*4.5 stars
Basilisk by Matt Wixey is a horror novel set to be published by Titan Books on July 1st 2025.

Hello Friend!

Where to begin describing this book?

On paper (and the publisher's description) it follows ethical hacker Alex Webster as she and her friend Jay Morton investigate The Helmsman and his texts, believing it to be an ARG after a breach in the IT systems of the company they are contracting for.

In practice, however, the novel is more like Mark Danielewski’s House of Leaves or Dracula with a technological twist. Meta, unflinching and told through accounts of events and not told in a conventional way, this “genre”/approach is one of my absolute favourites and one I myself have used. And let me tell you, it's a bloody hard one. Wixey thrives within these constraints, and makes texts which could have been dull interesting, especially when they are full of technical jargon about hacking and science and are hard to understand. I never felt like my lack of knowledge in these subject areas stopped my enjoyment of the story, in fact it enhanced it.

We are effectively on this journey with Alex, even if retroactively, and we receive each new chapter of The Helmsman's Texts (THT) at the same point in the story's chronology as she does, following police officer Holly Soames’ footnotes as she analyses the ‘WEBSTER’ manuscript

A highlight for me is Lovesickness, a possibly fictional, possibly not short play featured in The Helmsman's Texts, purportedly written by a playwright called Marlow Tannhauser. It stands out amongst the pieces for me because of its darkness, and Wixey’s cleverness with words.

My favourite character would probably have to be Eoin, as the sweet and perfectly matched non-hacker boyfriend of Jay. The scenes where the couple invited Alex to their home in hopes of solving the various puzzles to unlock more chapters of THT are beautifully written and bittersweet. But then I am a sucker for sweet, queer Irish people, even if they do break down bathroom doors to stop people sending emails.

While I'm not an expert on hacking or films/stories about it, but my perception of them is flashy, American affairs like WarGames and Hackers but Basilisk feels so distinctly British and I don't think there are enough distinctly British stories in this way.

Wixey himself has worked in the cyber security industry for many years and this really shows in the knowledge and expertise Jay and Alex have, as well as the anecdotes and references to various aspects of pop culture.

Basilisk is definitely a must-read for fans of hacking stories, ARGs, and things like creepypasta and the Backrooms, much like House of Leaves. Horror fans will also love it, as will fans of Person of Interest and possibly The Good Place due to its interesting approach to philosophical questions. Wixey’s prose is unflinching and his characters brilliantly written and I can't wait to see if he has any other stories in the pipeline.

Basilisk is a horror novel about an online game that leads two ethical hackers down a road towards a mysterious cyber weapon for targeting people, not technology. Alexandra Webster worked for a cybersecurity firm, and now we're reading her story, written down to document what happened when her and her colleague Jay found the start of an online game created by 'The Helmsman' that rewarded participants with further "chapters" about a mysterious weapon. Jay disappeared, and Alex was still searching for what happened to him, and who the Helmsman was, whilst evading the strange smiling people trying to stop her.

This is a very distinctively-told horror novel, most easily summarised by saying it is like if you tried to do House of Leaves about a tech-focused ARG rather than a house. The actual writing is partly a narrative written by the ostensible protagonist, Alex, with added comments by someone else investigating the manuscript, and also the texts of the Helmsman's chapters. On top of that, there's links to articles, videos, and playlists, and a general expectation that you get drawn into the mystery enough to want to know what is going on. In that way, it makes you a player too, even if a passive one, and that is perhaps how it is most like an ARG as well as being about one: the meta- and intertextuality make it a horror novel with a 'this is true document we found' framing that actually has that creepy sense that could be true. Alex as a character isn't particularly transparent—in her narrative she barely reveals anything about herself that isn't part of what happened—but this works to allow the reader into the position of Alex, or to project their own things onto her. In a way, this is a book that is more about avatars than actual people.

Despite not being a hacker or a cybersecurity person, I'm otherwise perhaps the target audience for this novel: I love horror and internet horror, I find the concept of ARGs fascinating, I work close enough to tech-y stuff that I can recognise some of the tech terminology and don't find the rest of it intimidating if I don't understand it (and, I love mentioning 'The Game' as an example of a game). Like House of Leaves, there is a lot contained within this novel (or linked from it), including the hacker stuff, but also Old English, The Matrix, cryptic crosswords, philosophy, creepypastas, and other things that all feel part of a certain milieu. However, if you're not really engaged with those as potential ideas that might fit together in some kind of weird way, this book might feel off-putting, rather than a fun sort of rabbit hole. For me, it was the latter, a story packed with references to things I knew a bit about and an atmospheric sense of dread as it slowly unfolds through Alex's narrative.

There's something about modern day fears captured in Basilisk even though it might appear to be a fairly silly horror concept, from the idea that there's some kind of cyber weapon that could actually cause people to go insane as in the book, to other technological thought experiments and conspiracy theories that can cause people to extreme actions. The book itself has sections in The Helmsman's chapters that discuss some of these things, such as Roko's Basilisk and Slender Man, and being aware of some of the very real possible consequences of online ideas makes Basilisk even scarier in some ways. Again, this does require some knowledge of these things already (for example, I think the Zizian cult stuff around Roko's Basilisk is too recent to even be mentioned in the discussion of Roko's Basilisk in this novel), but even just knowing that ideas on the internet can become something more primes you. In this way, the book is also similar to something like Alison Rumfitt's Brainwyrms, another horror novel that takes the internet seriously.

From seeing some early reviews before I started reading, I expected Basilisk to be difficult to read and impenetrable (ironic given that Alex and Jay are penetration testers), but it turned out to be a readable, slow burn descent into what is apparently a purposeful madness. Maybe I'm just really the right person for this book, but I had a great time with it, and if you have any interest in the intersection between horror and technology, especially in terms of the transmission of the horror 'threat', then Basilisk is fun, dark, and has a satisfying enough ending despite feeling like a book that could perhaps never end in a way that really brings it all together.

This one sounded full of promise of something different for horror, however I found this quite hard going.
It's a long read and you need to be dedicated. I found it hard with all the jargon and out of my depth. It's an interesting read but I didn't find it too scary.

Basilisk by Matt Wixey is a dark and atmospheric thriller that blends cybercrime with psychological horror in an inventive way. The premise is original and immediately gripping, diving into a world of high-tech fear and eerie suspense. Wixey’s writing is crisp, and the tension builds steadily across a cleverly structured narrative.

The characters are intriguing, particularly the protagonist, though at times their development feels secondary to the plot’s momentum. The techno-thriller elements are well-executed, but some of the denser explanations can briefly slow the pace. Still, the novel explores compelling themes around surveillance, control, and identity, giving the story a strong thematic core.

The ending delivers a solid payoff, tying together the mystery with a satisfying, if slightly abrupt, conclusion. Basilisk is a smart and gripping debut with a unique edge—an enjoyable 3.5-star read for fans of thrillers with a technological twist.

I did DNF this at 6% but i dont think its a bad book. This book is extremely technical and has subject specific terminology which covered areas such as coding, hacking and computing that i simply dont specialise in or understand.

For those who do understand this area i think this is a must read, and its a unique way of presenting horror. Read digitally it can be super immersive as it has all the relevant links, from a playlist, to websites and articles referenced throughout it.