Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for a copy of the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I believe I did this book a disservice by reading it after I read Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. Trad-wife horror seems to be a genre that has been blowing up lately, with the rise of the aesthetic on social media and the controversy that follows.

Sarah Langan's novel follows Jenny, a cancelled journalist, who is striving to reinvigorate her career by writing a profile piece on the Internet's favorite trad-wife influencer, Mia Wright. She agrees to stay on the family's farm for one week to write her exposé, but during her stay, strange things and feelings start to arise. Jenny questions her grasp on reality as the odd instances become more and more frequent.

This book was definitely successful in delivering that "dread" factor, but the dread I felt was at the prospect of continuing to read it. The pacing was glacial, with the inner monologues tending to wander and stray away from the narrative in a way that had me, the reader, questioning where the book was going. The story wants to set up twists and turns, but unfortunately, every single twist is very briefly explained just before it happens. Anything else is explained in a SIX PAGE MONOLOGUE in the final 5% of the book.

The characters also made no sense to me. Jenny can clearly see that things are wrong, her alarm bells are going off, but she never did anything about it. She doesn't try to escape until it's "too late", despite the fact that she's been talking about it for days. This could be an interesting type of characterization, but the narrative never pushes it that far. We don't get chronic procrastinator Jenny forcing her own cursed destiny, we get plot convenient "well maybe it won't be as bad tomorrow even though my bones ache for leaving." I couldn't really feel bad for her like I was supposed to, because she made her bed multiple times throughout the novel.

Overall, I did enjoy the themes and ideas explored by the narrative, I just wish that it had been executed differently.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This felt like a really fun blend of COVID-horror, cosmic horror, and Lovecraftian horror. Three of my favorite things!

I really loved this book, and the way it uses that fear of the unknown as both inspiration and warning throughout the narrative. The translation is amazing, with very vivid and immersive descriptions of the creatures and setting. I would have loved for this to have been maybe a few chapters longer, just to better connect with the emotions of some of the characters, as they sometimes felt a bit too one-dimensional. Regardless, I had a wonderful time listening to the narrator as the story twisted and turned.

Haunting, isolating, and descriptive, this novella will have you on the edge of your seat!

I am unwell