First published 2026
Alice discovers a renovated bungalow surrounded by ancient woods with an unbelievably low price. The real estate agent explains why: years ago, Justine Gordon murdered her family in this house, insisting they were imposters while her real family had been stolen by the woods. Alice buys it anyway. Her family needs escape after losing teenage daughter Lucy to death. The city house holds too many painful memories, and Alice worries about her surviving children Quinn and Polly, plus her crumbling marriage to Geoff, a failed novelist drowning in bourbon. Despite resistance from her kids, complaints from her mother Beverley about the cramped granny flat, and Geoff's alcoholic detachment, Alice moves them in. Strange events begin immediately. Mysterious figures appear in the yard. One night Geoff disappears into the woods and returns hours later wearing different clothes with no memory of what happened. The family's existing fractures deepen as inexplicable incidents multiply. Alice faces a terrible question: is her menopausal mind creating these horrors, or does something malevolent lurk in the ancient woods surrounding their new home?
Genres: fiction, mystery, horror, adult-fiction, thriller, psychological-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, haunting, psychological, suspenseful, unsettling
Tropes: descent-into-madness, family-secrets, gaslighting, unreliable-narrator
Setting: bungalow, woods, granny flat
Period: contemporary
368 pages · Paperback · Simon & Schuster
Content warnings: alcohol-abuse, death, mental-illness, murder