A gothic fairytale with a dark mystery which will keep you frantically turning the pages.

Mina is lonely: her mother died, her father seems to cast her to one side and her step mother has little time for her.

The Witch needs a companion: she appears once every fifty years to take a companion. Nobody know what she does with them, all they know is the companion never returns.

Stumbling across the Witch and her father, Mina decides to volunteer herself as companion. Little does she know just how deep loneliness can run. Determined to solve the mysteries of the confusing, mind-meddling Schloss and the melancholy Witch, Mina learns not to give up - but at what cost?

I really enjoyed this book! The mystery of the Witch was haunting, the setting of the Schloss had the hairs raising on my arms as I devoured such gorgeous, creepy imagery and tried to unravel the mystery for myself.

“I felt every place where her skin touched mine like an iron brand”

A gorgeous, slowburn sapphic romance which absolutely enraptured me. I was egging them on whilst simultaneously afraid of the consequences.

Beautifully written; a modern fairytale.

Thank you to Andersen Press, Kat Dunn and NetGalley for my early review copy in exchange of a fair and honest review.

BITTERTHORN is a gorgeously written gothic about loneliness.

The core of the story is a girl who has known loneliness her whole life find connection. It's a touching story of intimacy and breaking down the barriers that form when you are so used to everyone being far away. It highlights the difference between solitude (choosing to be alone and finding that refreshing) and the draining, isolating nature of being alone. It's a powerful story of hope as Mina finds connection with the Witch.

There is a fairy tale feel to the book. Not only is it set in the German mountains, a place many of the commonly know fairy tale versions have their roots, but there are elements of fairy tales woven into it: a castle with a mysterious tower the heroine must not enter, the Witch and her bargains, and a few more spoilery ones! (I really liked the most obviously fairy tale element and how that played out - it makes that fairy tale premise very grim!)

That not-quite-in-out-world sits perfectly with the gothic nature of the book. From the dramatic scenery and the schloss (castle) where rooms don't obey usual rules, the setting helps build that sense of foreboding and other worldliness. It's all described so beautifully as the book covers the course of a year, seasons rolling along in this imposing castle high up a mountain.

Tension builds across the book through the Witch's secrets. You know, because of the gothic nature of it all, that they must be bad. Something happens to the companions but you don't know what, and the unease around what it might be (and what that will mean for Mina) is the hook pulling you through the gentle, creeping pace that lets the tension rise so perfectly.

This is everything I wanted it to be and more. I fell so in love with this one, it's unreal. If you love a fairytale retelling, then this is for you. This book stands out for me so much, and I am struggling to even explain myself. Mina was such a good character to follow and I just can't express my love. Read this book!

My favourite read of 2023 so far! A fantastic gothic fantasy novel filled with intrigue, magic, emotion, and romance! Everything about this book was perfection, the writing, the characters, the suspense/mystery, the romance, the plot twists. If there's something Kat Dunn does well, it's writing a great sapphic historical novel.

A young girl from a wealthy family takes the decision to offer herself up as a sacrifice to a local witch

Mina's home town is plagued by an ancient curse, where every few years a witch chooses a man to take back to her castle and he vanishes forever. Mina is lonely and isolated and so when the witch appears, impulsively offers herself as the sacrifice and so is taken by the witch to the castle. She is left to her own devices to wander the confusing and seemingly magical corridors and rooms of the castle where it seems time and space does not follow convention, and is overcome with curiosity to try and uncover the secrets of the curious and strangely magnetic Witch and learn the fate of those who came before her and seemingly vanished without a trace.

It's a very strange and well written tale - the environment of the castle and Mina's changing and conflicting emotions are all very well described and realised. There's maybe a few elements that don't quite gel as Mina does escape from the castle a couple of times, but is drawn back as she has now fallen in love with the sulllen, unresponsive Witch and they develop a sexual relationship - some of the 'magic logic' seems to be that Mina is not affected by some aspects that have trapped the Witch's previous victims - but in one way this is the whole point - she is different being female and had volunteered herself, and seems determined to find out the mystery and so manages to become a formidable equal to the previously terrifying Witch. It's maybe a tad overwrought at times but overall it's a dark, compelling gothic fairy tale with an unusual lead character & some really evocative writing.

Kat Dunn has established herself as an author I need on my shelves. Bitterthorn is a gem of a book, surprisingly touching and quietly enchanting.

Dunn has crafted an absolute beauty of a book. It spins its own original, odd and ominous fairytale, pulled straight from the deepest desires of your heart and the darkest moments of the night. The character work, yearning and dynamics were all stunning. I do not know why, but I was not expecting this to be as romantic as it was. It is all in the whispers, the glances and the sparsely exchanged words. There is just something so compelling about this slow-burning dynamic. It is an earnest and all-consuming love that defines this book, using its power to recognise the truths we have buried within ourselves. It reveals secrets we have forgotten we hold. Dunn’s writing is just spell-binding, allowing me to totally lose myself in the story. She creates an intense, emotional atmosphere that has real mystery, stakes and tension. All the way through, I was desperate to learn this dark secret and yet, I was still startled at the final reveal.

At its core, this is a book about loneliness and two lost souls coming together. There is so much grief and gloom surrounding these characters and Dunn lets you sit in their isolation and misery. These can make monsters of us all. Mina and the Witch are both such complex and intriguing characters. The setting of the castle was also a standout for me, with its seemingly never-ending corridors and confusing elements that seem to follow no rules. It is a place entirely out of joint and I love the menacing intrusions that start to interfere. Dunn messes with your head through her use of Gothic tropes.

Bitterthorn is a gorgeously Gothic sapphic fairytale that completely had me under its spell.

super fun & gothic. absolutely loved the vibes & devoured this one!! can’t wait to read more from Dunn.

In what I can only describe as reminiscent to a fairytale mashup, this book gave vibes of Beauty And The Beast, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty but with so much depth and originality to it that it completely captured my attention. Following Mina through the hardships of her early life, taking her life into her own hands and then discovering generations worth of secrets was an incredible experience. This was simply due to the way Kat Dunn managed to open up Mina’s world and invite us in! 🔥

The angst, pain, isolation, trauma and tragedy ravelled through this book made it impossible not to fall in love with and root for both Mina and the Witch. I simply could not wait to learn more about them both and their world, which made for a quick and gripping read filled with magic, trials and sapphic love. 🥹

I just know this is going to be massive and completely deserves to be. I will 100% be keeping up with @katalicedunn’s work in the future. 💫

Bitterthorn is a timeless, Gothic fairytale, perfect for fans of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, and Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s The Deathless Girls. The prose is gorgeous, the setting rich, and the characters – especially Mina, the Witch – are compelling.

Dunn handles darker themes in the narrative – depression, self-harm, grief, and the pain of extreme loneliness – but it is ultimately a hopeful narrative. (I'm not sure exactly how to explain something that seems so contradictory without spoilers, so you'll just have to trust me!)

The plot centres (largely) on the reveal of what happened to the previous companions. Without spoiling anything, this moment of catharsis (and the build-up) was well-written and dramatically satisfying. The anticipation created by the mystery mirrors the budding romance, creating a narrative that is impossible to put down. However, I think the main strength of Dunn's novel is the language, which is often poetic and heartbreaking. It would fit perfectly alongside other novels in the gothic genre, but remains accessible.

The town of Blumwald is cursed. Every 50 years they are visited by the Witch, who takes a young man back to her castle as her companion who’s never seen again. Mina, the daughter of the Duke of Blumwald, is grieving, lonely, and out of place in a family that seems to have no space for her. So, when the Witch arrives to take her new companion, Mina volunteers herself.

This book can be best described as a dark gothic fairytale. There are recognisable elements of Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty in here that have all been blended together to make a story that isn’t quite a retelling of any one story but is right at home alongside them.

The overarching themes of this book are grief and loneliness. Mina is a deeply lonely person, even at the book’s start. Her parents never had much time for her when she was a child, and since her father remarried after her mother’s death she’s been practically pushed out of her family even more by her stepmother and stepsister. As the book went on I found myself disliking all three of Mina’s parents more and more, and Mina’s actions and thought processes are entirely unsurprising when considering the environment in which she grew up. She knows, logically, that the way she's being treated isn’t right, but she can’t help but love them anyway and hold out hope that one day their attitudes towards her will improve. Her arc is one that will surely resonate with those who grew up with similarly emotionally neglectful parents.

A lot of this book was written during the 2020 lockdowns, while Dunn was living alone, and that sense of loneliness and isolation really does come through here. This isn’t about the pandemic itself at all, there isn’t a virus involved, but I think that the way Dunn took the loneliness caused by the pandemic, as well as the way that time began to feel strange during this period, and seamlessly planted these concepts into a new context worked really well!

The Witch was an interesting character. She’s a mysterious figure, who refuses to answer most of Mina’s questions for a very long time and does all she can to keep Mina at a distance, often turning to cruelty in order to do so. As we learned more about her I came to understand her and the tragedy of her story more, and I really did feel for her, but I was still struggling to actually like her and her relationship with Mina. The main barrier to this, for me, being her cruelty.

For all this book examines how if your parents don’t care very much about you or your wellbeing then you have no obligation to stick with them, it doesn’t seem to consider how if your partner is treating you badly then you also have no obligation to stick with them. Mina is constantly nice to the Witch, nicer than I’m sure most would be if they were in her situation, and yet is also constantly put in a position where she feels she has to apologise to the Witch when she’s either done nothing wrong or what she’s done wrong pales in comparison to what the Witch is putting her through. There’s only one point in which I think Mina’s apology is genuinely needed, and that situation worked out for the best anyway, so. I like where the two of them are at by the very end of the book, I like the way their relationship looks like it’s going to be as they go forward into the future, but throughout the book itself I couldn’t get super invested in it because the Witch was simply treating Mina badly. Mina chose the Witch lashing out at her over her family’s disregard of her. Picking neither may have been a better option.

I really liked what turned out to be the truth of the situation! I can’t go into much detail about it due to plot spoilers, but I thought it was all really cool. I figured out the most heartbreaking piece of the puzzle ahead of Mina discovering it for herself, but I don’t mind a little bit of predictability. I suspect the dramatic irony was intentional in this case anyway.

If you like dark fairytales or explorations of loneliness and neglect and the impact this can have on people, then I recommend picking this one up! Just mind the content warnings, as they are serious.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Anderson Press for giving me access to an e-arc of this book.
Kat Dunn, this book was beautifully written and has such captivating characters. This book is truly amazing.

I think this one was of the first books I ever requested through Netgalley and I am so glad I did.

This is a beautifully written gothic fairytale with a sapphic love story. It looks at themes of loneliness and love and how they can both intertwine. It centres around Mina who has always felt apart from the world she was born into, felt invisible to even her own family members. Until she agrees to go with the Witch, a secretive and mythic woman who comes to Blumwald every 50 years to take another companion.
The gentle twists and turns of this story keeps you captivated (I finished this in a day 😂). The world that this book explores gave me so many emotions I don’t know how to feel.

This was truly a story I think will stick with me for a while, and I am so glad to have read it. Thanks again Kat Dunn.

To me, this is nothing short of a masterpiece and Dunn's best novel yet. The world feels so lush, the characters so real and the protagonist's internal life so palpable, that I found myself diving head first into the story with no desire to come out for air. I couldn't help but believe the kind of hopelessness, disillusion and desperation propelling our protagonist onto a journey she'd never have expected for herself (but which, I, for one, loved every minute of). There is a suffocating sense of loneliness creeping out of these pages. Dunn offers grace and tenderness even to the characters one might think she owes none to. She also plays with readers' expectations of what drives a character (i.e: The Witch) and refuses to give in to the predictable.
I must add that the lyrical writing style really helped bring the fairytale-like atmosphere to life, and I found myself so taken aback by the beauty of the writing and the way Dunn managed to put certain feelings into words so much that I feared that were I to start highlighting my favourite passages I'd end up with a fully highlighted book.
Cannot stress enough how much I loved this!!

I’m not really sure on my feelings after reading Bitterthorn which is a dark, gothic fairytale for 2023 with a queer love story at its heart.

On one hand I enjoyed reading it, the mystery of what the Witch is up to and the secrets of her castle home and the predecessors who had been her companions before really kept me hooked and I read the book quickly in just a few sittings. Mina is a sad main character - a woman who has little interest in men and is belittled and put down by her stepmother and ignored by the rest of her family. I do think the book should have trigger warnings for depictions of self-harm and suicidal thoughts, even though these are only fleeting at the beginning.

The plot is relatively slow paced and information about the Witch and her castle are drip-fed to us throughout. It can sometimes feel a little too slow but the premise of finding out what was going on was enough to keep me interested. In the author’s notes Kat Dunn writes that she wrote the book to show that ‘loneliness makes monsters of us all’ and we can see this in the main character of the Witch who is harsh and sometimes cruel. In the book Mina slowly chips away at this cold exterior to reveal a woman who is vulnerable and kind. However, I can’t help thinking that this is not really a very healthy message about relationships for 2023. If you are treated badly, if the person that you love shouts or lashes out, this book gives the message that we should persevere and treat them kindly and yet sometimes this is not in the best interests of our health or our relationships and can be a great excuse for abuse. Just a thought…

Overall, Bitterthorn is a slow-burn fantasy with a mystery which keeps you hooked throughout, I’m just not sure about its message about love and relationships at its core. Thank you to NetGalley & Andersen Press for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Bitterthorn is a masterpiece.

It's dark and mesmerising. It's absolutely stunning and atmospheric.

It's a haunting tale of loneliness, of learning to love yourself and letting yourself be loved.

This book has ruined me. I'm a sobbing mess and I won't survive.

This might very well be the best book I will read all year. That's how amazing it is and how much this book has affected me.

I love it. I'm obsessed with it. I can't wait to get my physical copy so I can tab all the STUNNING and HAUNTING quotes

Tender and full of pining. I loved Bitterthorn from the very first page and Mina had my heart for the entire journey. It reads like a classic and will be loved for many years. One of my favourite reads of 2023

I was incredibly lucky to receive an Advanced Reading Copy through NetGalley of Bitterthorn by Kat Dunn. I stayed up to finish this book and it hurt so much, and in all the good ways I want a book to hurt!

Bitterthorn is a slow burn, Sapphic, fantasy novel about Mina, the daughter of the Duke of Blumwald, who choses to become the feared Witch’s companion and follows her to her scary and dark castle.

I absolutely loved this book! I adored the worldbuilding and all the themes it touched upon. I do admit I am a big lover for witches and stories about forests and complicated family dynamics so this book was right up my alley. Mina was such a complicated and fragile protagonist and she mirrored in that way the Witch, who was broken in different ways. Bitterthorn is really about loving against the odds but also about the mental pain of loneliness, a phenomenon that I see so much in modern life. It's about how we are alienated from the world but also how we alienate ourselves from others sometimes because we are so lonely. Mina and her Witch exemplify these two sides of the same coin, that both lead to pain and mental distress.

I personally found this book to be a new kind of fairy-tale that disguised itself as a reimaging of Beauty and the Beast, if the Beast was a Witch and the beauty was a broken, lonely and sad girl. I would suggest keeping an eye for this book, coming out on May 4th, if you like fairytale vibes, witches and Sapphic romance.

A new gothic fairytale intermingled with familiar themes and troupes. A story of how you can find things in the most unlikely of places. Lovely read with some beautiful writing. Would have preferred a little more depth

A dark sapphic fantasy retelling which tore my emotions to pieces.
This isn't an action filled adventure or epic fantasy and is far more about personal relationships, mental wounds, and dealing with trauma, but that isn't to say it doesn't it lacks for plot. The romance was the main focus for me, and the sapphic love story is wonderful and beautiful. The characters all have their own flaws, history, and trauma and I loved every dark and twisted bit of it.
4.5 star story but 5 stars for the excellent sapphic content!
Thank you to NetGalley and Andersen Press for this free eARC in exchange for an honest review

Thank you Andersen Press and Netgalley for the arc of Bitterthorn by Kat Dunn in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

“And to the lonely: I hope you see me, and I see you.”

I have just finished this book and I am sat here with the salty warmth of tears tracking down my cheeks. Emotionally, I am torn between joy, sadness, longing and do, so much more. This book is truly captivating. I can’t sum up how I feel, because I don’t quite know but Kat Dun has created a story and world that like the briar and thorns that surround Sleeping Beauty’s castle, has totally entwined my heart.

This is not an action packed epic of adventure, fantasy, monsters and demons, in the expected sense but, it is a tale of a journey, of a monster, in the eyes of some, of righting a wrong, and so much more. It’s roots are set in the emotional depths of loss, loneliness, and being broken, and love. Definitely not Insta love but, the true sort of love that comes from recognition, understanding, friendship, the truth of love that burrows down to the core of your bones.

This book is stunning, heart-breakingly beautiful, and it captured me from start to end, and will stay with me for a long time to come. Please do pick this book up, Kat Dunn’s voice shines through with such a haunting depth of emotion that you will be captivated.

Mina lives in Blumwald, a town from which a witch takes a companion every few decades. Mina volunteers as her latest victim, and is drawn into a vaguely fairytale adventure.

Dunn has a beautiful, lyrical writing style that definitely suits the gothic vibe of this book. Unfortunately though, that wasn't enough to rescue book, which felt like it didn't really go anywhere. Not the book for me!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review