5⭐️ for Japanese Gothic. This is one of those books that makes reading worth it. Beautiful setting: a house among the swordferns in Japan that slowly makes you lose your mind.

This is a story that makes you question the narrative, what is real and what is not, and unravels in the most haunting way.

Will for sure pick up other books by this author.

This was my first Kylie Lee Baker book, but I knew the author’s name and the praise she received for her previous novel Bat eater. This new book of hers was such a surprise to me. Honestly, I’ve never read anything like it. It was so strange and tragic, like a fever dream. It had an emotional impact on me during the whole reading process. It is about the tragic lives of two people, separated by hundreds of years, but finding each other in an ancient house behind the sword ferns in Japan. I find the magical elements so well executed, the writing is exquisite, the characters are so well done, layered and raw.
Right from the begging Lee is the unreliable narrator – “A man, a murderer, a stain”, but his story is very complex. His thoughts are compulsive and dark, and finding out the reason for it had the emotional damage I always appreciate when a book gives me that trauma.
Sen is the other main character; her whole reality is filled with violence and parental abuse, which is to prepare her to be the last samurai, despite her being a girl and the samurai being dismissed. “You are not a mind. You are a weapon. You have no soul, no heart, nothing to forfeit to death. You are already dead.”
But the writing, my lord - perfection and the story - perfection, and the relationship between Sen and Lee - perfection. This is not a romance, this is so much more. The last chapter gives you the payoff for all of the mystery throughout, for the reasoning, for the rules of the reality they share. I am floored by this author’s talent to write and create a story that I yearned for. I didn’t wish it to end, despite being hard to read in some parts about the abuse Sen was put through. I don’t want to say more, so not to spoil anything. I can’t wait for this to be published and for you all to rave about it. Japanese Gothic is simply a masterpiece that you should not miss to read when it comes out.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with the ARC.

I don’t have many intelligent words to say beyond this was DEVASTATING and I loved every second of it.

Japanese Gothic follows Sen, a training samurai beneath her abusive father who’s recently returned from a rebellion one of its only survivors, and came home a changed man. Across from Sen is Lee who lost his mother mysteriously years ago, and now is haunted by the loss of his roommate a bit less mysteriously (absolutely didn’t flip a lid over room etiquette.) They discover they can traverse timelines and help each other take to pieces the future and past to solve each other’s mysteries.

At the core of it, JG is about the lengths humanity will go to when under abusive relationships and this was both extremely well done in my opinion and horrendously relatable. (I wasn’t taking tips… yet.)

With dual POV stories like this one I usually find myself drawn to one over the other, katana held to my throat (see what I did there?) I couldn’t tell you who I liked more. Sen and Lee are absolute standouts as main characters. And I would pay money to see the iciest of hearts still frozen after reading this whole story.

Sen is agonising to read, someone who only wants to do right by her family and please her father. You feel every character note, her grief, her fear, the little light moments where she should just get to be a kid stolen from her. They were addictive and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Lee was difficult to read in just the best way. He’s done these horrible things but as the story unfolds and you see him struggle with just every aspect of his life, you can’t help but relate to him.

The two father characters are examples of one of the most brilliant literary parallels I think I’ve ever read. Watching Baker warp Lee’s dad into something monstrous in Lee’s eye but till the very end you still think Jim wants the best until the reality gets picked to pieces. Then the arrogance and selfishness of Sen’s father.

I don’t have daddy issues and I’m glad cos this book might well have given me some by osmosis.

I loved the history aspects of this book, I don’t know tonnes about the time period but I felt fully immersed but it never felt exposition-y, Baker did a great job of organically getting the historical context across. The paranormal aspects to JG aren’t overly explained and I think that’s really to the book’s benefit.

Baker has a belief in her readers that I really struggle to find in the modern writer, so much is left up to interpretation and she works doubt into her writing so well. I found the same of Bateater (which happened to be the book to kick off my Horror spree this year) and in JG I found it only double delicious. Sen and Lee both were incredibly unreliable, and left me second guessing everything, which worked so unbelievably well for a murder-mystery like this.

The hallucinations and flashbacks weren’t just a gimmick but worked brilliantly into the plot. I loved the little side stories with the sailor and the turtle, they were lovely splashes of whimsy (well dark whimsy but you take what you can get) against a very dark foreground.

JG is definitely a book that demands and keeps your attention, and I found it quite easy to get lost but that’s more by design than by flaw. The confusion is a feature not a bug, and the beautiful writing (how Baker makes visceral so beautiful is terrifying too me) and incredible dual-timeline plots were more than enough to keep my invested. This will definitely be one I’ll read a few times and spot more things I missed the first round.

Hint if you decide, (as you well should) to read this- if it makes you feel like the world just fell out from under you - probably happening. If you feel like the book just slapped you across the face and called your mother a dirty name? Definitely happening.

I love an author with a range. But it is also kind of incomprehensible to me how Kylie Lee Baker writes stories suitable for younger readers and then the most horrific and tense horror novels ever. And when I say 'horrific', I mean it. Almost every chapter had the main characters doing terrible things or thinking the darkest thoughts possible, or it was just straight-up bloodshed and gore. There were many scenes that made me sick to my stomach, but I also didn't know if I wanted to gag or to cry. What I did know was that I needed to keep reading. It was an experience.

The story follows two main characters in different timelines that are impossibly intertwined. In present day there is Lee Turner. His father just moved to a remote house in Japan, his mother is missing, presumed dead and Lee himself just killed his roommate without really knowing why he did it or where he put the dead body. He is more or less constantly sedated and has a twisted perception of reality, but he is sure that his father's new house is strangely otherworldly. In 1877, Sen, the daughter of a samurai, lives in the very same house, and while she tries her best to become the soulless warrior that her father trains her to be, she's often struggling with his way of life. The beginning of the book really was a lot, but I was intrigued by literally everything that was mentioned. Kylie Lee Baker somehow does more character work for Lee and Sen in their respective first chapters than other authors manage in an entire book. It's definitely a character-focused story and both characters live in a horrible reality. Lee is clearly struggling with his mental health and a broken family that no one even tries to repair. And Sen is learning an honorable but bloody craft in a time where the samurai are already annihilated and the desperately needed validation of her father might as well be unreachable.

It's a time-bending ghost story, both modern and historical, and it's full of supernatural and real-life horrors. It was difficult to predict how everything will connect, because the book offers a whole variety of themes and plot elements. From lost parents and dead roommates to existential fear to an impossible doorway through time to the meaning of the ocean and turtles. There was a Japanese tale imbedded into the story and I was sure that it would play a big role in the reveals, but I ultimately didn't love the way how it was connected to Lee and Sen. The last 20% were pretty confusing to me, because characters were dying but not really and then for real, and while some things were definitely unexpected, it just wasn't super satisfying to me. This issue might be resolved upon re-read when I can look for the right hints from the start. I still only remove half a star from my rating, because the other 80% of the book were so very powerful, yet tragic in every way. "Japanese Gothic" kinda felt like the sad (bawling-my-eyes-out) parts in a Makoto Shinkai movie, but if it were really twisted, bloody and covered in gore. I say that because there is also an undeniable romantic quality to this book. As I said, it is an experience.

I now greedily await more horror books by Kylie Lee Baker, because both "Bat Eater" and "Japanese Gothic" were outstanding highlights that left a lasting impression on me. In the meantime I'm definitely gonna tackle her YA backlist and I know that she won't disappoint me there either.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

Beautitfully written and totally unsettling. I absolutely loved this!

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for an early reading copy.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC!

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

One thing you must know about me is that 'Japanese' and 'Gothic' are two of my favourite words ever. That, and the fact that Kylie Lee Baker's adult debut 'Bat Eater' is one of my favourite horror novels ever meant that my expectations could not have been higher. 'Japanese Gothic' surpassed my expectations in every way and I have to say that for me, KLB has singlehandedly raised the bar for what horror should be.

As befits any good gothic novel, the atmosphere here was exquisitely crafted. The house behind the sword ferns, a place that seemed almost suspended in time, had the perfect claustrophobic feel and eeriness that just so blurred the line between what was real and what wasn't. What really stood out to me was Baker's ability to bring even the tiniest motion to life- every swish of the sword ferns, every sunray that struck the floorboards, every whisper of the wind gliding through the house when its sliding doors were left open. I've become very nitpicky when it comes to atmosphere and aesthetics in books (having read so many good ones before), but 'Japanese Gothic' succeeded in every way. The prose was mesmerizing and hypnotic. The tension in the narrative was palpable and it had an almost...breathless quality to it. I'm sure this will appeal to many fans of the horror genre. I don't exaggerate when I say that this is the most cinematic reading experience I've ever had. This book literally read like a film unfolding in front of my eyes; it was that immersive.

Both Lee and Sen were memorable characters in their own right. Lee's mental health struggles, isolation and almost-invisibility were well-written. Sen, on the other hand, was honed to become a human weapon, unfeeling and without a soul. Both found the one person who truly saw them in a different timeline. It's easy to butcher stories involving time travel or timelines colliding, in my opinion, but KLB pulled it off brilliantly. I also learned about a period of Japanese history that I knew absolutely nothing about, and I appreciate KLB for tackling some important themes in her book. Please don't overlook the author's note, it's definitely worth reading.

What I loved the most about both of KLB's horror novels is that they don't just offer thrills and scares, they have an emotional depth to them. I felt connected to the protagonists and my heart broke for them over and over again. Like 'Bat Eater', 'Japanese Gothic' features gore and scenes that may not be suitable for the squeamish. I wouldn't say it's gratuitous, though. As for the readers curious about how Japanese mythology comes into play in all of this, I'd recommend that they go in blind. That will make the plot twist hit harder. I will say that the way Baker incorporated a pretty famous Japanese legend into a horror novel was nothing short of genius.

You know a book is good when you feel like rereading it right after turning the last page. I think I may have missed certain clues leading to the ending that I may discover only after a reread. There's one plot point where once I realized what was happening, I actually gasped and proceeded to stare at a wall for the longest time.

Right from the first page to the last, 'Japanese Gothic' maintained a perfect pacing, was well-written and deeply atmospheric, and had a haunting ending that'll stay with me for a long time. I cannot give this anything less than a solid 5. I'd highly recommend this to fans of Japanese history and mythology, gothic horror, and Marcus Kliewer's 'We Used to Live Here'.

I really loved Bat Eater, it was one of my favourite horrors from this year, so I jumped on the chance for this ARC! And tbh, I don’t think I could possibly list all the things I loved about it, but I’ll try!!

Positives
- Kylie Lee Baker’s prose is so beautiful - I already thought so in Bat Eater but even since then, I can tell how much she’s improved
- The two intertwined stories were both so intriguing and the mystery of it all had me glued to the page - I literally stayed up until 2am to finish this bc I needed answers!!
- The horror is suitably horrifying - just the right side of gory and grotesque but not without reason or to be gratuitous, while also being creepy and unsettling
- I’m going to have nightmares about suitcases now

Negatives
- None!

Kylie Lee Baker is quickly becoming one of my favourite horror writers, I can’t wait to see what she does next

Honestly one of the more creative and unique books I can remember reading in recent years and solidifying Kylie Lee Baker's adult fiction as must-reads for me.

Japanese Gothic is a mixture of historical fiction and fantasy and ghost story and, yes, some horror, and even though the synopsis is entirely accurate, it somehow did not prepare me at all for what this book would be and the trauma and grief that would permeate the story. I will say that I thought there would be more horror - I felt that it leaned heavier into fantasy than horror for most of the book, though the author did not shy away from getting gory whenever an opportunity presented itself.

I'm not sure I really want to say much more as this is one that it's better to just go along for the ride with. Kylie Lee Baker knows how to hook a reader and not let up, throwing you through the gauntlet of emotions in this dreamscape (nightmare?) of a story.

Thank you to the publisher, Hodder & Stoughton, and to NetGalley for the ARC.

This is a gripping and mysterious read, with two intersecting time periods, modern Japan and 1800s Japan.
It is haunting and unique!

What a weird, dreamlike, dark and bloodsoaked book, I loved it!
Japanese Gothic is the story of Lee and Sen, two people split by time. Lee is an American teen living in 2026, finding sanctuary in his father's house in Japan after a traumatic event. He's convinced he murdered his college roommate, but can't remember why or where he hid the body. Sen is a Samurai in exile, hiding from imperial soldiers in the same house with her harsh father who she's desperate to please. But they're not isolated and, as their worlds collide, they have their own reckonings. Lee with the past and Sen with the future.

The writing in this book was absolutely perfect. It was gorgeous without being overly fluffy or ostentatious and taking me out of the story. It just drew me in and wouldn't let go. The writing made the horror elements and gore so impactful (do not read this book while you're eating) and it was just so good to read. The protagonists, Lee and Sen, where the foundations and heart of the book and I also really liked how they were written. They weren't good people and the book made that very clear, yet I couldn't help but root for them and their relationship across time. They both were so tragically and realistically human in their flaws which was really impactful to read.

The book was really murky in places and hard to parse, which I think won't work for everyone but I enjoyed it. The ending felt quite abrupt and unsatisfying even, with many questions left unanswered but it left me with a lot to reflect on and think about which made it worth it in my opinion. It was brilliantly twisty and, though I guessed some, some twists I didn't see coming at all and I loved the 'OH' moment were everything is suddenly snapped into context and focus. It's also incredibly and unrelentingly dark and the themes of mental illness and domestic violence as well as the real horror of the events in 1800s Japan were very heavy and much more impactful than the supernatural elements, though those were well woven in.

I think my one nitpick is that Sen's dialogue and relationship with Lee felt just a bit too modern for the time period, but that is really a nitpick and the story was so impactful and brilliant that it really didn't matter.

I don't actually have a huge amount to say about this one other than it was excellent and I loved it. It was strange, unconventional, dark, tragic and so well crafted. I'll definitely have to check out more of Kylie Lee Baker's books in the future because this one was such a good read.

A lyrically inventive horror novel interwoven with mythology where two people living centuries apart discover a door between their worlds. An eerie, unrelenting tale that exposes the true horrors of this world.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐇𝐨𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐫 & 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐉𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐜 𝐛𝐲 𝐊𝐲𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫

I was riveted by this the whole way through, the pacing of it was excellent and the story being told was so interesting. I can tell it's one of those books where if you read it a second time you would see so many little hidden things you didn't notice before.

What an absolutely amazing start to my reading year!

This was such a fantastic read and I could not put it down. The writing is fantastic and the way the narrative all weaves together is perfect. I love that we have an unreliable narrator that makes you question everything.

Just an amazing read that I will think about for a long time to come!

Another fantastic book from Kylie Lee Baker. Just like Bat Eater, I couldn’t put it down. Both Lee and Sen’s stories were totally engrossing, and I genuinely had no idea where the story was heading. The ending was perfect. I love how Baker writes her characters — they feel so tragically real. This is a beautiful and unique take on a haunted-house story, exploring the ghosts of our past, present, and future, and the lasting impact of trauma and grief, reminding us just how fragile we all are.
I loved this book.

Kylie Lee Baker is absolutely amazing, I didnt think they could top Bat Eater but Japanese Gothic is absolutely an amazing novel, it was creepy, it had its humour, it had its tension and I really loved reading this book i cant wait to see what she writes next !!!

Japanese Gothic is a stunning, immersive novel that blends historical fantasy and gothic horror with razor-sharp emotional depth. Kylie Lee Baker crafts a haunting atmosphere from the very first page, and it only grows richer and more unsettling as the story unfolds.

The setting is exquisitely rendered, steeped in dread, beauty, and tradition, and the gothic elements feel both classic and refreshingly distinct. Every detail—from the rituals to the quiet horrors lurking beneath the surface—adds to the oppressive, mesmerizing mood. The story excels at balancing psychological tension with moments of genuine terror.

What truly elevates this book is its protagonist and emotional core. The exploration of grief, duty, identity, and survival is handled with nuance and care, making the horror hit harder because it’s so deeply personal. The pacing is tight, the stakes are high, and the payoff is immensely satisfying.

Japanese Gothic is atmospheric, unsettling, and unforgettable—a must-read for fans of gothic horror, historical fantasy, and dark, character-driven stories. This is a standout novel that lingers long after the final page.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Japanese Gothic is a haunting, beautifully unsettling read that has stayed with me long after finishing. The dual timelines weave together through an unreliable narrator, creating a mystery that is eerie, gripping, and deeply atmospheric.

At times the story is deliberately disorienting, blurring the line between reality and illusion in a way that perfectly mirrors the characters’ unraveling. The writing is grotesque yet poetic, and the creeping horror lingered in my mind—I couldn’t stop thinking about it afterward. I also loved the underlying commentary on samurai desperately trying to cling to a fading way of life, which adds a poignant historical depth to the story.

Creepy, beautiful, and hypnotic. Having loved Bat Eater as well, Kylie Lee Baker has firmly cemented her as an auto buy author for me.

I seldom read something that was this brilliant.
We have two protagonists who are haunted by their life and decisions. They discover, that they can help each other through timelines and thus we have a devastatingly good novel on our hand. I nearly read it in one go, because I always wanted to know what happens next. This is my first read from the author, but surely not my last.

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for granting me an ARC of this book by one of my favorite authors. After Kylie Lee Baker's debut horror novel "Bat Eater", I was very excited to dive into another story from her in the horror genre.
"Japanese Gothic" was one of my most anticipated releases of 2026, and it was worth every hour of reading!

We follow Lee and Sen, two characters in diffent time periods, linked by the same house in Japan.
In 2026, Lee Turner flees New York after killing his roommate, though he can’t remember how or why. He hides out in his father’s remote house, where strange things start happening, animals avoid it, the windows change, and a woman with a sword appears at night.
In 1877, Sen, a young samurai in exile, is hiding in that same house while imperial soldiers hunt her family. Her father returns from war acting like a monster, and Sen will do anything to please him. When a foreign man appears outside her window, she knows something terrible is coming.

"Japanese Gothic" is one of those books you want to talk about in depth, but also can’t, because you don’t want to spoil all the thrills and surprises for others.
The writing is, as always, fantastic: both beautiful and twisted. The descriptions are vivid, graphic, and richly detailed. The novel leaves you uneasy, with shivers running down your spine—but in a beautiful way, because being able to convey this kind of emotion through words is truly impressive.

As someone who loves and has studied Japanese language and culture, I will never stop recommending Kylie Lee Baker's books. She knows how to write about Japan in a way that both teaches you and transports you through history. She does it once again here: her depiction of the Meiji era was one of my favorite aspects of the novel, and most of the time, while reading Sen’s point of view, I felt like I was watching a samurai movie.

I loved the dual POV. Whether you are following Lee’s or Sen’s timeline, you are constantly left with questions and uncertainty until the very end. Both characters, especially Lee without going into spoilers, are lost and confused by everything happening around them, and since we follow their thoughts so closely, we feel just as disoriented. Pieces of answers are revealed little by little, but just when you think the fog has finally lifted, even more mysteries emerge.
The ending was incredibly surprising, and I loved it!! I never expected this, even though all the hints were right there in front of my eyes…

The horror in "Japanese Gothic" isn’t portrayed in the same way it often is in the U.S. or Europe. Depending on where you come from, the core codes of the genre can be very different, and Japanese horror is especially distinctive.
Reading "Japanese Gothic" feels like reading an old Japanese horror tale. There are no gory scenes or jump scares, but rather a heavy, mysterious atmosphere, the slow invasion of everyday life by the supernatural, and a deep psychological dimension.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is so so weird but in a good way. The weirder it gets the better. This has to be one of the books that left me WTF multiple times and I loved every single one.

Lee was one of the strangest characters I’ve read, but I loved him. His struggles with mental health and loneliness were so well written and portrayed.

The same goes for Sen. She was raised to be a weapon and she was so dependent on her father’s approval and opinion. She was a great character, I really liked her.

I was confused most of the time but that just made me more interested in the story and how everything would develop.

A few plot lines were a bit predictable but still great and the ending was incredibly satisfying.

Kylie Lee Baker is definitely an amazing author and I can’t wait to read Bat Eater. I was curious before and now I’m even more.

Kylie Lee Baker’s range is absolutely bonkers. On the one hand, she can write some incredible YA books, whether it be a fantasy duology or a contemporary romance. On the other hand, she writes some of the most brutal and terrifying horror fiction I’ve read. Japanese Gothic was no different. I am honestly glad that I didn’t read it at night because it would have given me nightmares.

This book turned out to be a lot darker than I expected. It didn’t shy away from being descriptive in its depiction of blood, gore and terribly violent scenes. I honestly felt my stomach twist itself into knots, but at the same time I simply could not look away. There was something about the writing and the story that kept me engrossed from the beginning, right till I got to the final page.

This is very much a character driven story, and both Lee and Sen take centre stage. These two are incredibly complex characters, both living in broken families and existing in a way where their life hangs by a thread. Lee is an unreliable narrator done right. He is confused and other medication as he deals with the mysterious happenings of his father’s new home in Japan. His mother is missing, and Lee may have killed his roommate without knowing why. Almost two centuries prior, Sen is the daughter of a samurai, being trained by her father to become a warrior and carry on his legacy. But things are not right there either, not since her father returned from a rebellion, completely different.

When it comes to the narrative, I think this is such a uniquely crafted story. Timelines combine and merge, and there’s a strange sense of the supernatural interwoven through the story. I could never figure out where the story would go, and that really enhanced the reading experience for me. The story keeps on your toes from the get-go and never really stops. You may be left confused and creeped, but you’ll end up loving this.

Both Lee and Sen’s stories are full of grief, and maybe even despair. But there’s also a thread of hope that is woven throughout the book. And the climax as well as the ending answered some of the most important questions I had and solved some crucial mysteries, while also leaving you with a taste of “uhh…okay, that happened.”

Japanese Gothic is another gorgeously crafted horror masterpiece from the mind of Kylie Lee Baker. I love all of her writing, but her horror fiction, especially this one, might just take the top spot.

Following two time lines, 140 years apart and two entirely different family situations. I must admit that for a lot of this book I had no idea what was going on, in the best way. I couldn’t figure out how it would end and why things were happening the way they were and I could never have guessed the ending. I laughed, I (almost) cried and I had an amazing time reading this book.

Kylie Lee Baker has just become an auto buy author for me as Bat Eater was one of my favourite books from last year and this one definitely did not disappoint.

Thank you so much to Net Galley for the e-ARC.

I previously read Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker, which was a 2025 Kindig Gem for me, so I was very excited to read her latest novel – Japanese Gothic.

It’s 2025 and Lee Turner has killed his roommate and fled to his father’s house in rural Japan. His room in the house surrounded by sword ferns contains a window which sometimes disappears and a closet that leads to a concrete wall.
It’s 1877 and Sen is the daughter of one of the last remaining Samurais. Her family are hiding in rural Japan, in a house surrounded by sword ferns, and her closet leads to a concrete wall. But one night there is light coming from the closet and Sen and Lee’s worlds start to blend together…

Japanese Gothic really solidified Kylie Lee Baker as a must-read author for me. Just like Bat Eater, it blends Japanese culture and folklore with thriller and horror genres, to create something which is unique and difficult to put down. Although I don’t know much about the culture of the Samurai, I feel like I came away with an appreciation and increased knowledge about the subject. Sen is such a layered and interesting character – a woman trying to be the best warrior she can for her Samurai father who does not appreciate her and a mother who is afraid of her. The idea that her family are the last of the Samurais, at a cost of her father returning home from battle instead of dying honourably was interesting.

Lee’s timeline is also gripping and intriguing which meant I didn’t feel like I was racing through one point of view to get to the other one. He has a history of substance abuse and is addicted to sedatives which makes his thought processes muddy, and he becomes an unreliable narrator, being unsure if what is happening is real or not. He thinks he has killed his roommate but can’t remember how or where he hid the body. He also wants to find out what happened to his mother who disappeared when he was young which adds a sense of urgency and motivation to his conversations with Sen as he works out how he can see her and whether he can commune with the dead.

The story had me hooked completely and the pace is fast and doesn’t let up at any moment. There is a real sense of unease running throughout and unanswered questions which kept me up at night, frantically reading to find out what was happening. The conclusion was an interesting twist which I did not see coming and perhaps does throw out a few more questions regarding the characters established backstories and reveals, but I didn’t mind in the payoff of a great story.

Overall, Kylie Lee Baker has done it again with a twisty gothic thriller steeped in Japanese folklore – a 2026 Kindig Gem! Thank you to NetGalley & Hodder and Stoughton for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Bat Eater; it was one of my favourite books last year. Then I read The Scarlet Alchemised, which I liked, but not as Bat Eater. So I was intrigued by Japanese Gothic, and I LOVED IT.

Kyle's writing grabs and drowns you with a beautiful violence.  I was hooked since chapter 1. Lee's story is heartbreaking, and it's perfectly balanced and complemented by Sen's. The violence they endure and the loneliness of those two are written beautifully, and their relationship is one of the most beautiful things I have read in a long time. The final is sad, but it's the perfect ending for this story and made me stare at the wall for a long time after I read it. 

Baker is a crafty writer; her horror scenes always chill me out, not just for their rawness, but also because she knows when and how to put them. Her books are like a perfect harmony of all those different parts, and believe me, Baker blends a lot of different things in her books, and I don't know how she manages to do that and make it work, which always amazes me.

I can't recommend this book enough! If you enjoy creepy houses, a Your Name kind of situationship, a good mystery ( or more than one), a little bit of a fairy tale or a story about how we endure the violence that engulfes us, you will fall in love with Japanese Gothic.

Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to review the ARC. I love it so much, I can't wait to buy a copy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This is a dual timeline set horror novel. It’s all centred around a house, and how it exists in modern day, and at the time of the end of the Samurai. I really liked the sense of liminality the book created. Both in terms of setting and place, but also in the psyche of the characters.

I loved the author’s previous novel, so I had high hopes for this one. I was not disappointed. There was such a pervasive sense of unease throughout the whole book. The modern main character is a highly unreliable narrator. His memory is patchy, and he’s trying to piece together a horrible event that has happened. It’s quite harrowing. There’s a constant sense of foreboding about what he had done and if he would get caught.

This is a really clever book, how it manages to keep the reader constantly unbalanced while still maintaining a clear and followable narrative. The book is brutal at times. There were some really disturbing scenes of violence. So do check trigger warnings. It’s not gratuitous and it is relevant to the narrative, but still deeply unnerving.

A fantastic read.

★★★★★

[book:Japanese Gothic|233333688] [author:Kylie Lee Baker|20095503]

Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC.

Japanese Gothic is, quite simply, a masterpiece of modern horror. Kylie Lee Baker has taken everything that makes gothic fiction so enduring—atmosphere, obsession, decay, generational trauma—and fused it seamlessly with Japanese mythology, samurai history, and a time-bending narrative that left me completely breathless. I loved this book from the first page to the last, and by the end I was genuinely in awe of what Baker accomplished.

At the heart of the story are two characters separated by centuries yet bound by the same house—and the same impossible doorway. In 2026, Lee Turner arrives in Japan reeling from a blackout he’s convinced ended in murder. His mother is missing, presumed dead. His father has purchased a remote, fern-choked house that feels wrong in ways Lee can’t articulate. He’s medicated, unreliable, and deeply fractured—but utterly compelling.

In 1877, Sen lives in that same house as the daughter of a disgraced samurai, training relentlessly under a father who values honor above humanity. The fall of the samurai looms large over her world, and her desperation for approval is as sharp as the blade she carries.

The time-jumping structure is nothing short of brilliant. I adored the way the narrative moved between Lee and Sen, gradually tightening the threads that bind them together. Their connection feels mysterious at first—eerie, fragile, almost impossible—and watching that mystery unfold was one of the most satisfying reading experiences I’ve had in a long time. Baker trusts her readers. She layers clues, symbolism, and mythology carefully, allowing the full picture to emerge with devastating clarity. And when the reveal comes? It lands. Completely.

The setting is extraordinary. The isolated house behind sword ferns and wild ginger feels suspended in time, claustrophobic and alive. Baker’s prose is cinematic without being overwrought; every sliding door, every shift of light across the floorboards, every whisper of wind feels intentional. The atmosphere is thick, immersive, and at times genuinely suffocating—in the best possible way. I could see it, hear it, feel it.

What elevates Japanese Gothic even further is its integration of Japanese folklore and samurai mythology. The historical backdrop of the Meiji era and the dissolution of the samurai class gives Sen’s storyline emotional and thematic weight. The embedded legend woven into the narrative isn’t decorative—it’s structural. It becomes the spine of the story, deepening the themes of inheritance, sacrifice, identity, and the dangerous things we carry across generations. The mythology doesn’t just enhance the horror; it defines it.

This is a violent book at times. It is unflinching, bloody, and psychologically intense. But none of it feels gratuitous. The horror—both supernatural and painfully human—serves the emotional core of the story. Lee and Sen are broken in different ways, shaped by expectation, grief, and isolation, and their intertwined journeys are as tragic as they are terrifying. Beneath the gore and the ghosts is something profoundly tender.

The pacing is masterful, the structure ambitious, and the emotional payoff devastating. I finished this wanting to immediately reread it to trace all the clues I know I missed. There’s a particular moment of realization that genuinely made me stop reading and just sit there, staring into space, trying to process what I had uncovered alongside the characters.

Kylie Lee Baker has raised the bar for gothic horror. Japanese Gothic is unsettling, intelligent, emotionally layered, and exquisitely crafted. It is one of the most immersive and satisfying horror novels I’ve read in years.

An easy, unquestionable five stars.

Wow, just wow. I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of Japanese Gothic, and having loved and raved about Bat Eater in 2025, I couldn’t wait to pick this book up.

Reading a second book by an author I already have such a high opinion of can be a bit daunting but Kylie Lee Baker absolutely hit it out of the park with this incredible novel. Japanese Gothic is a clever, mind bending and eerie tale that I just couldn’t put down. I’d recommend people go into this blind, the way I did, because reading through this book felt like the most satisfying puzzle and left me absolutely awestruck.

Thank you to Hodder Books for the advanced copy.

This was incredible, and an early frontrunner for my favourite book of 2026!
The story was a unique blend of dual protagonists separated by time with elements of Japanese folklore, the plot was gripping and keeps you guessing throughout as things gradually take shape and link together in a satisfying way.
Characters were memorable and realistic, multifaceted and messy, making them easy to relate to or empathise with.
The writing style was easy to follow and addictive, the book was hard to put down as I wondered how things would resolve. Pacing was excellent, giving the plot room to breathe as characters were fleshed out, then ramping up for action and suspense, ending in an extremely satisfying way.
I highly recommend this book, and eager to check out the author's previous work.

Unsettling visceral horror, a puzzle box mystery, and more raccoons than expected.

I intentionally spaced out reading this more than I usually would with books, because it's such a heavy story of complex families and child abuse, where the potential of a body stuffed into a suitcase isn't even the worst part you'll read.

To fully understand the novel, you need to read the acknowledgements. It's so important, and adds a whole layer of the author's culture and family history to the story, making this already 5 star read one of my favourite books of the year.

Bat Eater was one of my favourite books of 2025 so when I had the opportunity to get early access to Japanese Gothic I basically cried.

Kylie Lee Baker once again explores so many modern day issues through a historical lens that has me curling in a ball from how hard they hit. Lee’s POV is one of confusion and mystery whilst Sen’s POV is one of the most agonising stories I have ever read and they are balanced perfectly.

This book combines so many different versions of horror that it’s hard to pinpoint which part is the most horrific. From a father’s ‘love’ to blood and gore, everything combines to unload a truly heartbreaking exploration of similar souls in different timelines.

Kylie Lee Baker has created a story with perfect pacing, amazingly detailed characters and has established that she really is that author. I will be buying every release she has in the future because I have never had an author make me feel this way not just once but twice.

Truly, it’s only February but Japanese Gothic might already be my book of the year because it’s going to be my go-to recommendation

I knew this book was going to be five starts from the first chapter. As a dark, tragic combination of two timelines you need to buckle in and let this story take you wherever the hell it wants to take you.

I am so very grateful to Kylie Lee Baker and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

This book absolutely blew my mind. There are so many layers to it that I found myself constantly trying to piece things together. I definitely need to read more psychological horror. This one was amazing.

The story unfolds across two timelines. In the present day, we follow a young man who returns to Japan to his father’s new home after college. He may or may not have murdered his college roommate, but his memories are fragmented and unreliable, leaving both him and us uncertain about what really happened.

In the past timeline, we meet a female samurai living in the very same house. Her family is hiding from Western forces who are hunting down samurai unwilling to submit to their rule.

As the story progresses, the threads between these two timelines begin to intertwine. I don’t want to say much more about the plot, you should find more while reading the book. The book constantly throws new revelations at you.

It’s dark, gruesome in places, and deeply psychological. Being inside the protagonist’s mind felt unsettling at times, I found myself spiraling along with his thoughts and doubts. The tension and unpredictability kept me completely hooked.

This was a brilliant, unsettling read that I highly recommend picking up when it releases.

Thank you @netgalley and @hodderbooks for the eARC.

4.5 stars rounded up.

I was drawn in by the cover and stayed for the beautiful writing. It was so well written that I flew through it.

Of the two timelines, I preferred Lee’s. I was immediately invested in his character, whereas with Sen I grew to like her more gradually as the story unfolded.

At times the story felt a little muddy, and I’m not sure I fully understood everything that happened. That doesn’t particularly bother me though, as I enjoyed the ride, especially the inclusion of Japanese folklore, which was fascinating.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Japanese Gothic follows the stories of Sen, a young samurai in 1877 and Lee, a troubled teen in 2026 who, by chance, happen to have their lives entangled within in each others due to a shared closet that allows the pair to cross over into each others present.

For Sen her life is full of danger, the young girl of the last surviving samurai. She would do anything to protect her family. For Lee he feels as if something isn’t quite right with himself. He’s drawn to death and so he’s drawn to Sen who, by all accounts, is a ghost in his eyes. He also has unanswered questions circling his mother’s disappearance. He needs to find out what happened to her and he believes Sen is the key to finding out what that was.

I loved the plot twist at the end, it really turned everything I’d read upside down.

A Dark Convergence of Violence, Trauma, and Myth.

The world of the samurai has always fascinated me for the way it balances beauty with brutality. In Japanese Gothic, Kylie Lee Baker explores that tension with precision, weaving a story that moves seamlessly between our modern world and the dying days of the samurai. The novel follows Lee, a contemporary university student, and Sen, a young woman in the late nineteenth century being trained to become the last female samurai. Both are shaped by the strict codes of their worlds, haunted by family, and drawn into violence and obsession that tests the limits of honour, loyalty, and survival.

Baker immediately immerses us readers in a sense of unease: “In the house behind the sword ferns, there was a man, and a murderer, and a stain.” Even the smallest detail, a bloodstain on varnished wood, carries history and foreboding, hinting at the dark currents that run through both past and present.

Lee Turner’s life is defined by absence and trauma. After his mother disappeared when he was twelve, he has been haunted by dreams of her being folded into a suitcase, unsure what is real and what lurks in his subconscious. College life in the United States becomes unbearable, and Lee flees to Japan, seeking refuge with his father and his father’s new girlfriend. The journey is not only physical but a plunge into the tangled web of memory, grief, and the subtle, controlling power his father wields over him.

In the contemporary narrative, Lee is consumed by obsession and anxiety, hyper-aware of his father’s moods and physical frailties. His father, calm and measured on the surface, exhibits subtle control and elements of racial fetishisation, interpreting Lee’s connection to Sen superficially as attraction rather than recognizing her complexity. Lee feels “trapped inside the cage of his bones with his heartbeat thundering inside him,” this is a mind on the edge, sensitive to both his own obsessions and the hidden stresses in his father’s life.

Sen’s story, by contrast, is stripped to survival and duty. Her childhood becomes a testing ground for strength, and family is as dangerous as any enemy. In a society where women cannot be samurai, Sen bears the weight of a brutal tradition, destined to be the last of her kind. Every decision carries consequences, every failure measured in blood and honour, leaving no room for reflection or indulgence in pain.

Through these parallel narratives, Baker crafts a brutal meditation on patriarchy across centuries. Sen’s father embodies the uncompromising codes of the samurai, while Lee’s father wields a quieter, subtler form of influence. Both shape their children’s lives profoundly, highlighting how power, expectation, and family violence leave enduring marks.

The novel is further enriched by Japanese folklore, particularly the legend of Urashima Tarō, which threads through the narrative like a haunting echo. Myth and reality intertwine, emphasising memory, consequence, and the inescapable weight of history.

What struck me most is how Lee and Sen’s stories converge. Their mirrored struggles build tension until the threads collide. The ending is both shocking and inevitable, a revelation that resonates with the themes of honour, loss, and the scars of the past.

Like Baker’s previous novel Bat Eater, Japanese Gothic blends cultural history, folklore, and psychological horror with remarkable confidence. It is dark, atmospheric, and intelligent, exploring shame, trauma, fatherhood, and the long shadow cast by patriarchal power.

Japanese Gothic is more than a murder mystery or supernatural thriller. It is a haunting meditation on grief, family, and the ways past violence shapes the present.

Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the arc

Thank you to Netgalley for this eARC
A nineteenth century woman samurai trying to keep a brutal father happy while hiding from the government who want to ban all their kind meets a twenty-first century man who’s convinced he just murdered his roommate but can’t remember where he put the body in a house in the countryside of Japan where the walls between the worlds are paper-thin.

This book is expansive and ambitious, both characters in both timelines have so much going on, and there are frequent flashbacks which build up the bigger (if not always reliabl) picture. Sen was the more likeable protagonist, but Lee was probably more fascinating, especially in terms of how unreliable his narration is.

The recurring motifs—sea turtles, suitcases, doors, stains—make the book feel cohesive. The horror is subtle and creeping, and comes from within characters just as often as it comes from without—particularly the pervasive horror of violence against Japanese women across the centuries. The story is freaky and mind-bending and strangely beautiful as it unfolds, even through all the bloodstains

In 2025, Lee has fled to his father's new house in Japan after killing his college roommate. With gaps in his memory, and haunted by his mother’s unexplained disappearance when he was a child, Lee starts to unravel.
In 1877, Sen is being trained by her samurai father. Eager to prove herself as a female samurai, and earn her father's approval, she trains relentlessly.
Despite being almost 150 years apart, Lee and Sen's worlds suddenly collide. Lee wants answers on his mother's disappearance, and Sen will do anything to protect her family from imperial soldiers, but as the two try to help each other, they uncover secrets beyond what either of them could imagine...

"In the house behind the sword ferns, tiny hairline cracks began to crawl across the surface of Lee's world."

Japanese Gothic is a visceral tale of legacy, tradition and dysfunctional family dynamics. Kylie Lee Baker creates a beautifully horrific atmosphere across both timelines, and at the centre is the house Lee and Sen share. It feels like its own character—suffocating, haunting—yet it was so distinct depending on whether we were in Lee or Sen's timeline.

"He sensed, even then, that the house had been built at the edge of a cliff overlooking an abyss of darkness, that it teetered somewhere between a beautiful lie and raw truth.
And Lee wanted to fall all the way down."

Lee and Sen share so many similarities, but they are their own distinct people. I enjoyed both of their POVs so much—Lee’s tenuous grasp on reality made me feel like I was losing my own mind, and Sen's need to survive despite her hardships was extremely moving at times. Kylie Lee Baker does a fantastic job of bringing emotion into the horror so easily, showcasing the complexities of humanity.

"You told me that in your world, you have no power at all. You might think it's different for me, since I'm a warrior, but it isn't. I'm only the arrow that lodges in a tree, not the archer who aims it."

Japanese Gothic is a gripping tale from start to finish, perfect for those that love stories with a mix of supernatural and real-life horror.

I think Baker has the potential to be a horror icon for decades to come. This completely blew me away. Psychological and occasionally disgusting, so experimental in a way that should have been off putting but somehow?? Wasn’t?? I read this in one feverish sitting. More immediately. Go buy this book and buy one for all your friends.

When I’m writing this, I finished this book only a few hours ago, and I feel like staring at my ceiling for a few more. I’ll say this, Kylie Lee Baker sure knows how to write horror that take roots from the complexity of human beings—both beautifully and brilliantly. I was very surprised by the tone and direction of this book. It’s so gripping from start to finish. You never truly know what’s going to happen and of course, you can draw some conclusions the deeper it goes but don’t get your hopes up, they’ll get crushed little by little.

This was heartbreaking in so many ways. I felt for Sen, especially with her need to prove herself to her terrible father. She’s loyal to her disservice. I also felt for Lee and his way of coping with grief. The metaphors, the twists and turns. I was obsessed. Now I don’t want to say too much because this is a free spoilers review but; this book will gradually bury you in the ground of an old samurai house in Chiran, in the prefecture of Kagoshima, where your soul will rest in-between the trials and errors of the past and present.

Content Warnings: Parental abuse (emotional and physical), child abuse / harsh upbringing, family trauma and estrangement, disappearance of a parent, grief and loss, violence and horror elements, psychological distress / unsettling themes, death.

Kylie Lee Baker has officially solidified herself as one of my auto-read authors. Once again, she’s left me finishing a book with tears streaming down my face, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. With this and my beloved Bat Eater, I truly think she has found her perfect niche. Her blend of horror with Japanese mythology and lore is nothing short of masterful.

Japanese Gothic is haunting, atmospheric, and deeply emotional. It follows Lee (2026) and Sen (1877), two characters separated by time, yet inexplicably connected. From the very beginning, there’s this lingering sense that something is wrong, but you can’t quite place what it is. That unease builds so beautifully throughout the story, and when everything finally comes together in those final chapters, it’s staggering. The clues were always there, you just don’t realise how perfectly they fit until it’s too late.

Both Lee and Sen have incredibly complex and painful family dynamics, and this is where the story hit me the hardest. Lee feels like a ghost in his own life, haunted by the disappearance of his mother and the fractured relationship with his father that followed. Sen’s story is equally heartbreaking, raised by a samurai father who trains her harshly to carry on his legacy, even at the cost of her own identity and her relationships with her mother and brothers. These relationships are written with such rawness and care that you can’t help but ache for both of them. Because of this, their connection to one another feels so profound. In each other, they find a sense of peace and understanding that they’ve never experienced before, as if they are finally seen. Two souls, separated by centuries, yet deeply familiar. It’s beautiful and tragic all at once.

Kylie’s prose is everything I’ve come to love - gothic, dark, and genuinely unsettling, yet layered with so much emotion. It pairs perfectly with the fast-paced nature of the plot as we unravel the mystery of how these two characters are connected. I also loved how the story is interwoven with myths and folklore, each one carrying deeper meaning and quietly hinting at the truth beneath the surface.

This book is haunting, intelligent, and emotionally devastating in the best way. Kylie Lee Baker has once again proven that she is a force within the horror genre, and I will read absolutely anything she writes next.

This book had me feeling quite literally all the emotions and I'm obsessed with it.

Japanese Gothic follows Lee and Sen who exist in different time lines that are hundreds of years apart, their worlds connected by a single door in an ancient samurai house. It's unsettling, it's haunting, and it's a book that truly makes you question and doubt everything the characters do and say. I'm usually someone that struggles with keeping up with multiple time lines, but I really enjoyed it in Japanese Gothic and I loved watching the story unfold from both characters perspectives.

Lee is living in the current day and has escaped to his father's home in Japan, fleeing after the murder of his roommate. He's haunted by memories of all the blood, but what he can't remember is why he did it and where he hid the body. He constantly relives the murder trying to figure out how it all went down. Lee is such a strange character and he's one that genuinely made me feel so unsettled being inside his head. He's always been a bit of an outcast and he's used to getting strange looks from those around him, so when he meets Sen he's mesmerised by her, as she's one of the few people that isn't immediately scared of him.

Sen is a young woman living in 1877, who has been trained by her father to be a samurai after a failed rebellion. It's all she knows and all she wants is to win her father's approval - no matter how impossible it may be. As part of her training her father has instilled it in her that to be a true samurai she cannot fear death. After meeting Lee, however, she starts to question her own existence and it flips her perspective on the world she lives in upside down.

One of my favourite things was the incorporation of the tale of Urashima Tarō. I've heard a couple of different versions of this story before and really enjoyed how it played into Japanese Gothic, I think it was really beautifully done!

I'm definitely going to be doing a second read through, and I highly recommend this if you're in the mood for something wonderfully uncomfortable and weird!

Thank you so much for the ARC!

This book had me pulling faces of disgust at some points and gasping at others. The story was deep, magical, disgusting, insightful and lyrical all at once. Japanese Gothic firmly cemented Kylie Lee Baker as an auto read author for me.

4.5⭐️ rounded up!

What a deliciously creepy, gory, beautiful novel this was! The non linear sequences, unravelling of Lee’s mind, and the surreal quality of the writing all lent themselves so well to the mystery and building unease. I loved it and I think Kylie Lee Baker is a genius.

The only reason it’s not 5 stars is that I wish the “reveal” had been weaved into the story rather than explained in a closing chapter. I’d rather a story be open ended or left for the reader to try to understand from clues than to be fed an explanation like that. I still loved it regardless!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the ARC!

Japanese Gothic is a brilliantly original concept with a lot of moving pieces but Baker keeps them all spinning with an elegance that seems almost effortless. The way Japanese mythology and folklore was woven into the narrative in subtle but distinctive ways was right up my alley and the slowly building dread and horror was perfectly done. This was so different to Bat Eater and yet filled with the same intelligent, literary horror - I can’t wait to see what Baker does next.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton & Kylie Lee Baker for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5 stars.
Genre(s): horror, historical fiction, paranormal.
Date read: 18/02/2026-21/02/2026 (5 days).

Overall impression: Kylie absolutely ATE with Japanese Gothic. Her writing quality improved so much since Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng and I enjoyed all of the layers of complexity and mystery. I was glued to the page from the start, having no clue what direction the plot was going to take. The characters were morally grey and gritty, and I really enjoyed seeing them transform as we learned more about their past. The ending was bittersweet but fit the story perfectly. Kylie is officially one of my auto-buy authors.

Tropes:
➵ Anti-heroes
➵ Murderer with amnesia
➵ Female samurai in training
➵ Missing person
➵ Time travel
➵ Ghosts, spirits & gods
➵ Tense family dynamics
➵ Mystery & plot twists
➵ Not everything is as it seems
➵ Mental illness rep

⤷ Plot
It took me a second to realise we were going to be reading two stories in parallel, that would eventually link through paranormal/supernatural events. Both stories were equally as engaging and I liked how contrasting they were. I wasn't sure what sort of ending we were going to have, given one of the stories was from the villain's POV. It ended up fitting the book really well and although it wasn't overly happy, it was satisfying.

⤷ Characters:
Lee and Sen are our two main characters in Japanese Gothic and you're not really supposed to like either of them. Lee is a murderer that can't remember why he committed the act. Sen is a samurai in training with a tragic family situation who refuses to have an identity outside of her fighting ability - even when the rest of the world is moving on and it puts her family at risk. I felt more sorry for Sen (and the women in her family) after we learned about the trauma she went through.

I loved how complex and complementary these two characters were. We slowly got to peel away at their layers and learn what made them the way they were. They went through some development towards the end of the book, which is always nice to see. I wanted them to have a HEA so badly, even though they were heavily flawed.

⤷ World-building:
I really liked that the lore wasn't explained straight away and the characters had to work out the mechanisms of time travel themselves. It added a mystery element that was really engaging. The two different time periods were depicted perfectly and it was easy to see the contrast between them - whether that be daily life, the culture and clothes/food.

⤷ Writing:
I liked Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie and didn't have any major issues with the writing style. But Japanese Gothic was on a whole other level of genius. It had a complex timeline that flowed seamlessly, combining scenes with characters from historical and modern day Japan. A few scenes were repeated from the start and end of the book which had a powerful impact and was a stylistic choice I haven't seen done much. The pace was spot on. I am SO excited to see what other brilliant work Kylie writes! She is now an auto-buy author for me.

I would definitely be checking behind my closet after this one! 🫡 (iykyk)

I genuinely wish I was able to break the scale for this one, because this book deserves six stars and then some. This was one of those rare reads that completely pulled me under its spell from the very first page and refused to let go.

The atmosphere is thick and haunting, the kind that lingers long after you close the book, and I found myself thinking about it at the most random moments during the day and waiting to get back to it. What a beautiful piece of literature. It made me feel things which I didn't know was possible to feel. I could cry and cry I did 🤌🏽🥺

At its core, the story follows Lee, who travels to Japan and becomes entangled in something far darker and more ancient than he ever expected. What begins as a personal journey slowly unravels into a chilling descent into folklore, grief, and the unsettling weight of the past. As Lee navigates unfamiliar spaces and shifting realities, he crosses paths with Sen, whose presence adds another layer of mystery and emotional depth to the story. Together, their paths feel both fated and fragile, like something that could shatter at any moment.

I won't give too much away so it doesn't spoil you because this book is a journey and everyone should experience it with their own thoughts and feelings. But trust me, you'd want to walk that path and get to the end.

What truly made this book stand out for me was how beautifully it balanced horror with emotion. It is not just about fear, it is about longing, memory, and the quiet ache of things left unsaid. The writing feels almost hypnotic, soft in some moments and then suddenly sharp enough to leave a mark. There is a sense of unease that builds slowly but never loses its grip, and when it hits, it hits hard.

The gothic elements woven into a Japanese backdrop felt fresh and immersive. It was eerie in a way that felt deeply rooted in culture and history, not just surface level horror. Every scene felt intentional, every detail placed with care, and it created this suffocating yet beautiful atmosphere that I could not get enough of.

The ending was perfect. It gave me that exact feeling of placing the final piece of Puzzle and being able to see the whole picture come together.

Tropes:

• Gothic horror
• Slow burn dread
• Folklore and myth woven into reality
• Unreliable sense of reality
• Emotionally driven horror
• Mysterious companion
• Descent into the unknown
• Haunting pasts

This is the kind of book that reminds me why I love reading in the first place. It is immersive, unsettling, and deeply emotional all at once. I did not just read this story, I experienced it. If I could rate it six stars, I absolutely would.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC*

5 ⭐️
Thank you Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the e-arc of this book!

I feel like this book came to me right when I needed it. After two months of reading slump, I’m slowly getting back and getting this in my mail helped so much.

Honestly, I’m speechless. This book, this story… It was everything I wanted and more. (And the ending? Speechless.)

At first I was kinda worried cuz I really wanted to love it, and the begging was a bit slow. But then, starting from like 20ish % I could not put this down. I’m actually surprised how much I loved this.

The writing was incredible. I loved this author’s last book, in fact it was one of my favorites last year, so I knew I’d enjoy the writing. But somehow this was even better.

I very much enjoyed following both timelines and loved both of the characters. They’re very unique and very well written, that you can tell you’re following two different people.

I can’t say anything about the plot, I would hate to spoil this for anyone, but it was a wild ride. The whole story was mind bending and emotional. For a moment I didn’t even know how it would end with so few pages left, but the ending was satisfying - heartbreaking but satisfying.

I’d definitely recommend this book.

I loved Bat Eater and couldn't wait to get my hands on Japanese Gothic.

The story is a blend of historical fiction , slow burn horror and Japanese myth and legend. We follow Lee in 2026 and Sen in 1877 but our third character that binds them together is the house, hidden behind sword ferns it becomes almost as alive as the people that live there.

Bakers writing is stunning and she has very quickly become an auto buy author for me .

Thankyou to Netgalley and the Publisher for the advanced copy

Bat Eater was not just my favourite book of 2025 but one of my favourite horror books ever. The bar was high, and Japanese Gothic reached it!! This was very different from Bat Eater but had the same sort of all consuming, atmospheric writing that I adored so much. Because this is a haunted house novel, there is an extra layer of feeling trapped and suffocated. Not to be a cliche, but it really was haunting. Especially with how slow burn it felt, it helped build up the tension, terror and dread. There are themes of abuse, generational trauma and colonisation (so please check the trigger warnings, they’ve been approved by the author on Storygraph so they’re nice and specific, love her for that, what an angel).

I don’t think I want to say too much because I think it might spoil the book for some people but I *really* want to talk about it because wow, it was so good. It might have put me in a reading slump because picking other books up is hard, I immediately wanted to reread it the second I was done with it. I give five stars out so rarely but to give them to the same author twice in a row?! Kylie Lee Baker is clearly the horror author for me 🫶🏻

So excited that she has another horror book coming out next year (?) and this isn’t the end of her horror journey!!

I went into this book with high expectations after bat eater and this did not disappoint!

This is everything I love about horror, which Kylie Lee Baker does so well, horror from the everyday. You don't need outrageous supernatural gore for the sake of it when you can write so vividly as Kylie Lee Baker, her descriptions of grief, sarvation, desperation and sadness are horrifically moving and believable. You see and feel every moment in this book.

I really came to love the character Sen, she was such a skilled warrior with a very level head but her desperation for her father's approval bled through every page and it broke my heart.

Lee was a bit more of an enigma to understand but he definitely had redeeming qualities. He was also seeking his father's approval in a way but I felt he knew it was a lost cause.

I loved the horror stories within the book and the folklaw it followed. I had heard the story of the ghost of Okikus before this book and it was a nice suprise to read about it again.

I know the ending won't be for everyone but I really enjoyed seeing how these two world joined together and felt the ending was just what it needed to be. The stories flowed and married so well.

Can't fault it and just so grateful I got to read it early. I will be buying it for my shelf!

Thank you to both Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker.

Bat Eater, Kylie Lee Baker's debut horror novel, was my first and top read of 2025 so it's safe to say my expectations for Japanese Gothic were high.
It's safe to say that after reading and reflecting on the book that my expectations for Japanese Gothic were definitely met.

One house hidden away from the world, two stories and people brought together across time.

In 2026 Lee knows he has killed somebody but the missing detail of where he hid the body is like a stain he can't get out – impossible to ignore. In a state of calculated panic, Lee flees to Japan to hide out in his father's centuries old home, haunted by the disappearance of his mother a decade ago, the knowledge that something is wrong with him and a female samurai and her blade.

In 1877 the age of samurai is long over and Sen spends her days patrolling her home. Watching, waiting for the day the imperial army will come to slaughter her family as they cling to their past. Her father returned from their final stand a changed man, and now it falls on Sen to protect her family..... Despite the apparition of a foreigner she sees in her window that is surely an omen of the darkness to come.

Japanese Gothic truly throws you in the deep end from the beginning in the best way possible. I was hooked from the start and absolutely loved watching both the story, and our two main characters unravel in the hideout hidden by the ferns. One of the things I absolutely loved about Bat Eater was Kylie Lee Baker's ability to masterfully create such stomach turning gory imagery and Japanese Gothic was no different.
Additionally, reading the authors note and learning about Kylie Lee Baker's Ainu ancestry and that historical connection between her family history and Sen's own was something that added an extra layer of storytelling to the book that elevated it for me.

Japanese Gothic is one I highly recommend if you want a heart wrenching story wrapped in mystery, murder, and more than meets the eye.

When Lee and Sen find one another through a door between their worlds, they're both looking for answers. But what they find in the creaking old house they share is beyond what either of them could imagine...

This book was excellent, in its own genre! I had loved Kylie Lee Baker's Bat Eater, I thought that was an excellent horror novel, and she has done it again.

This time we follow Lee Turner, who has just fled the US to stay at his father's house in Japan (his father is white, but is a professor in Eastern Asian Studies) after murdering his flatmate. His mother disappeared many years ago while on a family holiday in Cambodia and Lee has never adjusted to her loss. We also follow Sen, a young girl being trained as a samurai by her abusive and obsessive father some 250 years before Lee's timeline - strangely, and because they live in the same house, they find that a cupboard in their bedroom allows them to meet and to communicate.
It's a really tricky book to summarise beyond this, and I'll admit the end felt fairly confusing, but the puzzle pieces slowly come together. There is some gore, but more than that, there was unspeakable cruelty - Sen's father suffers from what we would nowadays see as PTSD, after coming back from a battle against the imperial army. There's hardship, famine, children suffering... It was really hard to read at times.

The last part of the book was a bit hard to follow at times (I think I understand what happened?), but it was really gripping and I loved the suspense. The characters felt like they had enough depth and I enjoyed following each one - sometimes, when you have several timelines, one ends up being more interesting than the other but they were both great.

It's a weird novel, but again... I loved it and I look forward to seeing what Kylie Lee Baker does next. The afterword at the end where she explains some of the context - both historical and personal - was also well done.

Definitely recommend.

Japanese Gothic is a surreal haunted house horror. I could not put this down. I went in completely blind and I’m sure if this made the whole experience even better. I didn’t even know that a female samurai was a main character, but wow did she jump off the page. The way the story interweaves is amazing. I had chills, it’s eerie and the impending doom is throughout with myths hanging in the background. The violence is unflinching and speckled throughout. This is more than a supernatural thriller with some blood, the book explores grief, violence, social systems and bends the mind. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-copy. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

Japanese Gothic is a chilling and atmospheric haunted house horror that’ll keep you on edge. The eerie vibe is perfectly crafted, drawing you into a tense, unsettling world. The writing is rich and immersive, making it easy to get lost in the dark, twisted story.

4.5 stars
My love for this crept up on me. To start with, I was mostly confused but enjoying myself. Then, at around 30%, I admitted defeat, strapped in for the ride and hoped that by the end we would be given more perspective to understand how everything fits together.
This is told in dual POVs, following Lee, a student in 2026, and Sen, a female samurai in 1877, whose stories are connected by a house in Japan surrounded by sword ferns. Both had strong voices, my heart breaking for Sen and forgetting that we're not meant to be rooting for Lee, but found myself doing so regardless.
Mental health was very well handled. There are gory scenes, depictions of emotional (and physical) abuse and an unsettling atmosphere but in my opinion, this is less horror and more magic realism with Japanese mythology at the core.
I appreciated the author's note at the end, which gives us the context for why Kylie chose to tell this story. I think she's doing something really special and look forward to future works.

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton, for allowing me to read the ARC for an honest review!

A lush, atmospheric blend of gothic horror and folklore, Japanese Gothic immerses you in beauty, decay, and unease. It balances elegance with eeriness, weaving cultural elements into a haunting narrative that feels both grounded and otherworldly. Slow, evocative, and quietly chilling.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this ARC!
Content Warnings: Parental abuse (emotional and physical), child abuse and harsh upbringing, family trauma and estrangement, addiction, description of gore in relation to animals and children dying.

This is my first book from Kylie, and it made me want to read the others as soon as possible. Mythology tales blend with horrific illusions, curiosity scratching at every corner of my brain to find out the truth behind everything that happens in the book.

We are introduced to Lee and Sen, both children of traumatic childhoods, but they keep denying the truth, trauma turning to warm memories. One struggles with addiction to feel like he's functioning as a normal being, and Sen is struggling to live in a world where she doesn't belong to anymore.

Time separates them, yet their house connects them in more ways than one. What begins as a ghost story in their meetings, turns into answers. Reality and illusion blend in so well, that even I, as the reader, wondered if I was drugged and hallucinating everything they narrate to me.

Kylie has a way of describing the world through Lee and Sen's eyes like I am a part of their senses, living through their life the same way they interact with it.

Due to the trigger warnings I put in the beginning I had to read through the book slowly after work as Kylie sometimes hit too close to home with some situations or wording. I had to put the book down and take a break from it until I felt mentally prepared to continue.

Still a 5 ⭐️ reading even in that situation, as I felt even more attached to the characters and wished I could go inside their world and help them.

Introduction: Japanese Gothic thrust you into a cryptic and unsettling world were you immediately start to question reality. The writing is bewitching, and I was fully entranced and couldn’t wait to see what would happen next.

Vibes/Impressions/Themes: Disquieting, complicated families, toxic fathers, female rage, historic, past versus present, chilling, fate or chance, hauntingly beautiful and tragic

Overall: Bat Eater was a favorite read of mine, so I was excited to start JG. Luckily, it exceeded all expectations. While a slow burn at first, Baker draws you in with her brilliant writing and storytelling. With themes of family trauma, grief, and the connections between past and present, this is a wholly different type of ghost story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Actual Rating: 4.5

'He sensed even then, that the house had been built at the edge of a cliff overlooking an abyss of darkness, that it teetered somewhere between a beautiful lie and raw truth. And Lee wanted to fall all the way down.'

Dripping with blood, steeped with despair and masterfully pieced together like the most gloriously complex puzzle 'Japanese Gothic' is certainly a read that will haunt me for the foreseeable future and a truly unique offering within the horror genre. If you're looking for a read that will make your mind spin - and doesn't shy away from the goriest of details - then 'Japanese Gothic' is absolutely the book for you.

Although there's a lot of features within 'Japanese Gothic' that I could praise there are two that I especially want to highlight. Firstly it has the most glorious prose, that I'm finding hard to describe. It's not the kind that I can call lyrical as the gristly details throughout seem to countermand that descriptor, yet it's poignant, powerful and I constantly found myself highlighting sections. It's the kind of writing that you can't help but fall - which only adds to the chilling impact throughout.

Secondly I want to praise how masterfully everything ties together by the end of this book. Throughout there are moments that feel weird (something that I usually struggle with but it never felt truly out of place here) and a constantly cloying sensation to the narrative. Lee's side of the storyline felt especially complicated and had some scenes within it that I couldn't quite make fit. Plus the connection between Lee's timeline and Sen's is tricky to grasp at times. It's the kind of mystical element that I simply had to roll with in the moment but it never really gave me pause, as some reads have in the past. The truth about this 'time door' is explained by the end in a manner that's left me honestly in awe. As are any other elements that may strike the reader as 'odd' throughout. Its the kind of revelation that makes you go back and look at everything in awe, unable to stop yourself from feeling dazzled by just how carefully the overall narrative was woven. It actually reminded me of 'The Last House On Needless Street' in this manner with the same 'voila' moment that takes your breath away.

Character wise you have two very different individuals who have more similarities than expected beneath the surface. Lee is complicated from the start. You meet him knowing he's killed someone which naturally makes him a hard character to warm to. His mindset is highly complex and he definitely has an odd way of looking at things at times. His perspective can be tricky to get a grip on occasionally, but as you gradually uncover more of his past this difficulty begins making sense. Sen is a female samurai in 1877 and her viewpoint fascinated me from the start.Like Lee's her perspective can be pretty brutal at times but her story left me enthralled regardless of that fact. It wasn't long before I found myself wanting to dive down a samurai based research rabbit hole. Both of these two central characters are shaped by trauma and highly complex individuals as a result. They're not individuals that you particularly root for - given their dark deeds - but it's masterfully done just how believably put together they both are.

There's a tale from Japanese mythology shared gradually throughout the book too. As a fan of stories within stories I was instantly thrilled by this discovery. If it feels out of place here, trust me, it's not. Like any other disparities this weaves into the greater narrative by the end. It may be hard to see at first but trust me, it's impeccably done.

This is the kind of read that I could go on praising but at the same time I want to avoid saying too much and the risk of giving anything away. I will however caution readers that it's a rather heavy read and contains a lot of potential triggers within its pages so please do proceed with caution. I think that heaviness left me leaning towards giving this four stars initially but once everything clicked into place I had to rethink that decision; it truly is the kind of masterful reveal that leaves you in awe of the author's talent.

Altogether I highly recommend checking out 'Japanese Gothic'. It's an unsettling, dark horror title that is drenched in blood and despair. Its characters are highly complex and have the most devastatingly traumatic roots. The writing is evocative and hard not to find yourself besotted by. It doesn't shy away from its gristly details and definitely gets quite heavy at times, particularly when you find yourself within Lee's head. The uncomfortable and disorientating experience of being in his head adds immensely to the horror of this book whilst the samurai history and snippets of mythology greatly intrigued me. What truly makes this one a masterpiece though is how spectacularly everything comes together at the end. Rarely have I had so strong a 'eureka' moment whilst reading before. So please do bare with any oddness whilst reading this one; everything comes together at the end more gloriously than you can probably imagine (I'd love to say what direction it leads within but that would be giving too much away). I'll definitely be making an effort to catch up on this author's backlist; although I will admit that I'm simultaneously increasingly excited and nervous to get to her 2025 horror release now. Excited for the beauty of her prose and power of her storytelling; nervous for just how gruesome its bloodier moments will be.

'As if it were that simple. As if you could just sign a piece of paper and erase the warriors who had carved Japan from the parched dirt, whose blood had soaked the soil that fed the grass. Their bones were tangled with the roots of the oldest trees, their bloody handprints on the stairs of every palace, and they did not answer to the whims of a child emperor. If the samurai could be toppled so easily, they would never have existed at all.'

Quotes are taken from an arc and may not be in the final book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Japanese Gothic is a book that slowly unravels you as you unravel it. Its prose pulls you in straight away, even if you are left confused as to what exactly is happening. What is real or not. The way it all came together left me reeling. I couldn't wait to turn the page to find out what happened next.

Kylie Lee Baker is a mater of her art - everything was set up perfectly, and untangling the story was an absolute joy. Her writing is so lyrical, beautiful and sad. I went in expecting a spooky story that will send shivers up my spine, and there is certainly plenty of horror imagery and gore, but what I found instead was a beautiful story of love, of choice and of fate.

Another great book from this author! Thrilling and i absolutely could not put it down. Love the plot the characters And the whole vibe!

I would first like to thank Hodder & Stoughton, as well as Kylie Lee Baker for providing an eARC of this book.

After reading Bat Eater and adoring it as a book, I had to get my hands on Japanese Gothic. The premise had so much going for it, and under the weight of those expectations the actual plot/story holds up really well. It explores so much more than I could claim to come up with off the back of that premise, and turns what could be a simple ghost story on its head.

Sen & Lee are really interesting characters, because they're not likeable in nature. They're flawed and fucked up, and have done bad things and not for good reasons. Allowing the exploration of this setup, and how these two people across time are able to share so much in common, and how much you're able to feel for them in their pain (and in turn feel in the other) made for a tasty reading experience.

The pacing overall is good, but it is slow to start. Because of the synopsis I struggled getting into it at first, but managed to find my footing eventually (around 25% mark) when things begin to get going. It is understandable however, as I understand now that a solid foundation needed building for these two characters individually.

Kylie Lee Baker's prose continue to be as delectable as her previous work. She really has a way of making you think, and squirm slightly at once. She really cuts deep and she's not afraid to hack down again and again to get through to what she wants to say.

Much like Bat Eater, Baker creates a world that feels veiled over by a misty dreamlike quality. You leave each chapter not quite sure if what you and the character came away from was real, and it personally caused me to continually mentally return to what I'd just read even while away from the book.

Overall, this book felt like a stain that I couldn't scrub out in the best way. Kylie Lee Baker will definitely be someone I remain on the lookout for when I need a great horror fix; I hope she's got more for us in the future.

“He wanted to hopelessly entangle her soul with his until they were one and the same, to follow her to the bottom of the sea, to rot beside her when death devoured them both”

I truly struggled to put this book down!

The complexity of the timelines interlinking and the Easter eggs spread throughout that only made sense by the last few pages were jaw dropping. This book is so cleverly written that I almost want to go back and read it again to see the “OHHH” moments as everything links together.

Sen and Lee are both emotionally complex characters, with both striking similarities and differences that truly had me routing for their happy ending, and I was devastated for them both at the end.

If you want a gory, slow burn, well thought out, complex read then this is the book for you!

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for a review.

4.5 ⭐

Kylie Lee Baker establishes herself as a must-read horror author that will blow away her readers with her intrinsic and haunting works.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Japanese Gothic – Kylie Lee Baker

I thought Bat-Eater was the most amazing story and here comes Japanese Gothic. To say I absolutely adored this story feels lacking, I finished it and instantly sat here in misery (that it was over), turning the story over in my mind. My first thought was honestly how amazingly well this book would translate into cinema. It’s definitely going to be one of my stand out books of this year, that’s for sure. Japanese Gothic is so rich with beautiful imagery that builds up that perfect picture in your head of the house behind the sword ferns, but don’t let that fool you, it’s also a dark tale filled with history that spans hundreds of years. It transcends worlds, giving us a ghost story of the most unimaginable heartbreak.

Sen is a young girl who grew up training to be a Samurai. When the Samurai class was abolished, her father was part of the uprising against the imperial army and instead of choosing death in battle with his fallen Samurai, He returned home. Outlawed, and on the run from the imperial army. Sen spends her life being her father’s sword. I honestly ached for Sen, her want for her father’s approval is something I think we could all deeply understand. Sen is never seen for her strength or her courage but these things stand out the most to me about Sen.

When we meet Lee Turner, his life is at a stand still – See when Lee was a child his mother disappeared on a family holiday. Lee has spent his life trying to figure out what happened to the point that I found his distress so upsetting. Her loss leaves a great wound that would never heal without the truth.

So, when Sen and Lee meet, they decide it’s time to figure out what is happening, as well and the why and how. Obviously, Sen is from hundreds of years in the past, how is it possible for them to connect?

Japanese Gothic Releases in the UK on April 30th and is available from bookstores near you for pre-order. A huge thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC read.

#JapaneseGothic #Netgalley

Woah! Japanese Gothic had huge shoes to fill after reading Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng last year (my favourite book of 2025, if you have not read it, what are you doing??) but what a lasting impression it has made on me. I was so excited to have received this ARC from NetGalley, I jumped to get started and what a treat.

Please go into this blind! The way this story is built allows for the disorientation of the reader to be slowly introduced to the point I was questioning whether I had genuinely missed something.
Baker created unease that followed throughout the book without too much dread which almost made the point in which dread appeared even harder hitting.

The twists and turns of this book were written in a way that was easy to understand and follow reading, while still being engaging and unsettling all the same. I usually struggle with books that do not have a clear plot to follow as I get lost in the description and find myself wishing for direction, this book is not like that at all. Although confusing, and at times mind blowing the story was clear with characters you wanted to know further, with stories that haunt them throughout the book and mysteries that need uncovering to allow for the truth to be revealed.

I am a self confessed brain empty reader, I am never looking for plot twists or guessing what is coming up. For this one, I found myself thinking about it all day wondering what the heck was going on.
I would have never guessed any of the last few chapters and I was open mouth gasping at some of the mind blowing discoveries.

I loved this book, what a wonderfully different strangely romantic fantasy horror!

5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is the very definition of a page turner, I couldn’t put it down, it’s creepy and gory but remains incredibly readable.

Some of the twists were predictable, like the circumstances of Lee’s mother’s disappearance but I could not have guessed the ending at all.

I enjoyed both POVs and particularly liked that Sen’s world felt as real and relatable as Lee’s modern one. Some of the violence is not for the faint of heart, like Sen giving her mother the punishment picked by her father but the gore is so well written that the reader can’t look away.

I was unsure if Kylie Lee Baker could write something as addictive and unusual as Bat Eater but it turns out she absolutely can, I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the opportunity to read this ARC.

JAPANESE GOTHIC is at once a time ghost story, a time travel tale, and a psychological unravelling -- the story of a young man with holes in his mind and a potentially violent past, a young woman at the end of the era of samurai, and a door that allows them to cross into each others' worlds.

In other hands, you might have a darkly intriuguing but quite predictable novel, where Kylie Lee Baker instead opts for something stranger, more unusual, and less easily defined that unsettles on every page and disorients at every turn. Reality feels warped and subjective, and our sense of empathy and understanding is tested more than once. To get more specific would be to spoil it, I think, but this unusual, unsettling and emotionally devastating novel deserves all the praise it's going to get -- absolutely superb!

Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for gifting me an ARC for a review.
This story was one of the books was looking forward to in 2026 and I was absolutely elated when I received the ARC.

When I tell you I would give this book 10 stars if I could, you better believe it.

Beautifully written, haunting, devastating and gory, all at the same time!

The story runs on two timelines and POVs, infused with a bit of Asian mythology - what's not to like?

We have Lee - an American boy,  struggling with mental health, addicted to medication to dull his pain, trying to shine a light on what happened to his mum, who disappeared during a family holiday many years ago...

Sen - a Japanese girl, daughter of the last samurai family in the 1800s; trained to be a warrior, trying to please her abusive father, ready to fight by his father's side when the time comes!

One old, creaky house, where Lee and Sen meet through a paper door, where they are able to enter each other's world, every time there is a low tide....

Together they try to find answers to what happened to Lee's mum and how Sen's life comes to an end....

We get a glimpse of both characters' everyday struggles, the challenges,  terror they face, human nature and how love conquers everything.

I absolutely loved the double POV and how both characters have faced their own demons.
I loved the gore; it's a bloody story, if your squeamish,  this might not be for you.

And the ending, I did not see it coming, it was devastating, but everything tied in really well..

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC!

A brilliant, trippy, mind-bending read. It's probably too early to say this, but Japanese Gothic is definitely going to make my list of top 10 books of this year.

I went into this knowing very little, just the basic premise of two characters from different times meeting in the same house. The vibes were absolutely impeccable, the mystery of the house, the creeping and ominous atmosphere, everything was just chef's kiss! The slow pacing turned out to be misleading; I was so immersed that, without realising or meaning to, I finished this book in a day!

It was fascinating exploring the psyches of these protagonists. Both of them are very intense and strange, which, given what they're going through, makes a lot of sense. I love the deep sense of kinship that Lee and Sen find in each other, in spite of their completely different backgrounds and time periods.

This book also turned out a lot darker than I had expected. There is a lot of discussion of human/sex/organ trafficking from Lee's PoV, and Sen's PoV chapters are rife with tension and dread. The last third was especially bloody and gruesome, which I hadn't expected as up till then most of the horror came from the fraught atmosphere.

I loved the strange twists and turns involved in the time-travelling plot, as simultaneously pieces fall into place and threads become tangled. It was so trippy and weird, I don't know if I fully processed it but I love it anyway.

I am definitely going to have to bump up the author's other horror novel, Bat Eater, on my TBR, and I'm seated for any more horror novels from her to come!

I have so much to say, yet I absolutely can not talk about this in anything more than the vaguest of terms because SPOILERS, spoilers and clues everywhere! It’s best to go in blind and let yourself get swept away.

Japanese Gothic is a perfect blend of horror and mystery, psychological and paranormal with unreliable narrators, creating a guessing game of what’s real, what’s a product of a traumatized mind, and where the supernatural elements come in. The atmosphere was impeccable, haunting and chilling, making me feel uneasy and intrigued, and the story is driven by the plot and the characters equally.
There’s an old country house in Kagoshima, Japan, sitting on a threshold of two different timelines - for Lee Turner, the year is 2026. For Iwasaki Sen, it’s currently 1877. They both occupy the same house, the same room with the same closet door opening to a cement wall - and sometimes, under the right conditions, they even visit.

Both Lee and Sen are morally grey, possibly unlikable characters, but... dear god I actually really liked them and found them very sympathetic. Lee especially - even in his downright disturbing moments, he managed to endear himself to me, and that just doesn’t happen often in this genre. Horror authors usually don’t bother much with characterization, but here, I actually felt the stakes of the mystery not only because I wanted to know but also because I cared.

I just love when the story runs circles around me and it genuinely feels clever. I could see some of the clues and feel their importance, I got the weird vibes at the right times, but the bigger picture was always out of reach. I adore this kind of reading experience! Especially when the paranoia sets in because at some point, EVERYONE seems weird and suspicious, and I know I can trust NO ONE 👀
Do I understand everything that went on? Absolutely not, and it’s kind of driving me crazy but in the best possible way?? I have a hunch this book will be even better on a reread.

I can’t believe this is my first book by Kylie Lee Baker. I seriously need to rectify that!

4.5 stars rounded up
This is a beautifully written piece of psychological horror filled with tension, twists and turns. It is dark with some gore towards the end and the imagery throughout is stunning. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more by Kylie Lee Baker!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC of this book, all opinions are my own

This was my first book by this author, but it won’t be the last because I loved every page of it.

“Japanese gothic” is not only a horror story, it’s an experience and an exploration of lives. While the characters in the book did terrible things, i was blown away by everything that happens from the beginning until the end of the book.
The book is a claustrophobic horror, with lots of sword ferns where everything is suspended in time and there are weird and creepy stains everywhere. There’s a moment where you don’t know what’s real, you don’t know who is who and you don’t know how you should feel about the characters.
It has great narratives, the whole book feels like a movie where everything frame goes faster and faster until you lose your grip on the reality.

There are two timelines, one in 2026 and one in 1877, both sad and terrifying. Lee, in 2026, just killed his roommate and he forgot where he hid the body. Sen, in 1877, trains everyday to be the best samurai and to earn her father’s approval.
Both are lonely souls and somehow, they found each other through timelines and walls.
Lee thinks he’s insane, he’s lonely and he struggles with his mental health. Sen is lonely as well and unloved.

The book is a fever dream. Is a perfect mix of horror, historical fiction, ghost story and myth. It’s very lyrical, I wanted to never end it. I had multiple moments in which I yelled and cried. It’s such a sad story, in my opinion, it broke my heart. You can feel the grief and the trauma, Lee’s story will break your heart.

It’s my first book by this author and it won’t be the last. I never want to say a lot of things about the plot, it would be a shame to not be discovered by you. It’s a powerful and beautifully crafted story. It’s haunting and unsettling and sad. The pov’s are unreliable, the characters are masterpieces and the moments are bewildering and the book is worth 5 stars.

”He wanted to hopelessly entangle her soul with his until they were one and the same, to follow her to the bottom of the sea, to rot beside her when death devoured them both.”

This was truly one of the best books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. This was an absolute 6 star book.

Told through dual narrative and a dual timeline, set in the same house across a century difference, this book tells the tale of Sen a Samurai in the 1800s desperately trying to impress her father and Lee, a man living with his father running from his terrible decisions.

The dual timeline and narrative work flawlessly and seamlessly together, I was so invested in both of these characters and the twist at the end absolutely blew me off my feet. I cannot stress how fantastic this book was.

The writing was stunning, the story was tragic, and the characters heartbreaking, I’m not sure I’ll ever read a book ever like this again.

Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker releases April 30th

Nothing to see here, just a creaking old house behind the sword ferns with an unexplained creepy blood stain, what could possibly go wrong.

As I sit here in stunned silence, trying to pen a review for Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker, all that comes to mind is that this story is a mind fuck in all the ways. And I usually can chit chat about books to the death (pun unintended?). And yet. I’ve been rendered speechless upon finishing.

Anyway, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be rendered speechless for this, because I think it’s best to go into Japanese Gothic relatively blind. I mean it. Don’t even read the blurb if you want to maximise your reveal enjoyment.

Just for a little aesthetic scene-set-up, this book goes beyond classic horror.

I would say it's a big old genre mash up of horror, sci-fi, cosmic horror, folklore, historical fiction/horror, family drama, a little splash of splatterpunk and lit fic. Yes.

And the vibes are sword ferns, creepy forest, infinite ocean, unreliable narrator, katanas, blood and a tinge of claustrophobia.

I could end there, however, my brain decided to come up with some suggestions for no context spoiler-free alternative title names:

1. “The house behind the sword ferns is not available to rent on Airbnb for a very good reason.”.

2. “How to NOT parent 101, no matter what century you’re living in”.

3. "To trust or not to trust turtles? A guide to Japanese folklore.”

4. “10 reasons why the patriarchy is cooked in every culture and every timeline.”

5. “Your anti-anxiety drugs can’t save you now.”

6. "Why a small dead girl haunting you is the least of your problems."

In a nutshell, I found Japanese Gothic a little slower to start than I did Bat Eater (one of my favourite books of 2025) but not to worry. Once the plot gets going, oh it gets going. The slow-build dread crescendos. And while it has a different pace and tone to the initial head-smashed-by-a-locomotive-splatter of Bat Eater, I ended up appreciating it just as much. Daresay this will fall into my top 3 horror reads of 2026, let’s see!

Highly recommend!

Thanks so much to Hodder & Stoughton & Netgalley for the ARC!

Honestly, at this point I think Kylie Lee Baker is an instant-buy for me when it comes to her horror books! I absolutely loved Bat Eater, and Japanese Gothic is soooo high up there of great horror reads of 2026. I wasn't sure that I would love this since "historical" fiction isn't exactly my thing, but the characters of Lee and Sen were so well fleshed out – and it's much more about the interconnectedness between these two characters and less about Sen's time period (to an extent, obviously you cannot ignore it. But it's centered around her and she's who is important!).

I struggled a bit at the beginning to get into it (I blame work and life) but about halfway through it, it was basically impossible to put Japanese Gothic down and I was reading it everywhere I want.. even if it was literally just two minutes while waiting to get off my morning train. The uncertainty of what was real or not, Lee's irrational behaviour, and the truth about his mum were such compelling parts of the book – like, I NEEDED to know what happened and what it all was about!? Adding Sen into the mix, with her own samurai living and her father feeling unknown to her, and just knowing that one day (soon?) she will die was just ,,,,, I love Sen and Lee :))

I also honestly, liked the ending as well. It was neatly tied together and it made SENSE and I can't relate to people who found it confusing. Did we even read the same book? It was good, frustrating, sad etc., it literally invoked all my emotions while reading it and I know I need to read it again in the near future!

Can't wait to see what other horrors Kylie Lee Baker comes up with in the future.

/// ARC courtesy of Hodder & Stoughton, NetGalley and the author. Thank you!

This was absolutely fantastic! I felt so many emotions, whilst reading this book, that I didn’t know where my head was by the end!

The characters are hard to love, in some ways, but I’ve come away loving them and heartbroken too!

The settings just perfect for me, rural and traditional and the time lines were done exceptionally well!

I wanted to jump through not the book and help, I was that engrossed in it! Absolute gem of a story. 5 star read ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

'Japanese Gothic' is a fabulous book, one of those works that not only has you turning the pages to see what happens next but lingers in your mind long after you have finished. It is full of atmosphere, historical authenticity, narrative surprises, inventiveness and ambiguity.

The story centres on two characters: Lee Turner from the present who believes he has murdered a fellow student at New York University and escapes to find sanctuary at his father’s house in Japan; and Iwasaki Sen, a female samurai who lived in the same house in 1877, a time when the old feudal society was being replaced by what was to become a modern, industrialised Japan. The two characters’ lives – past and present – collide as Lee searches for his lost mother, and Sen struggles with her identity and her relationship with her samurai father. The characters meet each other through a mysterious doorway in the house, the house itself becoming almost a character in its own right. It is an inventive, indeed masterful, reworking of the haunted house trope.

The writing is beautiful and creates a strong sense of the interior world of the characters. Indeed, our perspective is often limited and, as the novel progresses, the characters’ thoughts and viewpoints become increasingly unreliable. I have never experienced such a strong immersion in the values and philosophy of the samurai, and Baker provides well-integrated references to that troubled time in Japan, such that we understand the need for change but also feel its devastating impact on individual families.

And family is a central theme, including the emotional manipulation of parents and the grief of loss. Violence is also a central aspect of both characters’ lives and this is often graphically illustrated. Both characters also deal with past trauma and its impact. In the end, we are not sure what is real and what isn’t; but surely that’s the point of the novel? There is a thin line between reality as we experience it and the way our minds can distort and reshape it. The references to Japanese folklore are fascinating and add another dimension to a multi-layered novel.

This is not a straightforward Gothic or horror novel; far from it! It is intelligent, constantly surprising and deeply unsettling. It is not an easy read, but for those willing to make the effort, it is a striking and totally memorable experience.

4.5 stars

My note immediately after finishing this was just "I feel shell shocked".

This is gorgeously written. And it is very, very scary. It's gory as well, but the horror runs much deeper than that. There's a nightmarish weirdness to the whole thing that is played very well. In her author's note, the author thanks someone for supporting her "bizarre and bleak" ideas, and that feels like a very apt description of this book. It's dark, grim and upsetting in multiple ways - it's not just the supernatural horror, but the everyday horrors within families and the horror of not being able to trust your perception of reality.

The ending was so confusing and weird that it didn't feel satisfying to me, but this is still one of the best books I've read in a while. Some of the imagery is going to haunt me (the sea retreating??).

Book review: Japanes Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
5/5🌟

A boy who commited a murder with no body. A girl who might be the last of the samurai. An old house hidden behind ferns in rural Japan is where their lives collide.

I will keep this review purposefully vague. Why? Because the mystery in this book is what makes it amazing.

Lee has commited a murder and fled to Japan to his fathers house, but Lee is a very unreliable narrator. This means you doubt everything he says and observes. His story is a tragic one with a missing mother and cold father.

Sen is trained as a samurai at the beginning of the Meji era, which heralded the end of those same samurai. Her father is brutal and vicious. Lost in a world that doesn't want him anymore.

Baker writes an intricate tale with interweaving storyline. The tale is haunting on several levels. It has the parallel of extremly hard to please fathers, as well as the eerie house both stories play out in. Mix this with a close personal tragedy and it somehow all fits together perfectly. You feel for both characters in their own way, but both feel exceededly lost in the same way.

The portrail of Japan both in the contemporary and the historical storyline is great. The way Baker illustrates a pivotal time in Japan and makes us feel it on a personal level is exquisite. In essence this is the samurai book I had been craving for a while.

While I don't feel this book warrants the word Gothic in its title and is not horror perse, it is a genre bending masterpiece. If you love a mysterieus book with many twists and turns. If you like me crave a different view of Japan than most traditional books. Then this is the book for you.

#horrorbooks #japannovel #contemporaryfiction #newbookrelease

This is a tough one to review purely because I don't quite know if I have the words to convey what a rich reading experience this novel was.

At its core, as the title would suggest, this is a gothic novel and a wonderful one at that. A looming sense of darkness, dread, threat and just full-on haunting vibes permeated this story and drew me in from the start. In almost every detail, I got a sense of something wonky, something uncanny, and it made for a terrific atmosphere to the book - especially when coupled with the isolated setting of the house, another tick on the gothic checklist.

The relationship between Lee and Sen felt fitting to the subgenre too: uneasy, ghostly, yet one that develops into something real. They both seem to be haunting each other and you can't fully trust either of them. It was thoroughly compelling.

And yet, this is so much more than a gothic novel. It's literary fiction, it's magical realism, it's a tight family drama, it's a coming of age story, it's a gory slice of splatterpunk, and it's all wrapped up in wonderful folklore that the whole thing ends up feeling like a long-lost fairy tale. It's a hugely impressive piece of writing that feels unlike anything else I've read this year.

If you're looking for pure horror - blood, guts, big scares and violent setpieces - you probably won't find it here. But if, like me, you enjoy something that gets its claws into, pulls you in further through a combination of brilliant storytelling and beautiful writing, and that delivers clincial, almost tactical servings of horror and darkness over the course of its pages then this is very much the book for you.

And it's full of precision sword action spilling lots of crimson, which is just badass.

I really enjoyed Bat Eater from Kylie Lee Baker last year and felt it showed real potential from that author. The step up to what we get here in Japanese Gothic is nothing short of sensational. This is such an accomplished and confident offering and is commenting on so much: oppression, parenting, growth, trauma, and more. And, just as with her previous book, the author note at the end is hugely illuminating and genuinely adds an extra something to your reading experience.

Overall, terrific - I can't wait to see what this author does next!

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the review copy.

This book took me for a ride. There are horror elements, but I wouldn’t call it a horror book necessarily. There are some almost sci-fi/fantasy elements as well. Along with being a mystery.

I enjoyed the dual POVs. I think both characters were interesting in their own right.
This book kept me guessing the whole time and I really had no idea how it was all going to end.

I did a tandem read of the ebook and audiobook. The narrator does a fantastic job, but Natalie Naudilis always does.

I read Bat eater and enjoyed it, but I liked this even more. I definitely need to get to the author’s backlog now.

this book made my brain hurt (in the best way)

kylie lee baker really knows how to make a genre bending masterpiece that consumes you in a fever dream

If you love crazy and creepy reads which leave you thinking “what the fuck just happened?” then this is perfect for you

after reading bat eater and now japanese gothic, it’s clear that kylie is an auto buy author for me now

Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes


Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC!

I LOVEEED this book. Of all the books called Something Gothic, Japanese Gothic is by far my favorite. The characters and plot were twisty, the scenery lush, and the timelines just confusing enough to intrigue but not leave me feeling unable to follow.

Japanese Gothic lives up to Bat Eater - I can't wait to recommend this to other gothic readers!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Murder

Moderate: Trafficking

My money goes to: Goodreads Choice Awards finalist. What a spectacular, wild ride!
This is my second book by Kylie Lee Baker (the first being Bat Eater) and both were 5* so I might be onto a new auto-buy author :)

As for the book itself:
The story has a dual POV that follows Lee, a very troubled young man with substance abuse problems and an obsession with uncovering the truth about his past, and who's running from a crime he doesn't remember committing; and Sen, a young female samurai in the early Meiji era (immediately after the samurai revolt which resulted in their near annihilation) with the unwavering determination to honor her father and protect her family from the new Empire. Their two stories will inextricably entangle, leading to an intense, unexpected ending after much, much weirdness.
I think my favorite thing about Japanese Gothic is the profound empathy it made me feel towards both Lee and Sen. They're deeply, irrevocably wounded, trudging through life through sheer force of will, past pain and sorrow. This is masterful work from the author, who managed to make them so real and human that by the end I just wanted to hug them, to imagine a different life in which they could have been happier.
GO READ IT.

Read this book if you like:
- Unreliable narrators
- Ghost stories / mysteries that deal with contacting the dead
- Japanese historical fiction
- Eerie, surreal settings

And some TWs:
On-page child abuse (non-sexual), suicide ideation, drug abuse, addiction, child death, animal death (minor appearance, hares), untreated mental illness, domestic violence. Not a TW but maybe a hated trope: yellow fever (I see you, Lee's dad, you're gross)

8.5/10

There are books from which we expect much (with varying degrees of success), and ones that take us by surprise. Somehow, "Japanese Gothic" is both, and to some extent... neither. Sometimes, after the last page of a good novel, the words just flow onto the page, and writing an opinion is a piece of cake... not this time. Putting together the thoughts for this review was as difficult as getting to know the story itself. It was a read that was as mesmerizing as it was challenging.

Not because of the language or the content, but rather the mental chaos it creates, the flood of thoughts it provokes. Although I was captivated by the story, I couldn't read it in one sitting; I needed a breather every few chapters. It likely won't move everyone equally, as evidenced by the mixed reviews, but it resonated with me like no other horror book in a long time.

Although instead of an old castle or haunted manor, we have an unassuming house in the Japanese countryside here, as befits a Gothic novel, the atmosphere is dark, claustrophobic, and unsettling, but also, in its own way, nostalgic, lyrical, and at times even fairytale-like. Dreams mingle with reality, logic with nonsense, and the action jumps rather chaotically between a dual timeline, current events, and memories. Dynamic, shocking sequences alternate with slow, almost idyllic ones, and short, jerky sentences, with symbolism and poetic metaphors.

The narrative alternates themes and genres as fluidly as the times and characters. Horror blends with historical fiction and fantasy, folklore with a touch of science fiction, and adult content with young adult themes. The characters' perspectives intertwine, complement, yet contrast each other, emphasizing slightly different types of horror. On the one hand, we get almost psychedelic, graphic descriptions, literalism, and gore. On the other, the strict samurai code, brutal times, and ruthless upbringing. Both, however, convey an equally overwhelming sense of being hunted, misunderstood, and isolated.

Lee and Sen descend into their own forms of madness, facing nightmares of varying natures. But despite their many differences, an unexpected dialogue across time provides them with what their realities cannot: support, purpose, and a dose of solace. Their stories, so different and yet so similar, follow their own paths, intersecting and separating, striving for a common yet distinct conclusion. The ending ties the story together and closes all threads, leaving no room for interpretation, which, for me, is a minor drawback. I would have preferred some things to remain unsaid, retained within the realm of the uncanny that swathed me page after page. This doesn't change the fact that it was a fantastic journey, which I highly recommend.

This was haunting, tense and immersive. I never quite knew what to believe the entire way through! The snippets of reality - or are they - throughout make the characters well-rounded and incredibly tangible.

Loved the combination of the differing settings, the depiction of mental health struggles and exploration of grief and trauma. One that will stay with you and haunt you (pun intended) for a long time!

My mind has been well and truly bent by this utterly mesmerizing book and I'm still trying to fathom what was real and what was not but wow.

Told from the perspectives of two young adults separated by centuries, the plot ebbs, flows, twists and turns before delivering a gut-wrenching ending.

It is mystical, bloody, suspenseful, hopeful, horrifying and tragic and the plot moves between worlds with devasting effect.

The writing is absolutely beautiful and the themes of family expectations, loneliness and ones place in the world are all delivered exceptionally.

The horror elements are incredibly visceral without being gratuitous and the overall feel of the book is just so unique.

This is the first of Kylie Lee Baker's works I've read and I will be seeking out more.

An absolutely brilliant piece of horror and an enormous thank you to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the ARC.

JAPANESE GOTHIC - KYLIE LEE BAKER

Atmospheric and chilling, Japanese Gothic is one of the best horror novels I've read in a long while. Set in a haunted samurai house in rural Japan, the narrative straddles two timelines - Lee in 2026 and Sen in 1877 - until something forces these characters together, leading them on a terrifying journey towards the respective answers they've been seeking.

What I loved most about this book is its setting: the house with its many secrets, and the foggy forested surrounds, where a nearby sea seems to come and go. The atmosphere in this book is heavy and addictive, as are the fascinating interactions between Sen and Lee, who are drawn to each other thanks to the loneliness and trauma they've experienced.

This isn't a light read; instead, the story only escalates in violence and gore yet this entirely makes sense for the characters and their journeys. I also absolutely adored the way that Japanese folklore weaves its way throughout the narrative, adding a layer of the supernatural and the unexplained. It's a book of genius and I can't praise it enough.

Thank you to Kylie Lee Baker and Hodder & Stoughton for the chance to read this book!

Release date: 30 Apr
Review score: 5/5
TWs: v*olence, d*ath, g*re, injury detail, m*ntal health issues, add*ction

2026: Lee knows that ghosts are real. He knows when people are lying, and he knows he killed his roommate. One thing he doesn't know is what he did with the body. He flees from New York and goes into hiding in his father's new house in Japan. Maybe it's all the pills he's taking to forget the unsolved dissappearance of his mother, but Lee feels that there's something weird about the house. He is not sure what is real and what is not. Then, one night, there's a ghost of a female samurai in the yard.

1877: Sen knows that the man who came back from the rebellion is not really her father. She also knows that the imperial soldiers can come at any moment to hunt down her family, one of the last samurai families in Japan. Her need for her father's approval and traditional samurai training have made her a tough warrior. But there's one thing her training didn't prepare her for: a ghost of a foreign man appearing on her window.

I LOVED everything about Japanese Gothic! The overlapping dual timelime, the amazing creative plot, the samurai theme (!!) and all the mystery that kept me on the edge of my seat through the whole book. I was highly invested in both timelines and found both main characters interesting and unique with strong personalities that really resonate through the writing. I'm a big fan of complicated family relations in literature, and both Lee's and Sen's relationships had me feeling all the feelings. They're both desperately trying to find a connection while also coming to terms with rejection from a person who should love them the most. I also loved the relationship between Lee and Sen and how it developed through the story.

The writing was beautiful and imaginative. I really liked how the story was intertwined with Japanese mythology and history. The ending got me bawling and I got so emotionally attached to this book that I feel empty and lost after finishing it 🥲

I highly recommend Japanese Gothic, it immediately became a new favorite for me. It's especially great for fans of horror and historical fiction. Just be prepared to get your heart broken 😭

I'm actually reeling from the ending. This book was insane!!

This book follows two different timelines, Sen's in the time where the samurai legacy is dying, and Lee's in the modern world. The two of them are the most morally grey, furious, complicated unreliable narrators ever. They both have such anger in them and reading their actions in both timelines and their shared one was so interesting. None of their actions were right but the reasons behind it just couldn't have saved them either way and it made you empathise with them.

Getting to hear the sides of a disgraced samurai family and the way Sen's life intertwined with Lee's kept me turning the page. Every chapter had something I couldn't expect and the air of mystery around the two of them and why they could communicate with each other meshed so well with the truth behind both of their stories.

Sen had such a hard time with the realities of being a girl in her timeline and what she had to do to please her father and seem worthy. She was full of valid rage, but also someone who deserved to be seen too. Lee was also such a complicated and intriguing character and the whole unreliable narrator plot with him worked so well. You couldn't decide what was the right thing with both of them and it made everything even better to read. Their stories blended seamlessly and by the end, I was honestly so emotional and blown away from the sheer craziness of every mystery of the novel coming together.

Just like its title, it's such a good gothic mystery. Every part was shrouded in such darkness and morally ambiguous decision making. I would recommend this for someone who wants to read a good emotional and grungy story with characters who are not explicitly good. The way the author wrote out such blurred emotions from Lee and blazing fury from Sen, just made the book so well done. I loved the mystery and the connection between the two main characters.

The dual timeline plot was well done and genuinely has me wounded as I sit and ponder about the ending. Definitely not where I expected it to go but it was written out perfectly and my heart aches for both of them. The bond between them by the end just made the complicated feelings of their combined fate even better and balanced out so well with how morally grey the whole plot was. Definitely recommend this one!

I wasn't expecting this at all! It's so much more than a haunted house or a ghost story, this is a tale about how finding someone that sees you (and understands you) can set you free, no matter the era they are from.
This story is beautifully written, interwoven with Japanese mythology and mystery. Is the story what you think it is? Are the people who you think they are?
Eerie and messing with your head, Japanese Gothic will stay with me for a long time.

This was my first Kylie Lee Baker, I've wanted to read her fantasy series for a long time, i will very soon as well as her other horror novels.

I expected something great from Kylie Lee Baker, but Japanese Gothic still managed to exceed my expectations in every possible way.

I’m still reeling from this story. The way it weaves together the lives of Lee Turner in 2026 and Iwasaki Sen in 1877 through a mysterious door in a haunted house is so brilliant. The dual timeline, the connections, the complexity, everything just wowed me. I will need a long time to unpack everything it threw at me.

I love the kinds of books you want to start reading all over again the moment you reach the last page. It had a grip on me from page one and didn’t lose me for a single line. The horror is so subtle that at times I wasn’t even sure it was a horror story. The eerie atmosphere, the slow reveal of dark secrets, and the heartbreaking connections between the characters pulled me deeper into the unease with every chapter.

The way Baker plays with perception, memory, and the idea of being haunted, both literally and figuratively, is genius. The way the story touches on themes like guilt, trauma and absolution is heartbreaking.
And the ending - even more stuff to think about.

My thoughts are not coherent yet, but I know this is a 5/5 stars highlight for me.

Thank you to @NetGalley and @hodderbooks for the eARC!

#JapaneseGothic #Bookstagram #NetGalley

i am OBSESSED with the way kylie lee baker writes horror. it's bloody and visceral and unflinching, unafraid to dive headfirst into the darkest depths of our psyche, but there's still so much room for human emotion, for understanding, reflection, even empathy and kindness. that was the case with "bat eater", the first horror novel i've read (and loved) by her, and yes, it is the case here too, no matter how messed up things get. i will say that i found japanese gothic to be even bleaker and thematically heavier than bat eater (definitely check content warnings !!), but that didn't stop me from flying through the pages and being swallowed by the darkness they had in store for me.

this book follows dual timelines, a narrative choice i ADORE if it's done well, and it is indeed done very very well here. in fact, it is taken to a whole new level, because our two main characters, lee and sen, literally live centuries apart - lee in the present, sen in 1877 - and yet, they appear to each other through a closet door in their bedrooms, both thinking the other is a ghost (how cool is that idea ???). what is really going on here, however, is so much more complex and mindbending than a simple haunting (but then again, are hauntings ever simple?). kylie lee baker once again manages to effortlessly blend together what starts out as a classic haunted house story with themes of japanese folklore, history, and culture. there's strong commentary on mental health too, and on how our society confines and restricts those whose minds don't quite fit the mould that is considered "nornal", which i really really appreciated. i don't want to give away much else, because i really think it's best to go into this book as blindly as possible, so i will say this story also includes turtles, a suitcase, and a stain. and lots and lots of blood, of course.

huge thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review (still can't believe i actually got approved for this one, thank you thank you thank you !!!). all thoughts are my own.

So.

I loved Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng. I went in to this one with fairly high expectations. I immediately wanted to know what happened and got sucked into the narrative. I had issues with some things, like Lee constantly thinking everyone found him unbearable, and the general unlikable natures of both main characters. To be honest I even considered DNFing it about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through.

The ending, though, brought it all together. It answered my questions, filled in the blanks that were bothering me, and tied in with things that had been set up throughout the book beautifully.

I ended up really loving this book. If you need loveable, sympathetic main characters, it might be a struggle. But if you don't mind some warts - ok, some really big warts - and are content to sit back and let the narrative unfold, it's really very well done.

4.5 rounded up.

“Japanese Gothic doesn’t hold your hand. It buries you slowly, then asks you to stay. Kylie Lee Baker’s most ambitious novel yet — and her most unforgettable.”

Two centuries. One house. And the horror of what we inherit.

Kylie Lee Baker’s Japanese Gothic arrives as a masterful blend of historical horror and slow-burn family tragedy, weaving together a dual-timeline narrative that spans 1877 and 2025. For readers of gothic horror fiction and Japanese folklore-infused fantasy, this novel offers a challenging, atmospheric experience. It follows a female samurai in the Meiji era and a modern man hiding from his past, both tethered to a single, haunting house. The book explores generational trauma, cultural upheaval, and the visceral nature of violence, demanding patience as it builds toward a devastating, unforgettable conclusion.

Japanese Gothic Review: Kylie Lee Baker’s Haunting Dual-Timeline Horror
Japanese Gothic Review: Kylie Lee Baker's Haunting Dual-Timeline Horror
Kylie Lee Baker’s Japanese Gothic arrives as a masterful blend of historical horror and slow-burn family tragedy, weaving together a dual-timeline narrative that spans 1877 and 2026. For readers of gothic horror fiction and Japanese folklore-infused fantasy, this novel offers a challenging, atmospheric experience. It follows a female samurai in the Meiji era and a modern man hiding from his past, both tethered to a single, haunting house. The book explores generational trauma, cultural upheaval, and the visceral nature of violence, demanding patience as it builds toward a devastating, unforgettable conclusion.

Japanese Gothic Review: Kylie Lee Baker’s Haunting Dual-Timeline Horror

There’s a particular kind of dread that lives in old houses. Not the jump-scare kind, but the slower rot, the one that settles into floorboards and waits. You can feel it when the walls seem to breathe. When a doorway holds the memory of blood long after it’s been scrubbed clean.

That’s the house Kylie Lee Baker builds in Japanese Gothic. It’s a structure with two front doors, one opening to 1877 and the other to 2026. The same creaking stairs, the same gardens, but the world outside has aged a hundred and fifty years. Inside, time folds.

Lee arrives first, in the contemporary timeline. He’s fled New York after a violent act he can’t fully explain, landing at his estranged father’s home in Japan. He carries the weight of his mother’s disappearance, a decade-old wound that never healed. His father, distant and strange, offers little comfort. The house offers less.

Then there’s Sen. In 1877, she stalks the borders of her family’s estate, a female samurai in a world that’s outlawed her class. The Meiji Restoration has dismantled everything she was raised to be. Her father, a man who once commanded respect, now drinks and rages. He threatens to kill her. She believes he’s an imposter, a thing wearing her father’s face.

The two timelines collide when the house reveals a door between them. Lee sees Sen. Sen sees Lee. What follows isn’t a straightforward ghost story but something more slippery: a conversation across centuries, two broken people trying to make sense of the violence that defines them.

Baker’s prose here operates like a scalpel left out in the rain. It’s precise but rusted at the edges, carrying a weight of decay that suits the material. Reading it feels like watching someone sand a rough plank. You can hear the grit, feel the texture, but the wood underneath is solid, beautiful even. The sentences lean into discomfort. They don’t rush.

If you’ve read Baker’s earlier work, specifically The Keeper of Night duology, you’ll recognize the care she brings to Japanese folklore and historical detail. If you came in through Bat Eater, her previous horror novel, you might find this one slower, less immediate. The horror here is patient. It settles into the bones rather than exploding outward.

That’s where the divide in reader reaction seems to sit. Some want the relentless pace of Bat Eater’s intensity. Others appreciate how Japanese Gothic lets its dread breathe.

The house becomes the central character. Baker does this thing where architecture carries memory. The ferns that grow wild around the entrance, the bloodstain on a doorway that appears and vanishes, the sense that the structure itself is watching. It’s gothic horror in the truest sense. The setting isn’t a backdrop. It’s the engine.

Thematically, Baker is circling inherited trauma and the weight of shame. Sen’s story is one of family violence passed down through generations, her father’s cruelty rooted in his own humiliation after the samurai class falls. Lee’s trauma is more concealed, a mystery the book unwinds slowly. Both characters exist in the shadow of parents who failed them, and both have become something dangerous as a result.

There’s a question the book never directly asks but keeps pressing against: what do we owe the people who hurt us? Is blood thicker than the violence that runs through it?

Baker doesn’t offer easy answers. She doesn’t redeem anyone. Instead, she shows how damage replicates. How the abused child becomes the abuser, or the self-destroyer, or something worse. It’s grim work, and the book doesn’t flinch.

On the craft side, the structure is ambitious. Two timelines, two narrators, one shared space. Baker handles the transitions well, using the house as the anchor point. The chapters don’t alternate mechanically; they unfold with the logic of memory, skipping forward and back as the story demands. It works, mostly. There are moments where the timeline shifts feel abrupt, where a chapter ends mid-thought and the next begins in a different century with no breath in between. That might be intentional (a kind of narrative vertigo), but it occasionally pulls you out of the immersion.

The middle section sags a little. Baker inserts chapters of folklore and mythology, stories within the story that explain the house’s origins. They’re beautifully written, rich with Japanese myth, but they arrive late and sit heavy. You’re invested in Lee and Sen by that point, and the detour feels like a lecture when you’re hungry for resolution. I found myself skimming one, then circling back because I felt guilty. The writing deserved better attention than my impatience.

But when the book hits its final act, it hits hard. The revelations about Lee’s past (what happened to his mother, what he did, what was done to him) unfold with the slow horror of a bruise darkening. Sen’s story reaches its inevitable, brutal conclusion. And the house, that old house, finally reveals what it’s been holding.

There’s a gothic tradition, stretching back to The Castle of Otranto and Wuthering Heights, where the architecture reflects the family’s moral decay. Baker updates that tradition with a distinctly Japanese sensibility: the house as a repository of mononoke, restless spirits bound to place and bloodline. It’s not quite Mexican Gothic; Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novel shares the house-as-monster concept but moves at a thriller’s pace. Baker’s novel is closer to The Reformatory by Tananarive Due in its patient accumulation of historical weight and personal tragedy. Both books understand that horror works best when it’s grounded in real, systemic violence.

I kept thinking about the difference between the two timelines as I read. Sen’s world is overtly violent: swords, threats, the collapse of a social order. Lee’s world looks safer on the surface, but the violence is just as real, just more hidden. His father’s coldness. The secrets in the walls. The blood he can’t remember spilling. Baker suggests that modernity doesn’t erase horror; it just repackages it.

One thing that stands out about Baker’s growth as a writer is her willingness to risk alienation. Japanese Gothic is not a crowd-pleaser. It doesn’t hold your hand. The characters are not likeable in any conventional sense. Sen is brutal. Lee is unsettling. The book asks you to sit with them anyway, to understand rather than forgive. That’s a harder thing to pull off than making readers root for someone. It requires craft and trust.

Some readers will bounce off this. The pacing is deliberate, almost stubborn. The folklore interludes feel like asides. And if you’re here for the same level of visceral horror as Bat Eater, you’ll find something quieter, more interior. That’s not a flaw. It’s a choice. Baker could have written the same book again. She didn’t.

The book’s strength, ultimately, is its atmosphere. Baker builds a world that feels heavy with history, with unspoken things, with the weight of choices made and avoided. The prose has a stillness to it, even in violent moments. A sword swings, a door opens, a character realizes something they’ve always known, and the sentences don’t speed up. They hold steady. It’s unsettling in the best way.

I appreciated the ending for its strong resolutions, which feel well-earned after the careful buildup. The final pages move with a refreshing efficiency that contrasts nicely with the patient slow burn of the previous two hundred pages. This swift conclusion feels purposeful, highlighting that sometimes horror doesn’t need to linger once it has made its impact.

A slow-burn dual-timeline horror that earns every page of its dread. Kylie Lee Baker’s Japanese Gothic is part haunted-house nightmare, part generational trauma meditation, and entirely impossible to shake.

What do you do with a house that has already buried you? The answer, as Baker gives it, is you stay. You find the others buried there. And you wait.

One of my most anticipated reads of this year, after loving Bat Eater. This was a new direction but wow how expertly crafted.

I loved this story. How the history and horror interweaves to unravel the mystery is so clever, with the mythology and gore is just a match made in heaven.

What a read!

" A man, a murderer, a stain. "
Kylie lee Baker has one again left me blown away. She beautifully writes unsettling stories that leave you asking wtf towards the end.
I could not tear myself away from the story.

It follows two timelines one in 2026 with Lee, who is convinced he's murdered his room mate but doesn't remember where the body is. The other timeline is in 1877 following Sen, a Samurai's daughter desperate for her father's approval in a world where the Samurai are being eliminated. These two meet connected by the room where they are both living in different timelines hidden away by sword ferns.

The thing I loved about this book is woven with rich imagery and Japanese fokelore with Urashima Tarō being a key focus. The way Kylie manages to make me feel like I'm slowly sinking and reading something going wrong in slow motion amazes me.

Japanese Gothic is a chilling, mysterious and gory story that must be picked up for all horror fans.

'Japanese Gothic' was an amazing story. Baker has truly outdone her previous works with this one.

The story is a dual POV and it never felt like one POV ever overpowered the other. The way she tied the two POV's together was beautiful, and they were able to put so much heart into this haunting story I grew really attached to our main characters.

The descriptive writing is beautiful and the common motif of using nature and plants as descriptors help ground the world in something everyone can understand and appreciate. An amazing book that will have you appreciating things that haunt you.

This is by far the most intriguing book I have read in a long while, and I mean that in the most literal sense: it constantly aroused my curiosity. I had so many theories as to what was going on but although I hit on the correct answer, it was camouflaged in a wave of other equally likely possibilities. Much like Lee and Sen, I couldn't trust myself to parse truth from unreality. Never fully comprehending what was going on was a powerful driving force in JAPANESE GOTHIC in keeping me turning pages. I found it so difficult to put this down. But the not knowing never felt frustrating. The author had great handle on when and how to reveal more.

The plot is something of a slow boil, one where you don't realise how tight the tension is wound until you're finding it difficult to read and breathe at the same time. This book is astonishingly, outstandingly gothic in it's construction. If that is a horror subgenre you're a fan of, you can't miss this. The violence is a notch above what you might be prepared for from the usual Victorian ghost stories but never gratuitous, imo.

I'm not going to lie and say this is faultless. I think the author struggled a little with the alternating POVs when the events overlapped; there was a little more repetition than was necessary in some parts. HOWEVER, I enjoyed this so completely that my brain just glossed over those nitpicks as inconsequential. Perfect for fans of Michelle Paver, Susan Hill, and Laura Purcell.

4.75⭐. Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC.

When I reviewed Bat Eater back in December 2024, I mentioned looking forward to more adult horror from Kylie Lee Baker. Not only was I not disappointed, I'm actually amazed that she surpassed my expectations. While I love a good book that I harbour only positive feelings for from start to finish, I think the most impressive are the ones that have me seriously questioning if a satisfactory ending is something the author will succeed in pulling off, even as late into the game as 70% of the book. This is precisely my experience with JG. It's like KLB patted my head for doubting her and rewarded my patience with revelations that made me jaw drop.

JG is such a TRIPPY book. It's a tale with the searing tension and uneasiness that ripples if you ever so much as breathe in the mysterious house which links our two protags, American college student Lee & samurai daughter Sen. But it's also a layered mystery, because the further along the story we get, the more questions than answers pop up. From the start, it was "Why did Lee kill his roommate" and "What happened that led to his mother vanishing without a trace all those years ago". When Sen came into the picture, I was asking "What the fuck is up with her messed up dad", but the more pressing question became "How is Sen going to die". KLB has a talent of stoking my curiosity with her incredibly engaging and beautifully written prose, yet the answers always seem dangled out of my reach as I finish each chapter.

It's when I reached a point of the story where the question evolved to "What is real and what's not" that I found myself more confused than anything. Akin to what Lee & Sen are experiencing, it's like the house and its inhabitants were playing tricks on my mind. It's a horror trope I'm always floored by: not being able to trust your own mind thanks to weird ass dreams and questionable memories that MAY not be real, and being psychologically wrung out that you start being a danger not just to others but to yourself.

Even as I could find some semblance of enjoyment from my reading at this point, I won't lie that being confused can also bring about a frustrating time. Things are too bizarre, nothing really made SENSE any longer, and more than anything—even if my earlier questions were never answered—I just wanted to know how the hell were Lee & Sen were connected other than sheer coincidence of having lived in the same residence.

But KLB doesn't believe in coincidences. She believes in sprinkling innocuous bread crumbs throughout the story for her reader to pick up those details. Looking back now, it's the seemingly unimportant flashbacks and folklore stories which look out of place that were, in fact, not idle background extras but main actors bidding their time to come out during the grand finale and curtain call. Everything is woven together astoundingly well. I'm amazed to have my suspicions proven wrong because KLB held a masterclass of misdirecting me, and now I'm itching to go back for a re-read to spot those clues I missed. Truly a Trust the Process™ kind of book.

KLB also did great character work for her two protags: so flawed & complex, forced to doing vile acts while also allowing room to elicit sympathy from the reader. Generational trauma is a staple in gothic horror, and JG is no different. While I'd predicted Lee & Sen to be in constant communication with each other through the door mentioned in the synopsis, I didn't expect just how timebendy it was going to get, with both crossing over to the other's respective periods at some point. Because KLB wants to to stress me even more with the added "oh god what if they get stuck and affect the timeline??" pressure. Truly the least of my problems.

I might be reading too much into it, but it felt there was the tiiiiiniest of hint of doomed romance that would've never worked out anyway, perhaps in another life, which I thought wasn't necessary. Sometimes a boy and a girl can form a deep connection bonding over how fucked up they are... platonically.

Regardless, I found myself invested in Lee & Sen, given how much my heart broke for them both from start to the end. Oh god, especially the END. Even when the circumstances grew more and more dire, I desperately wanted some form of happy ending for them, no matter how impossible. That's how much KLB managed to get me to care that much.

In Japanese Gothic, Kylie Lee Baker masterfully weaves together the story of a Samurai girl from 1877, a college boy from 2026, the ghost and folk stories they hear, and the memories they hold into a haunting tale of loneliness, love, and grief wrapped in a supernatural mystery that is impossible to put down. 
In October 2026, Lee Turner flees his American college apartment to his father’s new home in Japan because he thinks (though his memory is muddled thanks to the mix of drugs that have kept him half asleep since his mother’s disappearance) he killed his roommate. 
While there, he discovers a doorway in his bedroom that acts as a bridge to 1877, where Iwasaki Sen is living with her family, being trained by her father to be a samurai. 
We follow their separate lives - lives where they are both lonely and both struggle to be seen by their fathers in different ways  - and the moments they have together, interspersed with segments of a beautiful folk tale about a sea turtle. 
Random Thoughts: 
* Kylie Lee Baker, I see you. The repetition of the line beginning with “as if red wine had splashed…” Literal chills. 
* Japanese Gothic is like The Lake House, but instead of a romance with two people living in the house 2 years apart exchanging letters, it’s an eerie gothic about people or ghosts or both 150 years apart so it’s not really like The Lake House, but isn’t it time for Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock did another movie together?
Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Hodder & Stoughton for the advance copy for my honest review.

Reading this book was like trying to squint through thick fog, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Nothing quite makes sense until the last chapter and I don't think anybody could guess quite how it all pieces together. (Not that it stopped me from trying!) True to its title, it was gothic from the get go - atmospheric, unsettling, starting as a little itch in the corner of your brain saying 'something isn't right here', which somehow made the gore and violence even more surprising, simply because it lulls you into the idea of everything being almost-but-not-quite-fine, and you get so caught up in trying to untangle those threads that the in-your-face violence blindsides you a little. I loved both of our flawed, DEEPLY messed up main characters, and I loved this whole story. Definitely definitely recommend.

Japanese Gothic, a dual-timeline horror novel, follows Lee Turner and Senator Lee. Having fled America to escape his past, Senator Lee has moved into a house behind the sword ferns his father built. The house feels strange, and soon Lee finds himself conversing with the Senator through his closet. She’s the daughter of the last samurai and is training in the art when she encounters Lee.

This gripping novel held me captive, refusing to let go. I adore books with ambiguous plots, unreliable narrators that challenge your perceptions, and a surreal supernatural atmosphere. Ultimately, it’s a beautiful tragedy exploring the need to control one’s destiny, the desire for genuine connection even at the cost of ruin.

What surprised me was how deeply I connected with the characters. Lee and the Senator are centuries apart, yet their souls mirror each other in profound tragedy: the heavy, complicated shadows of their fathers, the echoing hollow distance of their mothers, and an intimate, almost reverent fascination with Death. Witnessing their interactions challenge their core beliefs was truly powerful.

Every aspect of this story, characters, setting, pacing was perfect. I can't wait for my physical copy. Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder for my ARC.

I went into Japanese Gothic with high expectations after loving Bat-Eater, and it still completely delivered. I finished it and just sat there thinking about it, kind of sad it was over.

This isn’t typical horror, it’s quiet, eerie, and very psychological. It blurs reality so well that I was questioning everything the whole time, but in a way that just pulled me in more.

The writing is beautiful and really atmospheric, with such vivid imagery it felt almost cinematic. Underneath that though, it’s a heavy, emotional story with a lot of heartbreak.

I loved Sen and Lee, both of their stories really stuck with me, and the way everything connects is so compelling. The twists especially caught me off guard, I genuinely didn’t see them coming.

If you like gothic horror that’s more about mood and slow unease than scares, definitely go into this one blind. It stays with you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you can handle some darkness, gore, and a lot of weird, then you absolutely must read this book! It is fantastic and unique and the writing is spectacular. You don't need to know what it's about going in, just read it!
But if you need to know, here's the setup..... Lee has fled an act of violence in his American college top return to his father's house in Japan. One night he looks through his window and sees a young woman in samarui attire. This is Sen, a samarui in training and she is even more shocked than Lee when she sees a foreigner looking out from her bedroom window. Connected by this magical house through time, the two form an alliance and escape from the horror of their lives. But it's actually a lot more word than that. You won't know what is real and you'll never guys what's coming.

There is something about a beautifully haunted gothic story that lingers long after the final page and this book captures that feeling perfectly. I loved how it blurs the line between what is real and what is unreal, to the point where you stop trusting everything you read and just sink into the atmosphere.

This is not a straightforward horror. It is quiet, unsettling, and deeply psychological. The kind of story that creeps under your skin rather than jumping out at you. It feels like a dream you cannot fully wake from, where every moment carries a sense of unease and something just slightly off.
The writing itself is stunning. Eerie and almost hypnotic. It pulls you in gently and then refuses to let you go.

If you love gothic horror that is more about mood, emotion, and psychological tension than simple scares, this is one that will stay with you.