A Trust No One Gothic Romance with a Thrilling Twist!
Grave Matter
Gothic Romance, Psychological Thriller, Genetic Engineering Science Fiction
Independently Published
October 21, 2024
ebook, paperback, hardcover
397
Horror Romance meets Science Fiction in this dark and delicious gothic psychological thriller by NYT bestseller Karina Halle, perfect for fans of Gothikana, Ninth House, and Mexican Gothic.
Grad Student Sydney Denik is getting a second chance. When a dream opportunity presents itself with a prestigious foundation doing promising Alzheimer’s research, Sydney leaves the shambles of her old life to join a dozen other students at an isolated lodge hidden away in a remote, fog-shrouded inlet on Vancouver Island.
But the Madrona Foundation harbors more than brilliant minds. Everyone around her is hiding a terrible secret—including the resident psychologist she’s falling in love with. A student disappears, and no one but Sydney seems to care. Ghosts walk the halls. Snow falls in the middle of summer. Dead animals move like the living. The more Sydney uncovers about the foundation, the more she begins to question her own sanity. And if Sydney isn’t going mad, then the horrors in the surrounding forest are real, and the Madrona Foundation may be the biggest monster of all.
Author's Note: This is a standalone dark-ish romance book with mature and graphic themes, including body horror, morally grey characters, and explicit sexual scenes. Please consult the content warning in the inside of the book by enabling the "Look Inside/Read Sample" feature.
I wanted to become so singularly obsessed with something that nothing else around me mattered.
Grave Matter is a thrilling new release from the brilliant mind of Karina Halle. Truly, I didn’t know what to expect from one page to the next. In fact, I sent a text to a friend while reading that said: “I feel like I’m drugs.” Book Friends, I mean that in the best possible way.
Let’s get into it.
creepy forest gif via giphy
Set in the PNW, Grave Matter begins as we meet Sydney as she embarks on a new opportunity to spend the summer on an isolated island on the Canadian coast. The island is home to the Madrona Foundation whose cutting-edge discoveries with fungi has led to stunning developments in the research of a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.
“Men lie,” she says simply. “Especially men with power. They gaslight you.”
Nothing is as it seems though. While Sydney is the epitome of an unreliable narrator, there is not one other character whom I found myself able to trust either. Dreams feel real, Trees give visions, and dead animals walk like the living. Grave Matter is atmospheric, creepy, and all-together thrilling. I did love the realness to Sydney’s character. Her struggles with grief, with her ADHD, and her love/hate relationship with her medication made her tangibly real as a character. I sympathized with her and therefore wanted her to survive whatever the cost.
forest blackk gif via giphy
There is a forbidden romance aspect to Grave Matter as well. Sydney falls for her broody and stoic psychologist, Wes Kincaid. Her gravitation towards him grows. Not only is he enigmatic, but the rest of the professors on the island act as oddly as Sydney feels the longer she stays on the island. As Sydney attempts to navigate her reality on the island, Wes becomes a refuge for her. I admire his willingness to keep her safe regardless of his position.
I think they picked me because I was broken and alone, and they wanted to see whether I would crumble further or whether I could be saved.
Secrets abound with the Madrona Foundation. With each new chapter of Grave Matter I became more engrossed in finding out the truth behind the secretiveness. Karina’s storytelling works so well with this storyline that I was immediately hooked. I don’t normally read thrillers, but gothic romance is definitely in my wheelhouse. The weird anomalies, the ghosts, walking corpses, and snow in the summer made for an atmospheric and thrilling read.
Karina Halle’s reveal of the twist at the end truly blew my mind. I had no idea where any of this was headed. While I love Karina Halle’s contemporary romances, I believe her darker thrilling romances are her sweet spot. Grave Matter is unique, descriptive, and unputdownable. I loved getting to know Sydney and was perfectly happy with the resolution at the end as well. Do yourself a favor and give this stunning gothic romance/psych thriller a chance. I know you won’t regret it!
Jes is a self-proclaimed bookworm, who recently moved from the PNW back to the Midwest. When her nose isn’t in a book, she’s spending time with her husband, two kids, and her three fur babies, or exploring the globe. She also firmly believes that you should start the day with coffee, and end the day in bed with a good book.
