I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review and was so excited bc I needed a spooky read for Halloween. This novel was perfect for the occasion, the diary format made for an interesting read and definitely brought the story to life for me. The main lead's voice was so compelling and I finished this in a day and a half. The ending got a bit wild so fair warning if you get lulled into a false sense of security earlier in the book.

Spoilers possibly?



The Grey Dog. The God of Outside.
How thrilling. I throughly enjoyed this book.
Slow at the beginning but for good reason. Seeing the consistency of Ada’s writing over and over again. Then suddenly seeing the shift. Oh how fun that was for me. Tell me why I was rooting for this Ada? How pitiful her life was under the God of Inside. I truly felt bad for Ada.
I appreciate the writing skills, rich with metaphors and vocabulary I haven’t heard before. I enjoyed looking up those words. Wonton woman?! That I had to search the web for.
Highly recommend this book, I would love to see it on film. I feel it would make a great scary movie.
Another thing I loved about this book, is the writers ability to keep you wanting more. I think that’s what kept me reading. I wanted to know what Ada did in Willoughby. Oh boy was that juicy! If you’re able to keep up through the slower chapters you won’t be disappointed.
I wanted to copy and paste an entire paragraph that I’m OBSESSED with but the sample won’t allow so I’ll type this smaller part out myself.
“I am not a thing you can shape, not anymore. I am no garden, but the woods, and if you ever come near me again, every bit of wildness in me will rise up to bite you. I will tear your throat out with my teeth.” I want to shout that from the highest mountain! Yasss Ada you tell him!
This book will inspire most and terrify many.
I loved it. Thank you Elliot Gish for writing this wonderful book. I will think of Ada for a while before I’m able to move on to another book.
Thank you ECW Press for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. I had a blast.

This book is a testament to the power of patience and the art of the unexpected. While the initial pages may feel like a gentle drift, they pave the way for a narrative that grips your soul with an iron grip in the latter half.

This book was so dark I loved it! I'm not usually one for novels with a historical setting, but the premise of this intrigued me enough to give it a go. The story follows a schoolteacher, who is nearly 30 and unable to find work elsewhere due to a scandal, arriving in a very small town to take up her new post. From there many unsettling things begin to happen but she manages to make a few friends and enjoy teaching her new class. However, things start to get creepier and she becomes more and more impacted by them, something that apparently happened to the previous holder of her post too...
This story is told through her personal account in a journal of sorts, so of course a highly unreliable narrator, you can feel her descent into paranoia and in the last 150 pages or so, ecstasy.
Honestly, this was so unnerving throughout, with a cast of really interesting characters with believable backstories of their own all coming together to create an atmosphere of isolation and mystery.

Incredibly slow book and the diary format didn't always work for me, even though it's something I usually love. For some reason, it took me forever to finish this book. I usually love historical fiction, but this one wasn't it

Finishing this book has left me feeling haunted, checking over my shoulder and feeling like someone's watching me. The way Gish was able to write such a compelling novel, and interlace horror into the story is admirable. I rarely, if ever, get scared reading books, but the unreliable narrator combined with the incredible writing, left me feeling truly haunted. The characters were so lively and well written and felt so real that I found myself torn between who to align myself with and who to believe. I thought the ending was superb, a brilliant way to end such an unsettling novel. The plot moved a little slow, but I think that was necessary, in order to fully experience the experience. I also love how questions are left unanswered, and the reader struggles to separate fact from fiction. Superb.

4 stars

I can’t remember the term for this format (diary, text, email, etc), but it is one of my favorite ways to read a book, if done well.
Gish did a very good job writing in this format. Kept me interested and turning the pages. I read it in one sitting.

The dread, creepy atmosphere, & characters will stay with me for a while.

I really hope to see more of similar style from this author.

“Wisdom. War.
We are beyond such things.
We are teeth and skin, spit and hair, bones and blood.”

I was absolutely torn on this review, on one hand, I stayed up till the wee hours devouring the story….

On the other, I really wasn’t a fan of the main character Ada. She ground my gears, she was stubborn, lacked communication skills, was so desperate for love she literally changed herself, and just became completely unrecognizable from who she was at the start of the story. However, knowing her family history and traumas, the repression of women at the time (1901 is when the tale transpires), I can also see how the transformation could’ve occurred after all the pressure and loneliness broke her.

The creature itself was a mystery; eerie and ominous, transcending the known order of things. However, I didn’t like that in its approach of Ada, it was so forceful. Even though Norah said she could choose, the actions of the creature and it’s fervour implied that she really had no choice; it drove Ada to ruin her life. She went from being horrified to enamoured which was puzzling to me.

I loved that readers receive this mysterious transcript of events through Ada’s journal. It made me feel even more scared as I read in the night, and I could picture the narrator hovering in the light of a lone candle, the darkness pressing in around her as she scribbled down the creepy and astounding events.

So I chose to give 4 Stars as the author did create a very unique, queer tale of creeping dread and it has haunted my mind since I finished it.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and ECW press.

I loved this novel. Slow burn, creepy folk lore..Reminded me a lot of the great author Andrew Michael Hurley. Perfect time of year to read this gem.

At first this book starts off a little slow and I found the diary format a bit boring. However, the last half of the book had me completely enthralled.

Gish definitely takes typical historical female fiction and turns it on its head with horror and LGBTQ+ characters. The descriptions at times made me physically cringe which I love in a horror story.

I am still thinking about the meaning behind all this. What is the Grey Dog? Is it a manifestation of female rage? Of nature seeking revenge for it's creators (aka women)? I absolutely loved it and loved the ending. I will be reviewing this on my Tik Tok for the end of month wrap up! (@reading.michaela.kay)