It’s an old-fashioned puppet. The details are hard to make out in the dim light, but it looks like the puppet’s neck is broken. It’s a sad-looking thing, trapped there in its cage. Maybe I should let it out…

- from Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis (2020)  

This year I took part in the Ladies of Horror Fiction anniversary mini-readathon, and one of the titles I’m very glad I selected was Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis (2020). This young-adult Gothic tale is a chilling and effective love letter to cult horror films and those who obsess over them, wrapped inside of a toxic family mystery, and topped with a clever framing narrative that pays off immensely in the end. Ellis allows her heroine self-discovery and hard-won empowerment and a realness I found to be very compelling.

I would’ve devoured this with relish as a teen; as an adult, I thoroughly enjoyed every single line. Highly recommended!

Here is the official description: “Lola Nox is the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker–she thinks nothing can scare her. But when her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment, she’s quickly packed off to live with a grandmother she’s never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father’s most iconic horror movie was shot. The locals are weirdly obsessed with the film that put their town on the map–and there are strange disappearances, which the police seem determined to explain away. And there’s someone–or something–stalking her every move. The more Lola discovers about the town, the more terrifying it becomes. Because Lola’s got secrets of her own. And if she can’t find a way out of Harrow Lake, they might just be the death of her.”

Ellis definitely has a wonderful way with words. Here’s an example.

I watch the light creep over the tops of the trees and I rasp in painful, beautiful breaths, lying on grass and grit and a backbone made of stories. Stars fill the sky above me, echoes from some long-dead part of the universe, stories from long ago.

The stars watch as I get to my feet and walk into the trees. Perhaps they are all monsters’ eyes. Perhaps they are not there at all.

- from Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis (2020)  

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