Rural Victorian Dark Folk Horror • Grey Dog by Elliott Gish

Like a dark and twisted Anne of Green Gables, this book was a welcome addition for me; and very well written for a debut novel. I was happily surprised at how much I related to the very odd and “unlikable” main character Ada Byrd. There was a great balance of late-Victorian references, flk horror tone, and modern sensibility, as well as a cozy atmosphere created by the diary style of the book. The ideas of intimate desire, reckless abuse and longing for friendship were so blurred at times, that there was a lovely sort of delirium created for the reader which mirrored the iceberg tip of the madness forming in Ada.

Absolutely beautiful reading in Grey Dog, by Elliott Gish. I'd wanted to read this and was so pleased when ECW reached out with a review copy ~ thank you, Claire! While perusing catalogs of new books coming out Grey Dog caught my eye because of the contradictory nature of its cover. I was hoping that it would have something to do with sort of a body horror or some animalistic nature transformation and I wasn't exactly right although there is some sort of body horror... if you count the use of dead animals and a little skull within the story. The stark nature of what almost looks like a woodcut lent itself to the description of this book taking place in the 1900s so I caught a “botanical dark academia” flavour just from the illustration on the front.

Much to my delight the author is from the East Coast and did find inspiration in Lucy Maud Montgomery and the Anne of Green Gables, so if you ever wanted that in horror form, this is one for you!

This is the debut novel by Elliott Gish and I am looking forward to more.

Pick up Grey Dog here https://amzn.to/3UgdlXe

From the back cover copy: “The year is 1901, and Ada Byrd ― spinster, schoolmarm, amateur naturalist ― accepts a teaching post in isolated Lowry Bridge, grateful for the chance to re-establish herself where no one knows her secrets. She develops friendships with her neighbours, explores the woods with her students, and begins to see a future in this tiny farming community. Her past ― riddled with grief and shame ― has never seemed so far away...”

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I talk horror books; extreme horror, classic, slasher, gothic, and everything in between. Helping you find the next best horror book to read is the goal, and sharing new and old horror from my shelves and new releases is how! Horror, nonfiction and even true crime can be found here as I find that human beings are the scariest thing of all.

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