First published 2026
Mel Buchanan discovers her mother Daisy's body in an empty West Egg mansion in 1955. Daisy had been missing for years, lost to drinking and abuse before her final disappearance. When Mel steps inside the estate, she encounters Daisy's spirit, still twenty-three years old, and the bleeding ghost of Jay Gatsby. The mansion feeds on their unfinished love, growing more powerful each night. Mel realizes her mother cannot rest while trapped in this cycle. She must navigate through family lies and the remnants of decaying parties to reach the heart of Gatsby's hungry house. The building itself has become a living thing, sustained by obsession and unfulfilled desire. To save Daisy's soul, Mel will have to confront the toxic love that binds her mother to Gatsby's phantom and find a way to break the supernatural hold the mansion has over them both.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, horror, gothic-horror
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, haunting, melancholic, suspenseful, tragic
Tropes: generational-trauma, haunted-house, toxic-love, unfinished-business
Setting: West Egg
Period: 1955
176 pages · Paperback · Creature Publishing
Content warnings: abuse, addiction, alcohol-abuse, death, domestic-violence