Book: Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
Reviewed by Weird | weird.reads.books
Rating: 4.5/5
Traumatic. Visceral. Beautiful. Everything you’d want in a gothic horror novel.
In my first outing with Kylie Lee Baker, I was blown away by her ability to weave a complex, dual-timeline narrative without ever sacrificing the pacing. We follow two protagonists separated by over a century: Lee in 2026 and Sen in 1877. Both characters are haunted by metaphorical demons while suffocating under the weight of societal expectations. I found myself immediately tethered to both, constantly theorizing how their stories would eventually collide.
Baker’s true talent lies in the blurring of reality. She forces you to question every detail, masterfully using unreliable narrators to create a sense of mind-bending unease. Their lives are so deeply tragic that you’ll want to wrap them in a blanket and shield them from the very horrors they’re forced to endure.
I listened to the ALC of this book, and Natalie Naudus was the perfect choice for the narration. She captures the creeping dread of the prose with such precision that it’s impossible not to feel a chill.
While I found the major twists to be a bit predictable, the atmospheric writing and emotional depth more than made up for it. If gothic horror is even remotely in your wheelhouse, Japanese Gothic is a must-read.