Initially, I LOVED this book. Unfortunately it started to feel like it was dragging on a bit. It was beautifully written, but I think I could have skipped 30% of the chapters, and still have understood the plot. If you like slower paced books, I definitely recommend, but it wasn’t for me.

I will start out by saying this was a very well written book, but it is not horror.

I'm not really sure how to respond to this book. Its a story of identity for someone who is adopted and the many personal decisions and actions of people close to her had to make to get to the present day. And for someone who is adopted, I'm guessing as the author put it, they are constantly searching to belong, searching for who they are and where they came from.

I'm not sure why authors write things that don't make sense and try to loosely connect it in order to fill the gaps in the story. Myrrh has an inner voice she calls Goblin, who constantly berates her but (spoiler) at the end we find out that Goblin is actually a deformed, dead baby who she never met or had any form of contact with because she herself was a baby at the same time of its short existence.

I probably could have gone without reading this one. I actually put it down at one point and read a Clive Barker book and came back to finish this.

I was initially drawn to this book because of the striking cover, and the blurb sounded great. Whilst I thought the writing in this book was absolutely beautiful, I found it slow unfortunately, and it didn't grip me in the way that I wanted it to and thought it would. I found the first 60/70% quite boring, and it only really picked up at the end. I think a lot of people will enjoy this book, it's just not for me unfortunately. 2.5/5 *

This is a literary psychological horror novel that combines seemingly different narratives into something sinister and horrific.

Myrrh is the name of a woman who was adopted as a baby. She was raised by good people yet this feeling of not belonging blossoms inside until it becomes an obsession to find her birth parents. Inside of her is a voice which she calls Goblin. It tells her she's worthless, unwanted, and unloved. It also tells her to do horrific things to others.

Cayenne is a woman who married a man with a teenage daughter. As time moves on she feels completely alone and cast aside by both her husband and his daughter. Theirs is a passive aggressive relationship. She has an obsession also. She wants a baby of her own but gets nothing but contempt of the idea.

These two different characters make up the heart of this increasingly disturbing novel. We'll discover secrets from both as their obsessions begin to take dark turns. We'll soon start to see where these stories cross as issues of self identity, loneliness, and longing are explored with a sparcity of dialogue. The horror comes from being in the heads of these characters and seeing them slowly devolving mentally. It's effectively creepy and frightening.

I highly recommend this book.

I received an ARC of this book through Netgalley with no consideration. This review is voluntary and is my own personal opinion

*Thank you NetGalley for the eARC of this book*

This was an interesting and thrilling read. I loved the original prose and the tense atmosphere throughout the whole book. Really loved the horror and twisty elements. 3 stars.