Writer's Parlour

The Year of the Witching review explores Alexis Henderson’s haunting gothic horror about prophecy, forbidden woods, and a young woman caught between faith and forbidden power. Immanuelle Moore is raised in a puritanical community, but the Darkwood calls her toward secrets that could unravel everything. Like The Girl Who Knew The Medicine, Henderson’s novel asks how societies decide who wields power — and whether it’s a sacred ancestral calling or a destructive curse.

This House of Hunger review dives into Alexis Henderson’s lush gothic horror about bloodmaids, aristocratic estates, and power disguised as protection. Marion enters the Countess’s household seeking safety — but finds herself consumed by rituals that blur the line between devotion and destruction. We’ll explore the novel’s themes, its resonance with African ritual fears, and why its corrupted rituals reminded me of The Girl Who Knew The Medicine.

Some houses keep their secrets. Hundreds Hall keeps its ghosts close. In Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger, post-war England’s decay seeps into the bones of a crumbling country estate — and into the minds of its inhabitants. Called to Hundreds Hall on a routine visit, Dr. Faraday becomes entangled with the Ayres family as strange, unsettling events begin to consume the household. Is the house truly haunted, or is something far darker at play within?