Thank you Harlequin Audio for the ALC and HTP Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Japanese Gothic in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Hanover Square Press / Harlequin Audio
Published: April 14, 2026
Summary:
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.
My thoughts:
I only discovered Kylie Lee Baker last year when I read her book, Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng–that was one of my favorite books and I knew I’d be reading whatever else she wrote…so I didn’t even hesitate to request this latest one. And I really liked it. Bat Eater is still my favorite but this definitely is up there!
Historical horror is one of my sweet spots when it comes to the horror genre, so I loved that aspect of it, but this book is so much more. There’s the mythology and folklore, there’s family drama, and even a little sci-fi, not to mention the gothic vibes that are carried throughout. And while this one took me a little bit to get into, the payoff was so worth it. The characters are so memorable. It’s hard not to become connected to them because they have such an emotional depth to them.
This is the type of story that gives off that immediate vibe of something not being right. It’s dark, it’s heavy, it’s haunting, but it’s so good! And as soon as I finished it, I wanted to start reading it again…that’s how much I enjoyed it!
Audio thoughts:
The narrator, Natalie Naudus, does a fantastic job with this audiobook. She got all the emotions, the voices, the tension — it was perfection!!
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