✨ I absolutely devoured this haunting tale of a family’s hidden secrets that just won’t stay buried. The truth unravels piece by piece in a slow burn that is absolutely worth the wait.

✨The author expertly blends family drama with chilling suspense in this literary thriller that is written with such depth and emotion that I couldn’t put it down and was flipping the pages late into the night.

✨I love a book with a sense of place, and this one was so atmospheric that the Gallagher place – the home and surrounding woods – is almost a character in itself. The setting is the Hudson River Valley with all its legends and folklore – think Ichabod Crane and Rip Van Winkle – and the result is a perfectly eerie and unsettling backdrop for our story to unfold. You won’t want to wander around in the woods alone after this one.

✨Fans of Liz Moore’s GOD OF THE WOODS will love this one. I highly recommend.

🌿Read if you like:
✨Gothic vibes
✨Literary thrillers
✨Cold case narratives
✨Family dynamics
✨Dual timelines
✨Hudson River Valley settings
✨Folklore and legends
✨Debut authors
✨THE GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore

My thanks to @zibbypublishing and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book before its publication date.

Well written and a great main character. The first 50% was a slow read, but the second half was engaging and dynamic. There are some animal trigger warnings that I wish I knew about, but overall great story about family dynamics and what you’ll do to protect the ones you love.

Thank you for the opportunity to review an early copy of the Gallagher place. It was a slow burn in the beginning (which personally I enjoy). I enjoyed the characters and the story. The cover of this book is beautiful and I must say that’s what first drew me in!

The Gallagher Place is a slow-burn, atmospheric novel that quietly creeps under your skin before you realize how deeply it’s unsettled you. Julie Doar’s debut is a chilling exploration of family secrets, memory, and the ways the past refuses to stay buried.

Marlowe, a thirty-something book illustrator living in New York City, spends much of her time retreating to her family’s sprawling Hudson Valley estate—a place where the rhythms of her strong-willed mother, Glory, still define her world. She’s content, in a way, to drift through life as a bystander, especially in the shadow of her childhood best friend’s long-ago disappearance, a mystery the family has quietly learned to live with.

But everything changes when Marlowe and her brothers stumble upon a body deep in the woods. The police investigation that follows doesn't just focus on the present — it pulls the family back into the unresolved past.

Doar masterfully crafts a gothic, eerie atmosphere where the beauty of the Hudson Valley landscape is thick with menace. The novel is richly layered, blending family drama with psychological suspense. The pacing is gripping, rewarding readers who appreciate mysteries that grow darker with each page turn.

Mysterious, gothic, and unsettling, The Gallagher Place is an impressive debut — one that lingers long after the final chapter.

#TheGallagherPlace #JulieDoar #ZibbyBooks #DebutNovel #GothicMystery #FamilySecrets #HudsonValleyGothic

I really enjoyed this book and all of the characters and their development. I did not expect the conclusion of this story.