Japanese Gothic

Kylie Lee Baker returns with another addictive, gory, horror PHENOMENON 'A blood-soaked, masterful blend of horror and mystery' GUARDIAN 'Blood-slicked, unsettling and immersive' DAILY MAIL 'A lush, unnerving ghost story' NEW YORK TIMES 'Brilliantly inventive. A must read - I couldn't turn the pages fast enough' MONIKA KIM 'A haunted house horror with a samurai twist' IGN 'Audacious, surreal . . . An exquisite expression of human pain held tight across centuries' LEIGH RADFORD 2026 Lee can't remember exactly where he hid the body, but he can remember the blood. Hiding out at his father's centuries-old home in Japan, Lee knows something is wrong with him, and he knows it has something to do with his mother's disappearance almost a decade ago. 1877 A female samurai, Sen, stalks the borders of her home to protect her family from slaughter after the abolition of the samurai class. She's not sure how they'll ever survive, not without her father, who has returned from war with a different soul behind his eyes. When Lee and Sen find one another through a door between their worlds, they're both looking for answers. But what they find in the creaking old house they share is beyond what either of them could imagine... PRAISE FOR THE NEWEST VOICE IN HORROR: 'A profound reminder of the true horrors that lurk in the world' TORI BOVALINO 'A serial killer mystery and a heartbreaking portrayal of grief' KIRSTY LOGAN 'This book dug its claws into me and would not let go' LING LING HUANG 'Body horror and female rage fiction combine in a powerful novel that will leave you quaking' ALMA KATSU 'A poignant, searing portrait of the hostility and violence that plagued pandemic-era NYC' VERONICA G. HENRY

Kylie Lee Baker returns with another addictive, gory, horror PHENOMENON 'A blood-soaked, masterful blend of horror and mystery' GUARDIAN 'Blood-slicked, unsettling and immersive' DAILY MAIL 'A lush, unnerving ghost story' NEW YORK TIMES 'Brilliantly inventive. A must read - I couldn't turn the pages fast enough' MONIKA KIM 'A haunted house horror with a samurai twist' IGN 'Audacious, surreal . . . An exquisite expression of human pain held tight across centuries' LEIGH RADFORD 2026 Lee can't remember exactly where he hid the body, but he can remember the blood. Hiding out at his father's centuries-old home in Japan, Lee knows something is wrong with him, and he knows it has something to do with his mother's disappearance almost a decade ago. 1877 A female samurai, Sen, stalks the borders of her home to protect her family from slaughter after the abolition of the samurai class. She's not sure how they'll ever survive, not without her father, who has returned from war with a different soul behind his eyes. When Lee and Sen find one another through a door between their worlds, they're both looking for answers. But what they find in the creaking old house they share is beyond what either of them could imagine... PRAISE FOR THE NEWEST VOICE IN HORROR: 'A profound reminder of the true horrors that lurk in the world' TORI BOVALINO 'A serial killer mystery and a heartbreaking portrayal of grief' KIRSTY LOGAN 'This book dug its claws into me and would not let go' LING LING HUANG 'Body horror and female rage fiction combine in a powerful novel that will leave you quaking' ALMA KATSU 'A poignant, searing portrait of the hostility and violence that plagued pandemic-era NYC' VERONICA G. HENRY

New York Times Most Anticipated Book for 2026 USA TODAY Most Anticipated Books of 2026 Goodreads Readers' Most Anticipated Books of 2026 Book Riot "Our Most Anticipated Books of 2026" In this lyrical, wildly inventive horror novel interwoven with Japanese mythology, two people living centuries apart discover a door between their worlds. October, 2026 : Lee Turner doesn't remember how or why he killed his college roommate. The details are blurred and bloody. All he knows is he has to flee New York and go to the one place that might offer refuge--his father's new home in Japan, a house hidden by sword ferns and wild ginger. But something is terribly wrong with the house: no animals will come near it, the bedroom window isn't always a window, and a woman with a sword appears in the yard when night falls. October, 1877 : Sen is a young samurai in exile, hiding from the imperial soldiers in a house behind the sword ferns. A monster came home from war wearing her father's face, but Sen would do anything to please him, even turn her sword on her own mother. She knows the soldiers will soon slaughter her whole family when she sees a terrible omen: a young foreign man who appears outside her window. One of these people is a ghost, and one of these stories is a lie. Something is hiding beneath the house of sword ferns, and Lee and Sen will soon wish they never unburied it. For readers who love: Grady Hendrix and Stephen King Japanese mytholog y Friendship and family themes Terrifying, gory stories Horror with heart A new take on the classic haunted house trope

New York Times Most Anticipated Book for 2026 USA TODAY Most Anticipated Books of 2026 Goodreads Readers' Most Anticipated Books of 2026 Book Riot "Our Most Anticipated Books of 2026" In this lyrical, wildly inventive horror novel interwoven with Japanese mythology, two people living centuries apart discover a door between their worlds. October, 2026 : Lee Turner doesn't remember how or why he killed his college roommate. The details are blurred and bloody. All he knows is he has to flee New York and go to the one place that might offer refuge--his father's new home in Japan, a house hidden by sword ferns and wild ginger. But something is terribly wrong with the house: no animals will come near it, the bedroom window isn't always a window, and a woman with a sword appears in the yard when night falls. October, 1877 : Sen is a young samurai in exile, hiding from the imperial soldiers in a house behind the sword ferns. A monster came home from war wearing her father's face, but Sen would do anything to please him, even turn her sword on her own mother. She knows the soldiers will soon slaughter her whole family when she sees a terrible omen: a young foreign man who appears outside her window. One of these people is a ghost, and one of these stories is a lie. Something is hiding beneath the house of sword ferns, and Lee and Sen will soon wish they never unburied it. For readers who love: Grady Hendrix and Stephen King Japanese mytholog y Friendship and family themes Terrifying, gory stories Horror with heart A new take on the classic haunted house trope