Japanese Gothic is a horror book that slowly crawls under your skin and will simultaneously make you dread turning the pages and feel like you can’t turn the pages quickly enough. Nothing is what it seems.

After reading Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, I had high hopes for Japanese Gothic and it did not disappoint. With this novel, Kylie Lee Baker has cemented herself as one on my favorite horror authors. Her blend of different genres, use of narrative elements, and gorgeous writing style, all work together to create an unforgettable reading experience.

Japanese Gothic shines through its lyrical writing, unsettling atmosphere, and use of folklore elements throughout the story. The author is excellent at injecting a sense of dread into seemingly normal scenes that will you make you question everything you’re reading. A normal scene can suddenly turn into something sinister with a single line. You will question the story, you will question the characters, you will even question your own sense of reality. Your mind will race wild with theories and you won’t know who you can trust, if anyone at all.

Kylie Lee Baker masterfully weaves in many threads and themes in Japanese Gothic such as generational trauma, imperialism, mental illness, complex familial relationships, and the legacies we inherit. Her use of a dual-timeline with two distinct main characters whose experiences and lives reflect each other allows for a deeper understanding of who each character is and how they complement and connect with each other. The dual-timeline and individual character arcs make the novel feel real and visceral.

One of my favorite aspects of the novel was Lee’s OCD-like traits and behavior. I found that his compulsions worked really well to create psychological tension and the holes in his memory lent him an air of unreliability that further deepened the atmospherical dread. Lee is constantly performing actions to reassure himself of his own reality but is never quite satisfied and thus the cycle begins anew. He is stuck in an endless loop of rumination due to his need to control the things around him because he can’t trust his own brain to draw the correct conclusions about events in his life. This emotional stress is palpable and will make you feel like you’re living inside of a nightmare along with Lee.

Furthermore, I’m grateful for the author’s thoughts in the author’s note at the end of the novel. I love how she explained that she wrote this novel with the awareness that people do not have to accept the legacy they inherit and can choose a different life no matter the cost. I also appreciated her unique perspective as the creator of the story of being both a descendant of the “colonizer” and the “colonized” through her Okinawan and Japanese ancestry.

Yrsa is a PhD student studying Afropessimism and she is sick of being messed around with by men. At first opportunistically, then more deliberately, she begins to take revenge. I thought this book started extremely well. It was fresh and propulsive. I really found Yrsa relatable and was right alongside her with her dark deeds (note: not supporting this IRL, but only in a fictional way!). But, I'm not sure the author knew where to take this amazing start. It dragged a bit in the second half, there were too many side-stories brought in, and it got unbelievable. I still recommend it, just for the excellent first half. 3.5 stars overall.