Thank you HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for the ARC!

The Macabre follows Lewis, a struggling painter who is surprised when the British Museum takes an interest in his art - although it's not his paintings they are interested in, but him. Lewis has an unexplained connection to ten cursed paintings and must destroy them before they cause further horrors.

This unique story completely captivated me from the beginning. Kosoko Jackson vividly brings everything to life, I could feel myself in these paintings with Lewis - it's the perfect mix of horror and fantasy. The worldbuilding is drip fed which I'm a personal fan of, it lets you experience and unravel things alongside Lewis and everything is paced to build the perfect amount of tension. I really loved the magic system, it was unique yet so subtle throughout the story.

"Fugue paintings. That's what he called them. They always started with a tingle in the back of his head, then an itch he couldn't help but scratch that, if ignored for too long, turned into a headache - blinding, terrible, debilitating. But once he sat down and gave in, the euphoria of letting his fingers take the brush, mix the colours, and let go was...unmatched."

At its core, this is a story about grief and love, and how experiences can differ between people. Each character in this book is authentic, each with their own purpose - I adored everyone we met along the way and couldn't imagine this story without any of them. I loved the diverse and queer representation and felt so much care was taken when dealing with the historical context of races and cultural groups.

"But you know what else I discovered along the way, in between the runes and the spells, the foreign languages, and the choices that damned my soul to hell? Every single one of us, magician or not, is mad down here. And up there and below? The Gods laugh at us, finding pleasure in our suffering."

This has been one of my favourite books this year, I can't wait to reread this once it's released.

I'm so sorry to make this review, because the premise was so interesting and right up my alley. I DNF'd around 20%.

Something never clicked, I felt very far from the characters, drifting and sliding off of the story and the emotional impact the events should have. I think I just don't enjoy the writing style and felt like it could have been dig further, to create a deeper sense of place and character.
I can see what the writer was going for and wanted the reader to feel and experience, but it didn't cut it. Even the magic and all the paintings thing wasn't enough for me to want to come back to the book, and I was really excited about it!

Sadly and despite what I had hoped, it wasn't for me.

I saw mixed reviews about The Macabre so I wasn't sure what to expect but I was instantly interested by the plot - a young artist is tasked with neutralising a collection of cursed, magical paintings. The plot was unexpected and I couldn't guess where it was going to go.

This is being categorised as Adult, but I think it's sort of between YA and Adult. I assume the darker themes and the gore are the main reasons for the Adult rating, but otherwise I definitely could tell that the author was used to writing YA novels. So it fell somewhere between the two categories for me.

The romance wasn't a main element of the story and I think that part could have had some more time to marinate. Lewis and Noah's feelings for each other seemed to accelerate quite quickly even though there wasn't much of a foundation there to build the relationship on. There wasn't even a kiss until the last page and even then it was just "He kissed the beautiful young man standing before him."

So this is a bit of a tricky one to rate. I liked the inventive plot and that I couldn't guess where it was going. I liked the main character Lewis (a gay, Black, American painter sucked into this unexpected, and often painful, other world that he knew nothing about) but I thought his romance with Noah needed more development. I was interested in the world, but the lore of the world wasn't fully explained. For example, I didn't understand if runes and spells were interchangeable, or if there were situations when you'd use a rune but not a spell, or vice versa.

I'll go with a 3.5 rating for me personally, as I have purposefully moved away from reading books in the YA category and was hoping for the adult dark fantasy that this was described as. As an upper YA book with some horror and darker themes, I would recommend it. As an Adult book, I think some areas needed to be more fleshed out.

Disclaimer: I received an Advance Reader Copy from HarperCollins UK and NetGalley but this is my voluntary and honest review.