A spine-chilling gothic thriller that explores the twisted ties that bind love and family to murder.
A library science student gets trapped inside a mysterious New York City library where she must confront both a psychopathic killer and unfinished business from her past.
When horror-story enthusiast Aria Stokes is invited by a charming architect named Jasper Knox to view a famous 19th-century manuscript of fairy tales at a library once owned by purported serial killer Evangeline Riordan, she’s shaken to the core. The manuscript, published as The Dark Hearth Tales, and the Daedalus Library are part of a past she would rather forget; but the prospect of romance beckons. Aria accepts the date only to find that five other bookworms—Callum Greene, a Scottish professor; Michelle Baudelaire, a middle-grade fantasy author; Piper Kingston, a journalist; Ruth Howard, a retired nurse; and Weston Martinez, a schoolteacher—also have tickets for the evening tour. The event quickly goes awry when the automatic door system malfunctions and the group gets imprisoned inside the Daedalus. Fear and tensions rise; one by one, group members meet gruesome ends in impossibly beautiful reading rooms filled with deadly objects, including toxic wallpaper that sickens Aria and a guillotine that surely isn’t just for show. Moving among the perspectives of the attendees, Pliego spins a complex narrative about secrets, betrayal, and revenge that eerily resonates with stories from The Dark Hearth Tales. Nothing and no one is quite what they seem. As a real serial killer stalks the Daedalus, Aria is forced to plumb the depths of an emotionally brutal past while coming to terms with a library she once called home and her relationship with Evangeline, a woman she once loved “with [her] whole…heart.” Intricately plotted and unique, Pliego’s novel seamlessly blends fairy tale, romance, and horror to create a richly textured reading experience.
A spine-chilling gothic thriller that explores the twisted ties that bind love and family to murder.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780593871607
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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