The Halls of the Dead
In a magic-touched London in December 1849, necromancer Irene Haley has achieved a near impossibility, a true resurrection—the first in two thousand years. She resurrects the woman she loves, Agnes, from the Halls of the Dead. However, something’s very wrong. Agnes hungers for raw flesh, and this hunger can’t be satiated. Irene blames herself as she’s already failed in the resurrection of her sister, losing both her reputation and a piece of her soul in the process. With help from her undead husband, the two sharing a platonic union, Irene casts her own soul to the Halls of the Dead to demand answers before Agnes’s hunger draws the attention of the man who sentenced Agnes to death and who also devoured the missing piece of Irene’s soul.
Agnes, Irene, and Irene’s husband, St. John, are all fiercely devoted to each other, and each are rendered with a complex history and a distinct voice. Victorian-era historical details are subtle as the setting’s largely confined to the Haley home. Instead, in this alternate London, the emphasis falls on the necromancers—their magic system and persecution through the ages, naming Jesus as the first necromancer. Time-wise, the action spans only a few days, though the timeline can blur amid frequent flashbacks which serve to fill in character details and illuminate past events. The Halls of the Dead themselves are eerie, a labyrinthian puzzle the characters must navigate, and the author’s language is lusciously descriptive. Notable trigger warnings include self-harm-induced magic, cannibalism of living victims, graphic sexual content, graphic insect activity, decomposition—all drenched with an extra layer of blood for good measure. Within a macabre revenge plot is a dark dance of damaged people fighting for love, acceptance, and healing which gothic horror/romance readers will savor.
