Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
"Graveyard of Lost Children"
by Katrina Monroe was a beautifully written story that was eerie, dark, disturbing & addictive.
I would definitely read another book by Ms. Monroe.

This book was interesting, disturbing, and weird.
I like all of the above. The style of writing wasn’t my thing though but the story was good

Thank you to the publisher and netgallery for letting me read this copy.

Motherhood is difficult no matter what. But having the kind of family background Olivia deals with surely doesn't make it easier. Gazing at her own child, she can't help but wonder what brought her own mother to do the things she did. And what if she is the same? What if her child is not, actually, her child? Graveyard of Lost Children is a fascinating and thrilling read which dives deep into thorny motherhood. Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm about to hit 30 and as such, motherhood has been on my mind in an interesting way. I'm far from having children, in the sense that I don't have a partner or a plan to stay where I am now for more than a few years. I also don't know if I want children. But as a woman, or for me as a woman, it is nonetheless something that's on my mind. How would I feel, as a mother? Would I still be me or would I become someone new, something different? What parts of me would I recognise in a child of my own? What family legacy would I pass on? What trauma? Would I be strong enough to raise a child, despite the anxiety that already runs through my everyday life? I don't think these are weird questions and I also don't think these questions have "correct" answers. I think parenthood is an insane, intense experience that is a major turning point in a life, no matter where you are in your life the moment it takes place. Since these thoughts are on my mind, however, I am finding myself more and more drawn to novels that explore motherhood, specifically the less-shiny, less-Instagramable aspects of it. The Harpy by Megan Hunter and Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder were two of those books. Graveyard of Lost Children is another, which allowed me to engage with these questions while also giving me a strong dose of thrills and suspense.

Olivia has just given birth to her daughter Flora and she and her wife, Kris, are delighted. But Olivia is also exhausted and on the edge of something. Is she doing this right? Is she failing at being a mother? Why are so many aspects of motherhood so painful to her? Olivia hardly had a great role-model, as her own mother, Shannon, almost killed her due to her belief Olivia had been swapped by a black-haired woman down a well. So Olivia struggles on, and on, until the struggles seem to overwhelm her and there only seems to be one person who might understand what has gone wrong with her. Or rather, what has gone wrong with her daughter. Graveyard of Lost Children switches between Olivia's story and that of her mother, Shannon. While Olivia's is told by a third-person narrator progresses chronologically in "real time", Shannon's narrative comes to us through her diary-entries, written in the first-person, which tells us both of her incarceration in a mental asylum and about her youth. As tension builds inside Olivia, so Shannon's narrative comes ever closer to revealing what made her almost kill Olivia. As their stories intertwine, the plot becomes a little busy, reveal following reveal , which ratchets up the suspense but abandons some of the steady and stark tension which had built up. I was incredibly intrigued by Olivia's journey, how her self-doubt and anxiety overtakes her sense of reality. There is a lot of humanity in her portrayal which threatened to get lost in the end. Something I very much appreciated, however, was how Monroe didn't shy away from the grim realities of motherhood, both in Olivia's 21st-century experience, and that of her mother years earlier. As an unwed teen mom in a big family, Shannon's experience of motherhood was rough from the get go and while Monroe doesn't excuse, she does explain.

Saying I enjoyed this novel almost feels wrong, due to its rough topic, but I can't deny I was gripped by it. Katrina Monroe's writing really riveted me, from the visceral descriptions of the physical changes Olivia goes through, to Monroe's affecting descriptions of Olivia's mental turmoil. The switch in narration also worked well and the way Monroe played with the growing tension that builds between the information coming from both Olivia and Shannon was also intriguing. The tone of Graveyard of Lost Children wavers between gritty thriller, supernatural suspense, and mental health novel. I enjoy all three of these genres but sometimes found myself wishing Monroe would land more heavily in one of them, solidifying the approach of her novel. I think, however, that in part the wavering, the lack of assurance, the inability to entirely figure out what is up, is the point of Graveyard. Becoming a parent so drastically affects your sense of self, it seems, that a new reality needs to be established in which your priorities are vastly different. The black-haired woman hovers over the narrative, at once utterly real and yet also a metaphor. As the novel works itself towards an end, it comes closer to having to choose between these two. Some elements of the ending didn't really work for me, but the final brief chapter utterly pulled me in again. The final chapter was the kind of ending I had hoped for and which fit the novel overall in its painful but important discussion of motherhood. I will definitely be reading more books by Katrina Monroe!

Graveyard of Lost Children is a searing novel about motherhood, family, and inherited trauma. It questions the kind of support mothers receive, about where the line lies between keeping a child safe and keeping them locked up, and whether we can ever be entirely good enough.

This book was creepy and dark and incredibly difficult to determine what was reality and what was potentially mental illness. Initially, it's easy to dismiss the events as those of possible post partum depression or some other mental stressor. However, the further I delved into the book, the more I believed that there might actually be something supernatural at play. By the end, I wasn't necessarily sure either way but it didn't matter because this book had kept me engaged the entire way through.

As a somewhat heartbreaking read about women who believe their children have been swapped out and replaced with changelings, this book really dove deep into how this would impact not just the mother but each and every person around her. It was well-written and clever.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

This book was a compelling read for the most part. It is a split narrative between Olivia (3rd person) and her mother’s (Shannon) journal (1st person). Both women encounter a mysterious woman with black hair who berates and abuses them and seeks to replace their children with monstrous changelings. Shannon is institutionalized after her encounter, which threatened Olivia’s life. Olivia faces postpartum depression, fear of hereditary mental illness, and survivor’s trauma on top of her supernatural encounters. Monroe uses the horror genre effectively to explore these fears.

Unfortunately, like many other works of horror fiction that combine mental illness and the supernatural, the balance feels off. At the beginning of the novel the supernatural vs. mental illness make both interpretations seem plausible, but by the end it seems clear it’s all mental illness. Since the novel contends all mothers deal with the specter, that ends up almost stigmatizing motherhood and mental illness. I also felt that the struggles of queer mothers was not discussed as much as was perhaps appropriate, given Olivia and her partner’s status.

Overall, I think it’s a good book, and I still think many will enjoy it despite my critiques above.

You know when you finish a book, and it dawns on you that you've just had the privilege of experiencing absolute genius? Or when a book makes you remember all over again why you love a specific genre? Monroe did all of that and more with this true gem of horror and literature.

This novel in particular was personally horrifying to me. I am terrified of the very concept of motherhood, and I never want to experience it myself, as just the thought of being pregnant or having to raise a child sends a shiver down my spine. So this book was essentially my biggest fears staring back at me through the pages. And usually I would think that this kind of story is so far removed from my existence that it wouldn't actually affect me that much. However, having a queer woman take on that bone chilling role of motherhood and seeing from the beginning how terrified she was of being a mother, made her extremely relatable to me and I found it impossible to remove myself from the narrative. I felt so deeply connected to her and it made the entire reading experience so incredibly potent.

Of course, as I do with every horror novel, I read this in the pitch darkness of my bedroom, with nothing but one creepy candle by my bedside and my chilling horror album to keep my company. And I have genuinely been haunted for the past couple of weeks. I see the monster from this story in the corner of my eye and in every dark shadowy space. My brain makes up jump scares that take me by surprise on random brightly lit weekday afternoons. For most I would assume that this would not be a positive thing, but I have had such a fun and exciting experience with this. And the only reason it took me so long to get through it is that it was quite emotionally draining, and I needed to take my time to understand the depth of every message Monroe communicates to the reader.

Monroe also makes a genius literary choice by having Olivia's chapters, the young mother, be written in third person POV and Shannon's, the older mother, in first person POV. It so completely skewed with your perception of who was losing their sanity, who could be trusted, who was lying, and who was seeing the truth. It was so effective and it was only when I was discussing the book with a friend that I even realized that there was a POV switch, and just how incredible of a move it was.

The whole book is an amazing allegory for the complexities of motherhood: the way others treat you, the way you start to treat yourself, the doubt, the fear, the unwavering and unconditional love you have for your child and how that very love is the most terrifying thing a human can experience. I really do not have a better word for this novel other than simply genius.

I cannot recommend it enough and I will be thinking about this book, probably forever. It's going straight to the top of my horror recommendation list and I will scream about it until I have run out of breath.

This was a creepy, yet fascinating novel that took all the mom-guilt, shame, anxiety, stress, sleep deprivation of becoming a mother and raising a child and created a manipulative and horrifying entity. It is dark reflection on the standards/pressures put on new mothers vs. new fathers. Those questions that most, if not all mothers ask themselves at least once, "Am I doing this wrong? Am I a bad mother?". The idea of knowing our children, deep in our bones. The festering of inadequacy, of sacrifice vs. selfishness. It made me open my eyes and read more but at the same time, close my eyes and hide from the outside world. Definitely a must read!

Thank you NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and Katrina Monroe for the advanced copy of Graveyard of Lost Children in exchange for my honest review.

The writing style in this book is definitely one I gravitated to as it kept me interested the entire time I was reading. I was hoping for a big "oh dang!" twist at the end but don't feel I ever really got one.

Also as someone who is currently pregnant this made me terrified of postpartum psychosis, rare as it may be. So proceed with caution fellow pregnant folks!

I will definitely not hesitate to read this author again in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy. I felt like this book started off good and but about the half way point I got bored with. Overall the book wAs just the middle of the road for me.

The Graveyard of Lost Children, by Katrina Monroe is a story about motherhood, it's joys, but in this novel, its hardships namely; postpartum depression. If you are a fan of horror and motherhood, then this will be the perfect book for you.

Monroe has laid out an interesting format for her book, alternating between stories; a dual narration. Shannon's story unfolds as we see her grow up in an unstable home, become a teen mother, and ultimately we witness her spiral into madness and postpartum depression, with the final transgression of attempting to kill her child at four months old. Alternately, the other narrative is said baby as a grown women. Olivia, married to Kris, having just given birth to their own child Flora. What ties these narratives together? A black haired women who they believe is and was trying to kill their babies.

This books is a quick, and entertaining read, albeit a bit disturbing, We bare witness to the demise of a mothers mental state, which can be hard to read. I often called into question whether she was sane, or in fact there was a woman out to get both mother and daughter. What I did find to be factual ( in my own opinion and experience) was the days after having a child. Monroe captures the true essence of motherhood and the effects of sleep deprivation, questioning your effectiveness at being a mother, the utter lack of experience, not having any idea if what you were doing was right. New motherhood is a confusing time. It is not what the fairytales of our youth have shown us. She captured this time brilliantly.

If your looking for a book that will give you the creeps, keep you guessing and looking out your window at every noise you hear, then this is a book you will want to pick up.

Thank you, NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I genuinely believed that Graveyard of Lost Children was simply a creepy horror novel but it turned out to be so much more than that. Symbolic of life after childbirth, it touches on the dark side of motherhood. Olivia just gave birth to her healthy baby girl, Flora but when her daughter slowly changes into someone Olivia does not recognize it becomes clear that Olivia has to delve into her scary past. As it turns out her mother was committed when she tried to kill Olivia when she was younger. Trying to save her child and herself while her life starts to fall apart, Olivia discovers the truth. There were a couple of unnecessary supporting characters but they didn't bother me much. I thought I was going to be able to figure this one out but until the big reveal it really didn't hit me.

TW: murder, post partum, dysfunctional family

Huh, I am sitting here having a hard time trying to articulate my thoughts about this wonderfully done horror book.

Spoilers ahead



In here we have Olivia, whose mother tried to kill her. She survived and mom went into a mental health facility. She is also an extremely unreliable narrator.

She grows up and gets married and has a child. She then starts having a mental break exactly like her mother before her and thinks her child is not her child and until near the end, thought her mother was going to help her get the real baby back.

Come to find out, that was not what mommy dearest wanted. Mommy dearest wants her real baby back as she does not believe this Olivia is her child.

I am going to be honest, I am not sure any of this was really paranormal. It could all be related to the mental health issues of this whole family. But that does not explain the other women involved.

Egads, I hate not having a for sure answer to what happened. Regardless, this was a wonderfully written story and I enjoyed it immensely. It could have been edited down a bit, but outside of that, it was good.

Graveyard of lost children was an amazing fast paced read with lost of twist. I was up all night reading this one i will definitely be recommending this one to anyone that will listen. I cant wait to see what els Katrina come out with in the feature!

I couldn’t get into this book. I debated DNFing it three times before I finally gave up. There was definitely some fluff that could’ve been cut out to get the plot moving. However, what really caused me to dislike this book was that I couldn’t tell whether the author was trying to raise awareness for PPD/PPA or mock it.

As someone that suffered from PPA and didn’t realize it and brushed it off as regular first mom jitters, this book didn’t sit well with me while reading. There are definitely better ways to bring awareness to postpartum mental health issues.

Thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for another amazing ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I’ll be honest, at first I struggled to get into this novel and maybe purely because I couldn’t relate to Olivia and her experience of being a new mum. However, Monroe’s incredible writing draws you into the story as you see Olivia begin to unravel post the birth of her new baby girl.

This novel was really interesting as it explored the idea of postpartum depression and turned it into a thriller.

Olivia following the birth of her daughter doesn’t feel the new mum “glow” and is overwhelmed as she tries to feed her ever hungry baby girl. Just as her mother did when Olivia was a baby, Olivia begins to hear the whisper and see the black haired woman. Olivia begins to question what is real and what isn’t as she begins to worry that her baby girl has been swapped for a changeling.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars, rounded up

The line between the normal anxieties of new motherhood and dangerous delusions blur in this sophomore horror-thriller by Katrina Monroe. Dark, tense and impossible to put down once I got started; I deliciously devoured this in less than 2 days, but was left with a slightly bitter aftertaste by the aftertaste.

Synopsis:
Being a new mother can be plenty scary on its own right, and yet Olivia and her wife Kris have more to worry about than your average couple. Olivia was the victim of an attempted murder by her own mother when she was only 4 months old. Suffering from what was assumed to be post-partum psychosis, her mother became convinced that the baby she was taking care of wasn’t her daughter Olivia, but instead a changeling, swapped out by a black-haired woman who has been lurking at the edge of her vision ever since she gave birth. The only way to get her real daughter back, is to do the unthinkable to the changeling.
Saved in the nick of time by her grandmother, Olivia grows up without contact with her institutionalized mother, never knowing her side of the story of what happened that day, but never feeling the need to find out. That changes, when soon after giving birth to a daughter of her own, Olivia finds herself stalked visions of a black-haired woman herself. Has she inherited her mothers mental illness, or is something more happening here?

What I loved:
“Motherhood-horror” is a trope that seemingly gets me every time, and Katrina Monroe delivered even more so than she did in her debut They Drown Our Daughters. Graveyard of Lost Children truly managed to unnerve and disturb me, not only with its eerie imagery, but more so with its terrifying roots in reality. This needs to be said (and I’m glad the author herself does so on page 1): strong trigger-warnings for postpartum-depression/psychosis and subsequent thoughts of harm to self- and baby. Being inside Olivia’s mind as she begins to question if she’s losing her grip on reality is terrifying. I wasn’t able to find out if Monroe is speaking from a point of close experience herself, but her depiction of these difficult topics feel respectful and genuine. Her character work is impeccable here: she manages to portray Olivia as a likable and simultaneously unreliable narrator; a combination that is difficult at the best of times. She also keeps her sympathetic and (sort of) relatable, despite the very dark inner demons she wrestles during the story. The same can be said for Kris: I loved her character and the way their relationship was portrayed.
Because I came to care for the characters, I was tense throughout the entire story almost up until the ending.

What I didn’t love:
By the 275-page mark or so, I begin to worry that the book would fail to wrap up all its threads before the end, and unfortunately that was indeed the case. The ending feels rushed and leaves a lot of questions and problems unresolved. I’m personally the kind of reader who loves when the answer isn’t spelled out, but able to be puzzled out or interpreted by the reader in a satisfactory way. That isn’t the case here: no matter which explanation (view spoiler) you believe leaves plot holes and unresolved issues.
I’m also a little conflicted on my thoughts on the representation mental-health, outside of Olivia’s character. I didn’t like the depiction of the mental health-institution Shannon is committed to, ór that of her fellow inpatients. Mental health facilities are not prisons, and depictions of hysterical women being strapped to gurneys do not belong in the 21st century. You could argue that it’s a reflection of the way Shannon experienced it, or that it’s due to the storyline being set 30 years ago. It still felt like a big contrast to Olivia’s excellent portrayal. Psychosis can lead to violence in its victims, but it’s luckily very rare, and we need to retire the “Shutter-island-trope” of mental health facilities being filled with violent criminals, locked up there for life. Because of the excellent portrayal of some of the other characters, it kind of balanced things out for me, but there were moments where the Shannon’s story definitely was toeing a line I didn’t like.
Overall, a wonderfully tense and gripping story that I thoroughly enjoyed about 80% off, and was ready to give a 4/5-star rating. The weak ending leaves it stuck at a 3.5, but still one I’d recommend if you’re in for a tense ride.

Readalikes: The Nesting and The Ghost Woods by C.J. Cooke.

Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I knew where this book was heading, but boy was the journey a hard and uneasy one. Let me put it this way: I don’t let other people drive when it comes to curvy mountain roads or bad conditions. I need to be in control of the car or else I feel completely wracked with nerves and jumpy the entire time, bracing myself to leap into action at any time and the words, “Pull over and let me drive before you crash the car,” on the tip of my tongue for the entire drive. That’s the kind of feeling I had the entire time I was reading Graveyard for Lost Children: I felt like I was watching a train wreck happening right in front of me and I just wished I could reach inside the pages and take control of the situation before it got to where I knew it was going.

Part of this comes from me strongly identifying with the book’s protagonist, Olivia. Like Olivia, I wasn’t quite ready to be a mom when I had my first child, but I was pressured into going through with the birth. Don’t get me wrong–I don’t regret it one bit. I love my older kid more than anything in the world and never experienced the type of mental issues Olivia did regarding childbirth. But when it came to my second child, who was planned (unlike the first), I was pressured into breastfeeding, had a ton of issues surrounding the matter, and felt everything from shame to rage toward everyone in my life, including my baby and myself. While it wasn’t postpartum depression or psychosis (I am bipolar and wasn’t properly diagnosed at the time, so that certainly could’ve played a part into my state of mine back then), I spent that first year of my second (and last) child’s life resenting every time I had to feed him, put lanolin ointment on myself, soaked through the pads I placed in my nursing bra, or times I had to stay home because he couldn’t go more than an hour or two without feeding.

What I appreciated about this book was how author Katrina Monroe used the themes of parental abandonment and the way mothers tend to feel a loss of self-identity when their children are born to bring the elements of gothic fiction to life in this novel, both with Olivia stuck at home with her daughter Flora and with Shannon as she writes her “memoirs” down in her journal while imprisoned at a psychiatric institution for her daughter once she gets her back. Both are stuck within walls, feeling trapped there by people who are supposed to love them while they wither away to nothing. I found it to be a brilliant way to approach a gothic theme and I related so much to it.

In general, the feelings of shame surrounding motherhood are pretty universal. Almost every new mom questions whether or not they’re going to be a good mom. They question it before they get pregnant. They question it during pregnancy, and they doubt themselves constantly in the early days. The bad news? It never goes away. Sure, it calms down some over the years, but my kids are 20 and 22 and I still wonder if I did right by them and if I’m a good mom. I have a feeling I’ll be wondering that same thing on my deathbed. Katrina Monroe takes these near-universal feelings of shame and doubt and crossbreeds them with the mythology of the changeling, a story present in many cultures wherein a human baby is stolen by supernatural or demonic entities and a substitute baby is placed into the parent’s care instead. Depending on the culture, the changeling serves a different purpose and most of the time that purpose isn’t benevolent. In this book, the changeling mythology serves to exacerbate both Olivia and Shannon’s shame and doubt surrounding whether or not they are good mothers, or deserve to be mothers at all.

I don’t know how people who aren’t parents or mothers will feel about this book or how it will resonate with them. I only know how it resonated with me. It was creepy. It made me uneasy. I had to put it down a few times and go hug my kids. I needed to go for a short drive to get some air. It brought up some long-repressed feelings regarding those early days of being a mom. It also made me feel sad for those mothers who don’t have a support system and feel too ashamed to ask for help.

I have to admit the first half of the book was a better read to me than the latter half, but I can admit that others may not read it the same way I did. It doesn’t matter in the long run because it’s a terrific book. Just maybe don’t read it in the middle of the night while rocking your kid to sleep.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: LGBTQ Fiction/Gothic/Occult Horror/Horror/Ghost Fiction/Body Horror/General Fiction

I felt it was a bit too slow, and I was expecting a scarier narrative based on the description. That said, as the pace picked up toward the middle I did start to enjoy it more. I would definitely try something else by this author.

Y’all. THIS BOOK!!!

As someone who does not want to have children, I appreciated this book sO MUCH. It’s basically all of my greatest fears about child bearing and rearing manifested. And I’ll imagine reading this book as a parent is an even wilder experience!

But this is just so, SO GOOD. What a well written, haunting tale. I read this a lot at night, in the dark on my kindle, and there were times when I’d have to read just a few more chapters before I could comfortably sleep without this book seeping into my dreams.

Ghost stories (or some ~version of them) always get me, y’all. And this is soooo creepy and well done! Can this also be a movie, like, immediately? It would be even scarier on screen and I am here for it!

So. Loved this. I’ll definitely be thinking about the black haired woman, uh, forever???

I also just loved the ~way this was written. I’m not usually a huge fan of dual timelines but it really worked for this story. I appreciated both Olivia and Shannon’s stories and liked them equally. So. This was just all around well done! Could not recommend this more highly! If you’re looking for a good little horror number, please pick this up!!

And thank you to NetGalley & Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks so much to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the e-arc I received in exchange for my honest opinion.

Graveyard of Lost Children is the first book I’ve read by Katrina Monroe. It is about new mom Olivia and her new baby Flora and Olivia’s belief that Flora is a changeling. Olivia herself survived being murdered as a baby by her own mother who felt the same way about her. Now Olivia is seeing a dark haired woman everywhere, is she real or inside her head and what does she want?

Reviewing this book is a bit difficult for me. Part of me wants to give it 2 stars for being a bit too long and not being scary but also 3 stars because I’m not a mother. I didn’t dislike it but did not love it because I think to find it the least bit scary you need to be a mom or at least a parent which I am not. I can only imagine how exhausting being a new mom must be with this little tiny being who is 100% dependent on you for everything. While I found this book lacking in supernatural scares I did find it an interesting depiction of what postpartum depression and psychosis must feel like.

I’m not sure I will read another book by the author.