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I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the author. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.
MY REVIEW:
Genre | Tropes: Horror, Folklore, Vampires, Fantasy Small Town
Rating: 5 out of 5 ⭐
I was blown away by this book! I stopped reading a lot of horror this past year for two big reasons. The first was because a lot of horror books out there focus on the gore and action which just doesn’t appeal to me and secondly because a lot of horror books I had read provide this huge build up for some major revelation of a supernatural terror, only to turn out to be some random serial killer. I can do without all the pretense or misleading in a horror story.
But, The Madness, provides everything I love out of a real horror story. She lays a foundation with this foreboding backdrop of a small Welsh village where Mina Murray was raised by her “Witch on the Hill” mother. She’s never believed the ghost stories her mother told her about, and always thought her mother a little crazy with all the spiritual house blessings she does. All Mina wanted was to get out of that place, especially after everything that happened to her.
Fast forward a lot of years and Mina is working as a successful psychiatrist in London, keeping herself focused on anything other than her hometown or the people she left behind there. But a new case, a young woman that keeps calling out for “Master” and has some strange injuries that Mina can’t quite explain – and then a mysterious email arrives from her childhood friend asking her to come home…
That’s about all I want to get into because otherwise it gives away all the major reveals in this one and I wouldn’t want to ruin it for anyone!
Thing I loved about this book:
- Not only did it incorporate Welsh folklore, it continues to reveal and explain it throughout the book
- Mina has an enormous fear because of a past tragedy and struggles with it throughout the entire book, but she eventually faces it and is so much better for it
- The small village setting surrounded by historic castles and dark motifs creates an eerie backdrop
- Strong female characters that all draw their strengths from unique experiences
- True supernatural elements that coalesced into an astounding reveal that gave me goosebumps
GET IT HERE:
Beware what waits in the shadows…
With one unexpected email from her estranged best friend, Lucy, Mina Murray’s carefully curated life is turned upside down. Leaving behind her psychiatric practice in London, along with her routine and the calm it brings, she returns to the windswept shores of Wales. Faced with everything she’s left behind, she soon discovers that Lucy’s symptoms mirror those of her mysterious patient with amnesia hundreds of miles away.
With nothing but an untreatable sickness connecting the two women, and with Lucy’s life on the line, Mina finds herself asking questions and being drawn ever-deeper into a web of secrets, missing girls, and the powerful, nameless force at its center—one that has been haunting her for years.
As terrible, ancient truths begin to reveal themselves, Mina prepares to confront her own darkest secrets, and with them, an evil beyond comprehension. Together with a group of smart, savvy women, Mina seizes one last, desperate chance to stop the cycle that began so long ago. But there are dangers to inviting the attentions of what might not be a man, but a monster…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dawn Kurtagich
Dawn Kurtagich is a writer of creepy, spooky and psychologically sinister YA fiction, where girls may descend into madness, boys may see monsters in men, and grown-ups may have something to hide. Her debut YA novel, THE DEAD HOUSE, was called “an evil and original story” by bestselling author R.L Stine and “”…a haunting new thriller…” by Entertainment Weekly. Her second novel, AND THE TREES CREPT IN (US) / THE CREEPER MAN (UK) received two starred reviews and was called “A must-read for horror fans everywhere!” by bestselling author, Susan Dennard, while Kirkus called it “frightening and compelling”.
By the time she was eighteen, Dawn had been to fifteen schools across two continents. The daughter of a British globe-trotter and single mother, she grew up all over the place, but her formative years were spent in Africa—on a mission, in the bush, in the city and in the desert.
She has been lucky enough to see an elephant stampede at close range, a giraffe tongue at very close range, and she once witnessed the stealing of her (and her friends’) underwear by very large, angry baboons. (This will most definitely end up in a book . . . ) While she has quite a few tales to tell about the jumping African baboon spider, she tends to save these for Halloween!
Her life reads like a YA novel.
Looking for book recs…
Adventures in Literature 
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