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Blog
Here you can find all of our past book reviews plus articles, Q&As and author inspiration pieces.


Writing While Haunted by Emily Doyle, author of Please Don't Touch the Body
In the title story of my collection a young woman named Sarah becomes an object of fascination for a ghost.
thedebutdigest
3 min read


Review of The Court of Venus by Bel Banta
Join the darkly, dangerous world of medieval courts with a magical twist this October as we follow Bianca navigate the unsettling truths that shroud her childhood friend’s death.
thedebutdigest
1 min read


Review of The Night Market by C. A. Byford
A wonderful and unique premise for a book: a human trapped within a vampire world until she can find a cure for her sister.
thedebutdigest
1 min read


Review of The Eye of Goliath by Diego Muzzio (translated by Rahul Bery)
Late one night, he receives a visitor who asks him to take on the bizarre case of a man driven mad in a desolate lighthouse in Argentina.
thedebutdigest
1 min read


How Tudor England Inspired my Fantasy Debut By Bel Banta, author of The Court of Venus
If you are like me, and all of these aspects of Tudor history excite you, then I hope you’ll pick up my debut fantasy novel, The Court of Venus, where rumors shape who lives and who dies, and magicians blessed by the planets themselves play kingmaker.
thedebutdigest
3 min read


Twinhood, Ghosts and Remote Italian Islands by Daisy Stephens, author of Island of the Lost
Who’s the clever one? The quiet one? The evil one?
thedebutdigest
3 min read


Writing and the power of not knowing what you’re doing, by Ben Shepherd, Author of Blood Drunk
Don’t worry, the action and jokes and vampires didn’t go away. It is, I hope, a page-turner, and still something I’d be delighted to pick up in a book shop. Fingers crossed you might be too.
thedebutdigest
3 min read


Q&A with Lauren Mooney, Author of Service
I grew up loving stories about these big houses, everything from The Secret Garden
to Brideshead Revisited, they occupy such a space in literature — and then you get
older and realise that, if you’re working-class, you wouldn’t be one of the main characters, you’d have been below stairs.
thedebutdigest
4 min read


Review of Service by Lauren Mooney
With a darkly funny spin on what feels like The Haunting of Hill House meets workplace mishaps, Danielle is loving the freedom of working occasionally from home and all of the space of this stately home...
thedebutdigest
1 min read


Review of Thornby Manor by Stephanie Bramwell-Lawes
Surrounded by fog and perched high above the town, Briar begins to sense that not all is as it seems.
thedebutdigest
1 min read


Q&A with Stephanie Bramwell Lawes - Author of Thornby Manor
It is a tale of madness, the destructiveness of grief, and the price you pay for the secrets you keep.
thedebutdigest
4 min read


Review of Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran
A gothic coming of age story on suppressed female desire in the early nineteen twenties and the controlling nature of old English boarding schools.
thedebutdigest
1 min read


Review of The Brides by Charlotte Cross
2026 is definitely the year of perfectly plotted and beautifully written retellings of Gothic fiction.
thedebutdigest
1 min read


Review of Weavingshaw by Heba Al-Wasity
Whether you’re already utterly in love with Gothic historical fiction or you haven’t yet found the book to pique your interest in the genre, Weavingshaw is the one to convert you.
thedebutdigest
1 min read


Review of The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez
Maddie has weaved a gothic atmosphere together with the roots of Jewish folklore, creating an utterly unputdownable debut!
thedebutdigest
1 min read


Review of The Homecoming by Zoe Apostolides
I enjoyed the gothic foreboding of this novel and the relationship between the two women of different generations.
thedebutdigest
1 min read


Review of The Lamb by Lucy Rose
With descriptions of boiling bones and meat pie recipes that will make your blood run cold, this is not a novel for the faint of heart but..
thedebutdigest
2 min read
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