The atmosphere, writing style, prose, and dialogue (both internal and external) create a novel that fits precisely in the time period in which it is supposed to. Everything about Spoiled Milk is immersive; from the subtly growing horror to the delicately hidden yet still showcased queerness, and especially the mundane threaded through the supernatural. I found the main cast of characters to be hyper realistic in both their relationships to one another as well as their respective responses to trauma(s). A story I would not only come back to reread, but am excited to visit once more.

A delectable romp; a gothic banquet of rot and radiance, set within a 1928 English boarding school where order curdles into menace. The story opens with Violet— beloved, envied, impossible to look away from— plunging to her death on her eighteenth birthday. In this absence, her fellow classmates (some rivals by instinct, companions by necessity) are drawn into an uncanny undertow. Something festers within the school’s walls: spoiled food, creeping fevers, ghostly murmurs, and secrets that cannot remain contained.

What distinguishes this debut is not only the knife sharp atmosphere, though dread shimmers in every shadow, it is Curran’s ability to braid horror with longing, to render spiritualism and decay as mirrors of adolescence itself. Through Emily’s narration— selfish, dedicated, brimming with contradiction— what’s captured is the raw disorder of desire in a world obsessed with obedience and appearance. The supernatural is never an intrusion from elsewhere; it seeps into the minerals of the soil the school stands upon, until hunger, grief, and queerness feel as spectral as any haunting.

Curran reclaims the well-worn trope of the boarding school novel and sets it on fire, transforming a cloistered institution into a crucible of repression, empire, and awakening. The effect is both chilling and tender: a book where beauty and grotesquerie sit at the same table, where terror is breaking bread with restlessness. Spoiled Milk endures not for the phantoms it conjures, but for its understanding that fear lives also in the ache of desire, the cruelty of authority, and the fragile dread of being young, alive, and filled with love to give (and consume).

★★★★ Creepy, queer, and totally captivating

This book was such a wild ride. Spoiled Milk drops you into a 1920s girls’ boarding school where things go from tragic to terrifying real fast. The death of Violet—Briarley’s golden girl—sets off a chain of supernatural events that had me flipping pages way past bedtime. Ghosts, séances, curdled milk, and a whole lot of repressed feelings? I was hooked.

Emily and Evelyn are such compelling leads—rivals forced to work together, both grieving and suspicious, and both way in over their heads. The atmosphere is eerie and claustrophobic, and the writing really nails that mix of teenage drama and creeping dread. I also loved how queer desire and spiritualism were woven into the story without ever feeling forced.

Why not five stars? A few parts felt a little repetitive, and I wanted just a bit more clarity around the supernatural rules. But honestly, that didn’t take away from how much I enjoyed it.

If you’re into dark academia, haunted schools, and queer horror with heart, this debut is absolutely worth reading

The same rinse and repeat happens for the first 130 pages. There is some stuff that happens once every two chapters, but this novel could’ve been either a novella or gone through another serious round of editing. The body horror doesn’t make an appearance until half-way through, and even that is lackluster and not enough to appeal to me. The characters all blend together and have no personality, other than the main character who is EXTREMELY unlikeable. The mystery wasn’t intriguing at all due to the plot moving at a snail’s pace and I found: I don’t care. This was a slog. Thanks to NetGalley for ARC access.

this was a beautifully written horror story following a series of suspicious deaths at a boarding school in the early 1900s. full of séances, a complicated haunting, and witty spirits, this book left me unsettled and looking over my shoulder and jumping at the little noises in my house.

there are quite a few characters, each well thought out, unique in her personality, bringing something essential to their little group. none of them truly felt like side characters, which i appreciated and am impressed by.

the enemies to lovers story is incredibly compelling, with bits and pieces you cling to while their world seems to be coming to a terrifying end. sapphics would love this one.

thank you NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This story had a lot of very fun elements including a haunted boarding school for girls, queer relationships, séances, and plenty of gore. Although these are all pieces that would seemingly make this book everything I could ever want, I felt that it sometimes came off as a bit repetitive and slow. However, I did enjoy myself and felt a lot of empathy and care for the cast of young characters. It was certainly worth reading and I'm looking forward to more works by this author in the future.

Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran drops us into a 1920s girls’ boarding school, Briarley, where one untimely death snowballs into something much deadlier. Violet—the Regina George of Briarley—dies in a tragic accident, and her besties Emily and Evelyn are convinced the French teacher did it. Soon, séances and mediums are on the extracurricular schedule, but what starts as an attempt to solve their friend’s murder spirals into something far more sinister. Turns out, the school might be infected with something supernatural, and these girls have to survive the winter… or not.

It’s got all the hallmarks of a haunted-house bottle episode, but with an undercurrent of repression, desire, and the very real horrors of being a teenage girl. Violet, Emily, Evelyn, Dot, Alice, and Marion each bring their own quirks and charms, making it that much more brutal when horror-movie tropes start picking them off. Expect gore, lingering creepiness, and flashes of absurd humor—because even when you’re running from supernatural death, teenage girls will still find time to bicker over dumb stuff. Dark, eerie, a little funny, and thoroughly entertaining—this is one glass of milk I’d gladly drink.

4.5 Stars! This is not your typical queer ghost story. Though there were elements I had seen before in novels with hauntings, the setting of this one made it very much unique. For a book about school children and ghosts the writing was very compelling with each of the characters so distinct.
I would say that I don't think the character introduction in the beginning was completely necessary as that takes away a bit from learning about them naturally and sets a precedent for the book. These kinds of things I believe are only necessary in a lengthy fantasy, and even then only in the second book in a series so that you might remember who is who.
Overall would highly recommend this book to others!

Mix a spoonful of historical fiction, a pinch of academia, one full cup of queerness and another full of horror and you'll bake the most wonderful and delicious debut I've read in the last months.

I haven't read a horror book like this, to me it was very unique. I found the story overall really interesting and creepy and the characters and their development are great. I enjoyed reading about girls being girls, figuring out their feelings, trying to unfold the mystery, and the various types of tension I felt throughout the book. I really enjoyed reading this, I feel like this book will for sure be considered a top horror of the year.


Everything changed once Violet died. Something wasn't right, it couldn't be an accident. Emily, Evelyn and the rest of Violet's friends set out to find out what happened and why and resort to utilizing supernatural means to investigate. But other strange things start happening: food is rotting, the adults are acting strange, will someone else die?

(I received this as a arc)

Thank you Netgalley and Doubleday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Avery Curran’s “Spoiled Milk” is a haunting, atmospheric gothic tale that explores supernatural horror, sapphic tension, and the suffocating constraints of a historical boarding school. Equal parts ghost story and psychological study, it explores how grief, jealousy, and repression can fester until they infect everyone.

Set at Briarley School for Girls, the story begins with the sudden and mysterious death of Violet, the school’s most beloved student. To Emily, our prickly, deeply flawed narrator, Violet was more than a friend; she was an obsession, almost a godlike figure. Her death leaves a vacuum in the school’s social order and in Emily’s sense of self. Convinced that something sinister is at play, Emily and her classmates turn to seances to contact Violet, a decision that pulls them into a dark spiral of spiritualism, suspicion, and death.

Curran captures the era’s fascination with the supernatural, weaving in seances, ghostly possessions, and a creeping “illness” that seems to rot both students and staff from the inside out. The metaphor is striking—the spiritual corruption spreads like a plague, and those who try to leave Briarley meet a fatal end. Even the teachers begin to feel changed, their morals warped, their kindness curdled. The cause of this haunting is left deliberately ambiguous, making the story feel all the more unsettling.

Emily is not an easy character to like. She’s selfish, small-minded, and often cruel, especially toward Evelyn, her eventual love interest. Their romance feels more like rivals-to-lovers (or even bully romance), sudden and messy, but also undeniably passionate. While this romance did feel a bit unnecessary and unhealthy, it reflects the tangled emotions and desperation of two girls trapped in a toxic, claustrophobic environment.

The supporting cast is sharply drawn, each girl distinct, and the strict, religious backdrop of the school adds both authenticity and a constant undercurrent of tension. Curran doesn’t shy away from depicting the homophobia of the period. Characters, including Emily herself, echo the prejudices of their time, though some attitudes shift by the end.

The mystery of Violet’s death intertwines with the supernatural thread, building momentum as more lives are lost and suspicion mounts. There’s no neat explanation for the events. There is no definitive origin for the spiritual illness, but the open-ended nature of the conclusion makes the final pages linger.

Overall, this is a chilling, slow-burn boarding school gothic steeped in death, desire, and decay. “Spoiled Milk” is perfect for those who love sapphic ghost stories, morally messy protagonists, and endings that refuse to hand you all the answers.

Violet's death offsets a chain of increasingly eerie events in Briarley School for Girls, and I found myself becoming more invested as the story progressed. We follow Emily and her classmates as they uncover the truth of what happened while falling deeper into spiritualism. I enjoyed the story's twists and turns, and seeing how the strict and religious boarding school environment affected the girls, while also serving as a true home for many of them. There's also a sapphic romance that arises amidst the chaos that I would've liked to see more from. I felt each girl's character was distinct and made for an interesting cohort. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC.

When Violet, the center of admiration and her fellow students (and teachers) affections at Briarley School for Girls, dies suddenly, her closest friends are convinced it was not an accident. Her friends suspect the French teacher, Mademoiselle, who was in love with Violet and was the last one to see her. The group of girls conduct seances to reach Violet, and try to figure out the truth, as many girls leave the campus following another mysterious death. As people keep dying, the stakes are raised, and emotions and tensions run high.

I recommend this to fans of sapphic stories, enemies to lovers, seances, lesbians at boarding school, or ghost stories.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this novel.