i first want to extend a gracious thanks to NetGalley and Zando for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

kat dunn's newest book takes the horror elements of hungerstone and mixes it with an immersion into grief, female rage, and a retelling of hamlet that remains ghastly and mysterious. in this novel, we follow odette and cecilia, two lovers as they navigate the awful circumstances that is odette's mother, lydia's, untimely death. along with the death of odette's mother, her father goes on to remarry his dead wife's sister, claudine, who odette believes is responsible for her mother's death. the exploration of grief within this novel is extremely well done, with a further exploration into the concept of female hysteria in the victorian era. odette's grief surrounding the death of her mother makes it so that her mother's spirit appears by her side, telling her to enact revenge on her father's new bride, claudine. as odette is the only one who can see the spirit, she is deemed to be mad, and this complicates her relationship with cecilia, her relationship with her father and her safety within her home.

cecilia, as odette's partner, is grounded and compassionate towards odette's feelings at a first glance. their relationship is passionate, loving and gentle, and their bond is very very strong. throughout the novel, the two experience some challenges surrounding odette's grief, which is realistic. as grief can often take those we love down with us into deep darkness. i really appreciated the way these two were written, especially in an era where relationships such as these were deemed immoral. thankfully, as in hamlet, the plot surrounds the mystery of odette's mother's illness and subsequent death and the aftermath of the tragedy.

the reason that i don't rate this a full five stars, although i really loved this novel, is that half way through the book, we are brought into a flashback with little mention of where we are at in time. we see odette and her mother bonding before her death, and understand the complexities at which odette's mother is known as an "invalid." meaning she had been suffering for a long time and pushed to the side as she was healing. while reading this part of the novel, i found myself confused as to where we were. was this odette speaking with her mother's ghost? was this odette speaking with her mother, being alive? it was hard to understand until the end of those chapters.

lastly, claudine is an impeccable villain. i thoroughly enjoyed how she manipulated every single person within the fairfax-waugh house into making her the matriarch of the family. her quest for domination over odette's father is so well done, and the things she accomplishes in order to make odette out to be a madwoman is great villain writing. i highly recommend this read to anyone who is not only interested in a great "mommy issues" dynamic, but in sapphic historical horror at its finest.