e-ALC, 10:08:43
Narrated by: Janina Edwards & Emana Rachelle
Release Date: February 17, 2026
Published by: Books on Tape
Read from: March 1-2, 2026
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio (I received this ALC free from the publisher and their app. This did nothing to influence my review!)
Content Warning: Schizophrenia/Psychosis, Pregnancy, Mental Illness, Colonization, Physical Abuse, Racial Slurs, Miscarriage, Suicidal Thoughts, Body Horror
For Readers Interested In: Adult, Audio, Horror, Sparkly Covers, Most Anticipated, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, ThrillersA maternal gothic tale of new motherhood and the torment of a centuries-old haunting.
Before the shadow appeared, Sofia thought mothering would be all sun-drenched light and white linen sheets, as seen advertised by the momfluencers of Instagram. In her gorgeous home anchored in a posh suburb, far removed from her origins, Sofia revels in her success.
Motherhood seems like the natural next step, but when her husband travels for a work trip, leaving Sofia all alone with their unnamed three-week-old baby, she can’t quite square how mothering falls solely in her lap. Nobody seems able or willing to help her: not her husband, not her best friend, and certainly not the zealot mother she cut off long ago.
Her postpartum reality is overtaken by an ominous figure. Sleep-deprivation collides with a darkness that creeps in and begins to spread, threatening to consume her entirely. As her grip on reality slips away, Sofia learns of an insidious haunting that has plagued the eldest daughters in her family for generations. With her baby’s safety on the line, Sofia realizes she must confront her murky history or risk losing more than just the veneer of perfection.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This book was so wild. I say that mostly because some things I actually related to her on. Motherhood is not easy and is no joke. I felt so bad for her, she deserved so much better.
I know this book was good because I was talking to it lol I was screaming for her to get help, trying to shush the baby, and telling her to just listen to her body. I did not expect this book to pull this out of me, but Lordt. It was so hard to watch her going through this. I wanted so bad to help her and the only way I could do that was yell into the book.
The writing style was interesting, but it was also a little weird. Like why introduce the Jamaican folklore if you’re not going to to more in-depth into it. I went to find out more and only found what was mentioned in the book: the curse that was passed down and there was an Annie Palmer or White Witch story. But there was so much more there. I just think it would have been interesting to add it to the story. Especially the White Witch story.
The scary factor was meh. I was more worried about her. But it started out slow, but then got real real quick. The crazy part tho? I was always more worried about what she’d do to her husband and herself. Never the baby. That was definitely a wild thing to realize when I finished it. I didn’t actually get scared at all. I called the plot twist from the beginning. It is easy to call though because she evens says it in the book. (Which I thought was a little weird, but here we are lol) But even still, I liked it ok.
This was good and so gave me so much to think about. I love books like this. Then to learn about something new from a different culture was the extra icing on the cake. I hope y’all pick this one up so y’all can learn about the White Witch too!
Overall, I give this
