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A sometimes horrifying, always mesmerizing look at the power and the passion within – and what it may take to allow one to soar, wildly free of crippling expectations, fears, and the shameful inhibitions that bind us all.

Alex, our first person POV narrator, is “something of a mess”. A wannabe author, thirty years old, stuck in a humdrum job, in her “vaguely mom-like sweater and jeans”, Alex feels herself a”dark blurry shape”, a ghost, unseen and definitely unheard, a life held in limbo with brief and recurring flashes of something more to be seen (albeit something of a much more disturbing nature).

Alienated from her best friend Wren, (a story in and of itself that hints at something darker), who is also a struggling author-to-be, the women’s lives are cast in sweet anticipatory turmoil when an unexpected opportunity arises.

Billeted for a month, along with three other young writers, in any author’s dream destination – a writing retreat hosted by a world-renowned novelist – it seems as if Alex may be on the cusp of something spectacular.

And so she is.

Tucked away in a gothic mansion, bone-chillingly remote and soon seen to be as specter-rich as it is sinister, the five women must now face a life-and-death struggle as metaphorical as it is terrifying.

Rich with symbolism, unconscious yearnings, and feminist rage too-long suppressed, this is a tale as captivating as it is disquieting.

Reminding us of the fleeting nature of life itself, the wounds we all bear, and the cathartic freedom just waiting, (around the corner and down the stairs, in the dark but soon, so soon, hungry to be released) if we have the courage to meet it head-on.

A great big thank you to the publisher and the author for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.