A twisting, lyrical, sapphic haunted house retelling of the Bluebeard fairytale, perfect for fans of Ava Reid’s A Study in Drowning, Roshani Chokshi’s The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, and V. E. Schwab’s Gallant.

April Harker lives a small life. A small life in a small Massachusetts town with small sums for the fairy stories she sells and small pleasures since her parents lost all their money in the 1929 crash. Until, one day, Julius Thackeray arrives. With his unsettling blue-black beard and his shiny, shiny shoes, Thackeray promises to marry April. To take her to his townhouse right outside Boston, make her stories famous, show her the world.

But April should know from her fairy stories that the man on your doorstep promising the world is too good to be believed. Thackeray’s eyes are cold, his fingers bruising. The home is Thornwood House: a sprawling mansion in the middle of nowhere, with hallways that lead different places on different days and two silent-footed servants as her only company. The servants, her husband—and another presence. One who leaves lipstick-stained teacups in the library. Who can be seen only obliquely in the mirror. Who, on the day that Thackeray deposits a ring of keys in April’s hand as he sweeps off for a business trip, guides April to unlock the very chamber which hides the horrifying secret at the heart of Thornwood House.

The presence who, it turns out, is a woman. A previous wife: with soft hands and a pointed chin and bright eyes. Marie, who must help get April out, out, out, before she too is subsumed by the grim fairytale which traps all the wives of Thornwood House within.

For fans of:
Tragic lesbian romance
Gothic haunted mansions
“Good for her” Female rage and revenge
Twisted anti-fairy tales
Surreal and lyrical prose