In Darkness, Shadows Breathe

January 1, 2021

This harrowing, time-bending, and plot-driven novel unfolds around the questions of what is real, what is imagined, and what is caused by supernatural evil. Centered on the stories of three women endangered by the same ancient demon, but told in two parts over multiple time frames, the tale unsettles. Cavendish (The Malan Witch) begins with a prologue featuring two medical professionals conducting heinous science with the help of a powerful dark being, setting the stage for the intense dread and confusion to come. Readers are firmly established in the bewildered minds of the central characters as they end up in a historically significant British hospital. Here, for certain patients, ghosts beckon and time is fluid, disorienting, and dangerous. Are these women the victims of a being set on immortality and doomed to repeat the horrors of the lives of its past vessels? Or is it all in their heads? The answer will come to readers differently as they make their way through this high-stakes, menacing tale. VERDICT A compelling, immersive, and intense time-slip horror novel with sympathetic characters that readers actively root for. The tale reads like The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle if it were written by Sarah Pinborough.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 25, 2021
Cavendish (The Malan Witch) breathes new life into familiar horror tropes in this spine-tingling tale of past and present colliding. Carol is admitted to the Royal and Waverley hospital with acute appendicitis. While there, she has disturbing visions of an otherworldly presence and learns that the hospital is on the site of a former asylum. She starts to fall in and out of her present time, possessed by the spirit of a 19th-century asylum patient, Lydia Warren Carmody, and pulled by her into the past. Meanwhile, Nessa, an older cancer patient, finds herself inextricably linked to both Carol and Lydia after she reads a poem that Lydia wrote. With characteristic verve, Cavendish explores the connection between the three women, offering few moments of reprieve as the suspense builds and time threatens to collapse in on itself. The story of female resilience at the heart of this well-constructed gothic tale is sure to please fans of women-driven horror.