Thank you, Elliot Gish NetGalley, for the ARC. I leave this review voluntarily and happily. Also, thank you publishers for your hard work!


This is the first time I'm reading a book like this. I'm not usually one to read historical Gothic horror, but this was truly something to behold. There's not much on gore or death it's definitely a slow burn. Your getting into the past of Women have to be a certain way, and they have to respect men. Men are the top of the world during this time. Of course, even if you're an adult and not married, the father still makes all the decisions. The past definitely was a horrible time.

Of course, that's not all this book is about. The main character is a teacher and too old to marry so she can do but one thing and that is teach. A scandal has left her moving to a different district and starting over making new friends and... well, strange things are happening. Things she can not explain without the town thinking she's a witch or going insane.

Greydog also deals with woman rage, and boy, does it explode! I think the main character deserved to explode at the people she did. She's been through so much, and she's expected to act a certain way just because she's a woman. No. Enough is enough! And she eventually let's go with help.

Of course, Greydog is so much more than about women and their rage. It's about an entity in the woods calling out to women it desires. Those that deserve it. The build-up, I think, was so worth it for this book, and the writing was beautifully done. The more stranger scenes described, I just couldn't get them out of my head.

Norton mentioned that all in all I loved, it was written by journal entries. It seems like I see fewer books written this way. I enjoy them written this way, but that's just me.

Full disclosure: it always takes me a while to get swept up in the rhythm of historical fiction, but with “Grey Dog”, much like with “In the House in the Dark of the Woods,” I became captivated about 50 pages in no small part in thanks to our steadfast narrator who manages to be entirely relatable despite the vast span of decades between the novel’s setting and present day. “Grey Dog” is indeed a slow burn. It scatters crumbs of dread which, while offering no real sustenance, guide you deeper and deeper into the woods until you find yourself in the dark, at the end, at which point the novel opens it jaws and swallows you whole.

“ 𝑨 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉.”

Grey Dog starts off as an incredibly strange book. We meet Ada Byrd, a teacher who wants to succeed and do more in her life, yet seemingly cannot.

Because of this, the book is slow paced, with an establishing of the world, an establishing of characters (though some fall flat, like the children and Mrs Kinsley a bit.). But when the plot starts, oh boy does it start. We get into a whirlwind of horror, of misogyny, of pure and simple:

Being a woman makes you go mad.

And Grey Dog delivers this beautifully.

Grey Dog: A Gothic Horror Steeped in Grey Imagery and Irrepressible Female Rage

A book review of Grey Dog by Elliot Gish, expected publication: April 2024.

At the tail end of the Victorian era Ada Byrd accepts a teaching post in the claustrophobic farm town of Lowry Bridge. Following the death of her beloved sister and a shameful incident with her previous host family, Ada is welcomed by the Griers. She is offered a second chance in an isolated town where no one is aware of her tarnished reputation. The one room schoolhouse in which Ada is to teach happens to be on what the Griers refer to as “the wrong side of the bridge” and Ada soon finds herself confronted by disturbing visions whenever she ventures across. As Ada begins to lose her grip on reality, her new friends and neighbors begin to turn on her. As a voice beckons from the wrong side of the bridge, how long will Ada be able to resist its call?

A true slow burn, this gothic horror has much to offer. A succinct look at grief and what it does to the mind, coupled with the horrors of being a woman in Ada’s time, this historical horror transcends the early twentieth century to reach into our own and will truly disturb any reader willing to hold on through the slow build and slightly tedious setup.

This debut novel by Elliot Gish is a stunning gothic horror steeped in grey imagery, which melds into an explosive display of female rage and a return to nature.

This story is told via unreliable narrator through Ada’s own journal entries, and while this style sets the story up for a lack of believability in a technical way, I was quickly immersed in the story and could not have cared less about the formidable amount of dialogue in Ada’s diary. I was impressed by Gish’s use of language and embodiment of early twentieth century vocabulary and style. I can’t say how accurate it is for 1901, in which this story takes place, but it sounded authentic to me.

In the first 1/3 or so of my reading I was struggling to believe that Grey Dog truly was a horror, and worried that it had been mislabeled. I was quickly proved wrong, as the horror slowly ramped up starting with small disturbances and continued to develop into a full fledged maelstrom of some of the most disturbing gothic horror I’ve read in a while.

Elliot Gish has a gift for writing unsettling scenes, and certain ones had me feeling like I needed to throw down the book and run for the shower. This book was disturbing in very literal ways, as there are plenty of animal corpses and detached body parts, there are detailed descriptions of what happens when you don’t bathe for weeks at a time, and there are descriptions of what birth and violence does to the female body.

This book is disturbing in a psychological and societal mode as well, as Ada faces the horror of concealing her true self for society's sake, there is the very real and disturbing commentary on a woman’s role and worth according to the early twentieth century norms and then there is the horror that I think we all harbor a bit of, which is our confined existence within a manmade society vs. our instinctual inclination to merely exist in nature. All things that when viewed carefully through the right lens are darkly disturbing and enough to drive anyone completely mad.

Ada’s spiral into madness and untethered feminine rage is spectacular. While on the one hand, our first inclination is a desire for her to find her way back to society and the acceptance of her friends and neighbors, it quickly becomes clear that there is no place for Ada within the confines of the societal norms of her day, there is no way back and this is a wholly uncomfortable realization for the reader. Throughout the course of the novel, she transforms from a meek and guarded spinster, to a wild and irrepressible woman who longs to be consumed by nature.

“I am not a place where nature can be tamed and weeded and kept in order. I am tree roots – and dark hollows – and ancient moss – and the cry of owls. I am not a thing that 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.”

Grey Dog by Elliot Gish

The supernatural aspect of this novel made me think of Slewfoot (my favorite book). Grey Dog is much less gory and considerably less violent than Slewfoot, and while it does not possess quite the same level of bewitching magic alongside its darkness, it is still absolutely exhilarating to watch Ada, much like Abatha, harness that same feminine rage to become just the kind of woman that society fears most.

Grey Dog considers much about what it means to be a woman. In the novel we meet several types: school girls preparing for marriage, wives, spinsters and a widow. Ada’s existence in Lowry Bridge, a small and old fashioned farm town, is challenging because as a spinster, and a secretly queer one at that, she does not fit the societal norm of wife and mother, which the girls of Lowry Bridge are groomed for from a young age.

Yet she quickly befriends the pastor's wife, Agatha, who seemingly is the picture perfect Lowry Bridge “woman.” Ada first meets Agatha as she tends her garden, symbolizing the taming and shaping of nature, an idea also embodied by Agatha as a character. Across the bridge, Ada befriends the outcast widow Norah, a woman rumored to be a witch. For the majority of the novel, Ada is stuck in a limbo between the two women, somewhere in between being the right and the wrong type of woman.

“A good woman. How odd that the phrase has such a particular meaning. One might say “a good man” and mean anything – there are as many ways as being a good man, it seems, as there are of being a man at all. But there is only one way of being a good woman.”

Grey Dog by Elliot Gish

As spectacular as Ada’s transformation is, it is also a darkly disturbing and often uncomfortable scene to bear witness to. As the best horror does, Grey Dog leaves you wondering whether you have witnessed a supernatural experience or a total psychological breakdown.

Grey Dog is one of those novels that is going to stick with me for a long time. In part because it is truly unsettling and disturbing (I have a whole new fear of wolf spiders) but also because it is a visceral dissection of grief pertaining to loss, not only in the traditional sense, but one that is exclusive to womanhood. There is an inherent feeling of loss that comes from what society denies women. In Ada's case this grief completely breaks, and then remakes her. We are left in the end with a swift close of the curtains, there is no closure to be had, there is no clear view of the grey dog, all we know is that there is no going back for Ada Byrd.

“The God of outside waits for you. The grey dog. The God of outside. They are one and the same.”

Grey Dog by Elliot Gish

Thanks to the publisher for the eARC! I am so appreciative of the chance to read this early copy.

Grey dog is unlike anything I’ve read so far. Set in 1901 in a rural town, Ada Byrd is the newly hired teacher looking to move on from her past and gain contentment and freedom in her new classroom and the woods surrounding it. She strikes up a friendship with both the reverend’s wife, Agatha, and the town’s outcast/widow, Mrs. Kinsley. This book is a slow burn to be sure, and it creeps up on you during your reading. This book made me feel as though I needed to double check my surroundings, as I was thoroughly creeped out. I love that it is told from the perspective of Ada’s journal, which makes the journey more personal and horrifying. You really feel for Ada and are worried for her. Without giving too much away, Ada’s situation becomes progressively more troubling, culminating in a wild ending that makes you question so much. This story touches on female rage well through the lens of repressed Ada. You root for her even in her most feral moments. I would recommend Grey dog for fans of A24 horror films and anyone interested in women-centric horror fiction! I enjoyed my time with this book.

Ada Byrd is a single woman in 1901, she has just been assigned as the new teacher at Lowry Bridge, a small town bordering a forest. Ada has a tempestuous relationship with her father and is grieving the loss of her sister. Eventually, Ada settles into her role and even makes a friend. However, just as things seem to be going smoothly Ada starts seeing strange things and hearing odd voices calling to her. She feels like she's losing her grip on reality and the members of the town are noticing. Ada's place in society, her mental stability, and potentially her life now hang in the balance.

The story starts out slow, in journal format, with Ada recounting her days and what brought her to Lowry Bridge. We get the sense that she has been brought up to be very prim and ladylike, standard for the era she's living in, but feels the feral call of nature. Her grief for the loss of her sister and the anxiety she feels over people discovering what happened at her previous teaching, post drive her to be even more the proper lady, to not allow anyone a reason to doubt her. But it is getting to her. She feels stifled, angry at her father, and eventually angry at everyone who's let her down. Ada is such a compelling character, the dichotomy between the way she acts in public and her private thoughts are so fantastic.

Gish really built a setting that felt alive. The ambiance and atmosphere were incredible. Something that writing from a past tense first person, I think is not easy. The town felt real and thoroughly researched. I loved that the attire of people and food they were eating wasn't described in detail, but just enough to help set the scene. I could get a solid sense of what was happening and what people looked like without feeling overwhelmed with minute details.

The tension in the horror scenes were so good. I felt myself getting uncomfortable and tightening up waiting to see what was going to happen. I felt real concern for Ada as the story went on. The grisly scenes of gore she experience were gruesome enough to make me feel a bit ill for a moment, something I appreciate in horror.

All of this worked toward an ending that was satisfying and compelling. The female rage that was present and the result of the actions suppressed through the story were like nothing I have read before. I think this is my first "OMFG I LOVE THIS" book of the year and I am so happy that I got the chance to read it early and the pre-order is in already (support your local book shops and order through bookshop.org!).

Content warnings should always be checked for books in this genre but I wanted to include that there is a fairly detailed scene of a miscarriage, animal injuries and death (but not cruelty for the sake of cruelty), child abuse, child death and injury, and a fair amount of blood and gore in the latter half of the book.

A perfect literary pairing to the 2015 film "The Witch" (starring Anya Taylor-Joy in her big screen debut). Gish's prose burns slow and bright like the coals left in the fireplace after the flames have gone out. You'll be feeling the heat of this book long after turning the final page.

'Dead animals, virgin snow, the shadow of the woods.'

Elliot Gish has created something truly twisted here, and is definitely an author to watch.

Body horror, 19th century village slow burn terror, well written historical fiction in diary form, psychological breakdowns, nasty beasts in your peripheral vision and bizarre natural phenomenon — sound like fun to you?

Well it was for me. This is a slow burn novel, with enough disturbing moments generously sprinkled about to keep you hurredly reading until the truly unsettling climax of the novel. The situations that Gish puts her poor protagonist in is at times unbearable, but also somehow so grounded in the reality of being a woman in a farming community in 1901, I am kind of impressed at how she pulled it off.

The novel is Miss Ana Byrd's dairy style notebook , and it details her experiences and life in the town of Lowry Bridge as new school teacher.
Her path slowly yet surely leads us into madness, into the underbelly of a village cast in supernatural shadows, as Ada begins to be hunted by a unknown creature whenever she is alone, begins to notice weird animal life, things and sounds just beyond the horizon, to discover maybe-withces, creepy woods, experience friendship and betrayal, deep sadness, memories of terrible trauma, and the beginnings of losing her grasp on reality.

A glimpse at some of the beautiful and often quite shocking prose Gish harnesses:
"Have you not guessed it yet? I am not a place where nature can be weeded and tamed and kept in order. I am tree roots - and dark hollows - and ancient moss - and the cry of owls. I am not a thing that 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."

Recommended for lovers of horror.

Thank you ECW and NetGalley for the ARC.

Wow, this was such an (intentionally) uncomfortable read! The author did a great job creating an unsettling environment and plot that really highlights the horrors of being a woman in the early 1900s.

Requested this initially because I was obsessed with the cover and intrigued by the description. It was an eerie literary horror book. I enjoyed it a lot and think that it would be a great read during October!

This is an epic gothic, historical, horror novel that details a woman's descent into either madness or something more sinister.

Set in 1902 primarily, the setting is moody and atmospheric. The author has done a fantastic job at establishing that time period and the characters within.

Ada is a spinster school teacher with a traumatic past. She takes a position at a single room school in a small countryside town as a last resort. Something happened at her last post, leaving her options very limited.

She attempts to be the kind of woman that would be expected at that time. Prim, proper, and not given to hysterics. But her issues are with those very expectations. As we learn about her past there's a realization that it's only because she's a woman these things have happened. A gay woman at that. As was (and still is in some societies) a woman is considered guilty of impropriety even if she's not at fault.

She begins to feel a anger inside and then, terrifying things start to happen. Voices calling her name, the sense of always being watched, horrific visions that only she can see even in her waking hours.

Her slow but steady decline oozes off the page in a menacing way and bleeds tension in almost every chapter.

This town has... something... living in the woods. And it wants Ada for itself.

This is a literary horror novel and doesn't have extreme scenes of gore. Instead, it has a truly frightening narrative, a visceral and compelling story, and gives a female led horror book the justice it deserves.

If you like your horror beautifully written, engaging, and filled with dread, this is one you don't want to miss. I highly recommend it.

Okay. I was originally going to give this book 3-stars, however after detailing my thoughts about the book to a friend I determined that I was coming to the book through a very limited lens. One I wasn't interrogating. So my one piece of advice to anyone who wants to read this book is to remind yourself that this book won't make a whole lot of sense to you if you are projecting the characters onto a cis-gendered, heterosexual background.

That being said, the only reason why I did not rate this book five stars is due to the fact that I would have to give the small disclaimer that this book is very slow to start. I did have to push myself to keep going, reminding myself that there were truly a number of unanswered questions that I did want to see answered. The pacing may be a turnoff to some, in this way.

But once you get into the book... wow.

Atmosphere: I felt like I was reading an A24 movie. I felt like I could touch the eerie nature of Lowry Bridge, and I found myself nervous about that river that splits the two in two. Falling into the local superstition. There were a good number of jump scares that happened because, like the main character, I was attempting to see the forest through the trees. There are so many details about Lowry Bridge that Ada and myself were worried about, that you could hardly anticipate what was going to happen next.

Theme: Grief. I'm sure there is more, but grief applies so well here, and it amplifies the anxiety. Ada herself is undergoing grief, for reasons I won't spell out here. But as she progresses through her grief, the grey dog stalks closer and closer. In hindsight, there definitely are moments of denial, anger (rage, more aptly), bargaining... with acceptance being the last stage, you can't help but ask yourself what that would look like. And could it be the answer to the madness Ada experiences?

The grey dog itself... well, that feels more like the background noise now that I'm thinking about it. As the grey dog draws near, so do the teeth of her community and you find yourself asking which is worse. And though what the grey dog offers is gruesome and grotesque, there are points where we see Ada's community offers her no different.

Post-friend discussion, I've determined that this book would not only warrant a read, but it is also worth a reread. But this discussion also inspired my friend to pick up this book when they are able. I'll be purchasing a copy so I can figure out what else I missed in my initial read, and I'll definitely be recommending this book to others!

ARC provided by NetGalley.

Ooh this was different! I went down many paths I did not expect and whilst a bit chilling, it was great!
Ada is lonely and moves to a lonely place. She starts to hear and see strange things but who is going mad here?

This is a slow burn horror that gripped me from the first page; a 3 star read and a must read for any horror fans.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

I actually really bloody enjoyed this one. I love books centred around a pretty mundane life, but you can just feel that something weird is a foot. The story follows Ada as she tries to remake herself as a teacher in a new town. We know something bad happened, and this is her last chance to live a normal life. The atmosphere and the setting were so good, and if you love books that act as metaphors for female rage, you need to read this one!

Good horror, well written., literary, very cool! I very much appreciate this arc in exchange fo da honest review

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the ECW Press for allowing me to read an arc of this book.

Grey Dog is about a woman, Ada, who comes to a small town to be a teacher after a mysterious past incident at her previous teaching placement. As she begins to make friends and get close to her students, strange things begin to happen to her.

I think this book was fairly good, but it took me a long while to get into it. While I think that writing the whole thing in a journal format did serve what the author was going for, towards the end it was not very realistic that every time something would be happening that she would take the time to write it down. The story is VERY slow burn and can be repetitive at times. I wish the ending would have been a little more climactic, but it never really got to where I wanted it to. I do think it had an interesting plot, but I could definitely see that this would not be for everyone.

Ada Byrd, teacher, spinster and (aptly named) budding naturalist, takes a posting in the small, remote Lowry Bridge, where she hopes to escape her sordid history. Between her job, establishing new friendships, and exploring the mysterious woods surrounding the town, it seems she may be starting to move on from the trauma of her past. However, this is a horror novel, so there is an underlying current of impending dread, and soon bizarre, unexplained encounters with the natural world begin to plague Ada, and make her question her sanity - is it all in her mind, or is something more sinister afoot in the woods?

I love a historical fiction piece with a Victorian setting, and felt the time and tone of this was captured perfectly by author Elliott Gish. Ada is an unreliable narrator, so the first person journal format is a great choice to tell her story. I was lulled into a false sense of security with the cosy recollection of regular days found in nature, friendship and food, and this was a very effective way to juxtapose and increase the impact of the troubling events that begin to unfold about a third of the way through.

You genuinely care for Ada and the characters around her, so it is all the more heartbreaking when she begins to doubt herself and sabotage the relationships she has garnered. As it often is, the titular ‘dog‘ works as a kind of metaphor for depression and grief, but whether or not not this grey dog actually exists, or is a figment of her imagination, is a question that keeps both Ada and us guessing until the end.

The horror of this novel comes more from the underlying ideas surrounding misogyny, patriarchal abuses of power, and the role of woman in this era, rather than blood and guts (although it is not without some gory descriptions). Despite this, it is also beautiful tale of sisterhood and the healing power of nature.

A very strong debut from Elliott Gish, I look forward to reading more from her in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and ECW press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was very excited to get this arc because I’m always looking for female rage in a horror setting but unfortunately I had a really hard time with the pacing of this book. The horror elements very interesting but overall it was underwhelming.

"They are all but stomachs, and we all but food; They eat us hungerly, and when they are full, They belch us."

This book challenges the usual ‘good for her’ readers to really sit with what a free woman might look like. Ada isn’t always likable, pretty, or charming. She’s a queer woman teetering on what she believes to be the brink of insanity, stuck in a small town that feels increasingly restrictive. I’m incredibly grateful to have received this ARC, and loved having it for a holiday read.
My main criticism for this novel is that at times, the form seemed to be at odds with the story told. Given the book is meant to be a journal, it seems strange to have pages and pages of dialogue. I wonder if the same feeling and intimacy could have been achieved had the author used an additional way of telling the story, whether that be the inclusion of letters or portions being written in a limited perspective third-person point of view. I look forward to more works by this author!