BOOK REVIEW: HELENA by CLAIRE L. SMITH

"What kind of woman has a fascination with death?"

I adore Gothic literature. I've loved it ever since I was a young girl deep in the pages of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Give me brooding gentlemen and dark manors. Give me black lace and grieving ghosts. I want lovers scorned and haunting secrets. I LOVE Gothic fiction. Claire L. Smith's HELENA was no exception to that love.

Smith's book introduces us to Helena Morrigan, a struggling mortician and funeral director in the 19th century who is constantly haunted by the dead. Business is slow until she takes up residence with the orphaned Tarter siblings, whose home is next to the cemetery. When it is learned that a serial killer is on the loose, leaving a trail of brutalized bodies that boosts Helena's business as well as fears, an alarming murder mystery unfolds.

As thin of a book as it is, I felt HELENA to be a slow-burn in the best way. The story never felt rushed and the characters were well developed for only 141 pages. Smith's writing is heavy with macabre imagery--lost spirits grotesque in appearance and corpses missing their innards--which was an excellent addition to a slowly unraveling murder mystery I was itching to see resolved by the final pages.

Honestly my only complaint is that I wish the book had been longer so I could've gotten to know Helena better. As the protagonist I found her intriguing with her haunted past, her personal familiarity with death, and her confidence within her profession. Omens, nightmares, disemboweled corpses, paranormal activity, and a mystery to be solved, HELENA is a must read for lovers of Gothic horror and it comes out October 13th!

(4/5⭐)

(Special thanks to Clash Books for this early copy in exchange for an honest review!)


                                                                 xo Nina