go nowhere, others that are impossible to open, and a turret into which there is no visible means of ingress. And the townspeople are odd…
What Zo doesn’t yet know is that her own roots lie in this very house and that in order to discover her true identity and awaken her dormant powers, she will have to face off against sinister forces she doesn’t quite comprehend—or risk being consumed by them.
Expected publication : October 2024
The Redemption of Morgan Bright by Chris Panatier
22 April 2024
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: 'Gothic', Book Reviews, Chris Panatier, Horror, The Redemption of Morgan Bright
My Five Word TL:DR Review : Still Thinking About This Book
This is one of the most unusual books I’ve ever read and I’m still thinking about it even now whilst writing my review. Of necessity, I think this will be fairly short because I don’t want to give away any spoilers and there’s a lot of potential to spoil this for others.
So, this is a gothic horror story, a story of asylums at their worst, a story of having choices taken from you in the most insidious way. It’s also a psychological thriller with a good dose of mystery that keeps you literally glued to the page. On top of that it’s the most curious mix of possibly slightly futuristic setting offset by the oddest 50s style feel to the asylum. I couldn’t help thinking of a curious mash up of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (a female only version) and The Stepford Wives.
This is a tale of two sisters. Morgan, the surviving sister feels guilt over her sister’s death and is determined to get to the bottom of it, so much so that she dons a new persona in order to infiltrate (by which I mean she intends to have herself committed) to the asylum where her sister spent her last months. Morgan has a troubled background of substance abuse and her sister Hadleigh usually rallied to the cause. The two were close until Hadleigh became involved in a relationship and their easy going banter dried up leaving both feeling a little stranded.
The setting is predominantly Hollyhock Asylum, a privately run institution that uses an impressive and modern facade to showcase its work whilst behind the curtain lies a totally different and much more sinister story. The place has a long history and ghosts and spirits of the dead definitely play a role. On top of this the director, Althea Edevane, is a very unusual character. Sinister in her calmness and with her own ulterior motive. The asylum has this weird (as I mentioned above) 50s feel. There are home rooms and craft rooms where the women are encouraged to clean and knit and undertake other domestic duties while wearing headphones that provide a strange diatribe that runs on a constant loop.
In terms of the characters. We pick up a picture of the relationship between the sisters through text messages and the odd flashback of events. On top of this we have the character of Charlotte. Charlotte is the fake persona that Morgan assumed in order to be admitted to the asylum. This is a facade that she has been wearing for a good year and is about to become problematic. Given Morgan’s past she is a somewhat unreliable character in some respects and her addictive nature perhaps leads this double identity she’s living to lead to a real crisis with Charlotte becoming the more dominant player. This aspect of the story becomes a central focus with Morgan frequently being unaware of her own actions and learning of events in retrospect.
I loved the writing and the style of story telling using police reports, text messages and flashbacks. This is a style that works really well for me although I would advise patience because it takes a little while for things to play out and I would say that for the first quarter of the book I felt as though I wasn’t grasping everything totally, but you need to press on in that respect.
I would also say that this book might not be for everyone. There is a good dose of horror and also the underlying corruption of the asylum and what the director is trying to achieve could be triggering for some readers.
That being said this is a fascinating story but it’s not the type of book that you put down and say it was fantastic because it’s so mind bending and also a little worrying. I found myself putting this down and having a long hard think about the underlying message here which for me revolves around women’s rights and the current trend that seems to be one of regression. Here we seem to have flipped back to a more Victorian state where husbands could have their wives committed on a whim if they were becoming troublesome. That’s why these inmates are force fed this banal domestic routine whilst being served up a dose of brain washing at the same time. It makes you stop and really think. The author isn’t trying to bash you over the head with this, you can simply read this for the story it delivers but for me it was so much more and I think I will probably continue to think about this for a good long while.
Gothic goodness, creepiness aplenty, mind bending psychosis, horror and gore and a strange story involving the mystery of two sisters.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 4.5 of 5 stars
