She Waits Where Shadows Gather

by Michelle Tang

Parents should pass down stories, not spirits…

Avery and Carlos Tam have built their lives on logic, not legends. Carlos, the host of a hit reality show that exposes paranormal hoaxes, has made a name disproving the supernatural.

But when they travel to his ancestral home in the Philippines, darkness clings to every corner. The mirrors are shrouded. The housekeeper won't stay in the house alone. And no one will speak of the tragedies the family has seen.

Then a brutal car crash leaves Carlos trapped in his own body—silent, helpless, and utterly vulnerable. As Avery tends to him, the house begins to stir. It watches. It listens. And it speaks—in a voice only Carlos can hear—offering a twisted kind of comfort.

And as the lies buried by Carlos and his family begin to surface, Avery must confront the if the past won't rest, their future may never begin.

Some inherit memories. Others inherit monsters.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Mystery, Adult, Paranormal

304 pages, Paperback

Expected publication May 5, 2026

Reviews

[Brandy Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Carlos returns home when his relatives request his help with haunting in their family home. He decides to bring his wife with him in hopes of also repairing their relationship.

This story focuses mostly on their toxic marriage. Avery’s desire for a baby and Carlos’s contempt for her feelings which ends up exposing how incompatible they truly are.

Shortly after moving to the house, Carlos is injured in an accident and left to sulk in his bitterness. While Avery is forced to deal with the haunting presence alone.

While the premise is strong, the ghost lore feels very underdeveloped, turning the story into more of a strange marital drama with paranormal elements. With a larger focus on the family history, it could have been a truly effective gothic horror but as it stands, the result is just okay.

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Liana Gold]

Horror, Mystery & Thrillers

Many thanks to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press and the author, Michelle Tang for the early eARC!

Publication date: May 5, 2026

[Tracey Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love it when I read a book that has very little fanfare, and it blows me away. This was definitely the case with Michelle Tang’s debut novel, She Waits Where Shadows Gather.

Avery and Carlos’s marriage is on the rocks. Avery badly wants a child, whereas narcissistic Carlos cannot deal with having to share his wife’s affections with anyone else. The couple moves to Carlos’s childhood home in the Philippines. Carlos, a TV paranormal investigator, has some dark secrets he wants to investigate in his family home.

Understandably, Avery isn’t too keen on the house. The house staff won’t go there alone, and several mirrors are dramatically covered. But things get infinitely worse when Carlos is involved in a life-changing accident.

One of my favorite tropes is “paranormal investigator gets more than they bargained for”, and this book checked that box. But that was just a minor part of my enjoyment of this novel. Avery is an incredibly relatable character; desperate for happiness, incredibly isolated, but strong. On the opposite side, Carlos is so repulsive, he is strangely engaging.

There are some genuinely scary moments in this novel. The house at the center of the novel has shadows lurking in every corner, but when Avery ventures up to the attic, I had to switch a few lights on. I also enjoyed learning a little about Philippine mythology and folklore.

A great combo of a compelling human narrative and supernatural tension.

[Ai Jiang]

A big thank you to the publisher for an ARC of the book!!

SHE WAITS WHERE SHADOWS GATHER is a gothic novel reminiscent of Stephen King’s THE SHINING. Tang creates a haunted house lingering with generational ghosts in every corner, lies and unspoken secrets hidden in its threadbare walls, toxic and fragile bonds that rattle the floorboards, regret and revenge ravaging each room, with characters who desire to return to the past and who must learn how to grab hold of the courage to move forward.

[AgoraphoBook Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

She Waits Where Shadows Gather
Michelle Tang
Publication Date: May 5th

4.5 / 5

Ok, so....

I'd been in a bit of a reading slump over the past two weeks.
This book got me together, with quickness.

I love eerie horror. Something that makes me feel uneasy and (safely) nervous. Not many horror novels do this for me anymore, due to my desensitization.

(The few that easily come to mind are We Used To Live Here by Marcus Kliewer, Incidents Around The House by Josh Malerman, Mean-Spirited by Nick Roberts, The Deep by Nick Cutter, A Child Alone with Strangers by Philip Fracassi and House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski)

This book had me feeling uneasy from the end of chapter one. By the end of chapter three, I was nervous, jumpy and loving it. "She who creeps between" really unnerved me.

4.5
(Full Review to come)

Highly Recommend
If horror is your jam, and you love scaring yourself senseless, give this one a try. May it rattle you the same way it did me.

[Brett Mitchell Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to read this prior to release & it has stuck with me in a big way. Tang’s prose is so beautiful and concise- she is such a master of wordplay. The story she weaves is truly heart-wrenching while simultaneously coiling around you with a creeping dread. Far from home and trying to exist within a space where she is both too foreign and not-foreign-enough with her only slice of home locked into his own hidden torment, Avery must rely on the part of herself she always pushed back in favor of logic and reason. Despite Michelle expertly laying the pieces out before you, this incredible take on the haunted house story will leave you guessing until the bitter end. Absolutely a must-read.

[Heathers_readss · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my absolute favourite book plots is paranormal investigators. I genuinely find it more exciting / suspenseful to read about than when on tv 😅

In this book Carlos is the paranormal investigator, he moves himself and Avery to his creepy family home. You know things are suss when all of the locals act weird around the house.

Carlos himself is a very dislikable character, so when he is injured in an accident it’s easy not to feel a lot of empathy for him. Except now they’re stuck in this house and things kick up a notch and get very unsettling very fast.

I enjoy a potentially haunted / possessed home.. safe to say I enjoyed this book!

[TheNovelNomad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book crept up on me, in the best way.

She Waits Where Shadows Gather is the kind of horror that doesn’t rely on cheap shocks but instead seeps under your skin and settles there. The haunted house isn’t just a setting; it’s a presence. From the covered mirrors to the silence around family tragedies, the atmosphere is thick with unease long before the supernatural fully reveals itself.

What really worked for me was the balance between human tension and horror. Avery and Carlos’s fractured marriage adds emotional weight, especially after Carlos’s devastating accident, which becomes a chilling turning point rather than a plot gimmick. Watching the power dynamics shift, while the house quite literally begins to speak, I was unsettling in a way that felt earned. The Filipino cultural elements and folklore elevate the story even further, grounding the terror in history, inheritance, and unspoken truths.

This is slow-burn, culturally rich horror that rewards patience. Creepy, emotionally layered, and quietly haunting,especially for readers who love when paranormal stories are about more than just ghosts.

[Nathalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love when a story infuses culture into the narrative, to both provide context and to inform the reader. She Waits Where Shadows Gather was absolutely full of Filipino cultural influence. Spanning from food and family dynamics, to views on the supernatural and faith.

The horror aspect of this story comes from a family home that is infested with spirits. Avery and her husband, Carlos, move to Manila to help his family with their ghost problem. But it’s not your typical haunted house: there is a fraught history attached to these spirits.

I struggled with the pacing of this story, mainly because I felt like the emphasis was placed on marital and infertility issues for a significant portion of the book. The horror/ suspense aspect came into play as the book progressed, and I really enjoyed how the author executed the events towards the end. Overall, I enjoyed how everything played out!

She Waits Where Shadows Gather releases on May 5, 2026.

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press (via Netgalley), for gifting me with an eARC. All thoughts expressed are my own.

[Misty Milk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great combination of descriptions that make your skin crawl and emotional connections that made me tear up 😭 The family dynamic is so strong in this one, and that's always a surefire way to tug on my heartstrings (e.g. Flanagan's Hill House adaptation or Tananarive Due's African Immortals series.)

[Annelise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Avery and Carlos are a Canadian married couple spending time in the Philippines. Carlos is the star of a ghost-hunting show, and is visiting his childhood home in an effort to prove that there are no ghosts within its walls so it can be sold. Avery is frustrated with her infertility, and hopes that some natural Filipino remedies can help her out. When Carlos is incapacitated by a car accident, the house feels more like a prison than a sanctuary, and Avery alone must face its hauntings.

'She Waits Where Shadows Gather' has a great title and an interesting premise, but focuses more on an intimate marital drama than the horrors that reside in Carlos's childhood home. Avery wants kids so badly that she has lost her savings on fertility treatments, and Carlos is so against kids that the idea of having them makes him sick. This aspect of their relationship was not at all discussed before they tied the knot. Lack of communication can be an interesting plot point, but in this story, it's more frustrating than compelling. Carlos and Avery are both unsympathetic characters, and I simply don't understand why the two are married to one another. Carlos seems drawn to anyone who will give him attention, but why does Avery love him? I was rooting for them to get a divorce, because it seemed like the best option for them.

To risk some spoilers, while I agree that Carlos was the more selfish of the two for lying, I don't like how it concludes with 'not wanting kids is also selfish'. Again, I just think a divorce was the better option for this couple. Avery's desire for children seemed more 'babies are cute' than 'I want to care for a human I make' (especially with how reluctant she is to care for her bed-bound husband). I don't feel like these are people who would be good parents, and Carlos seems more responsible for actively not wanting a child (even if his reasons are a bit suspect).

Overall, the horror is not enough for me to enjoy this book about people who should not be married in the first place. The ideal ending would have been them realizing it was sunk cost fallacy keeping them together.

[Ally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Now on to the review!
I wasn't a big fan of the story until the seance near the end. Both Avery and Carlos were so unlikable. I do not even understand how they were together for 10 years at this point and stayed together that whole time when their position on children were so different. That is such a huge dealbreaker. They should've broken up 9 years ago. Then Avery moves to the Philippines with Carlos to hopefully have a kid and salvage their marriage???? A kid is not going to do that. Spending life savings on IVF??? Why did Avery even want a kid that bad? It was never really explained. I just feel like this book focused too much on family and marriage drama over the ghosts and mystery. I would have preferred the book to focus more on that. In the end, older Carlos basically gives in and has the child anyways? Like what was the point of all of this back and forth for TEN years then?

Plot spoilers below
Lolo, Carlos's grandfather, took in Dolores after her parents were killed by the witch. The witch's daughter is locked in the mirrors. Carlos did almost die in the crash and he has been floating around while older Carlos took over his body and saved Avery from killing herself with the pills. That's why older Carlos came back. Then Carlos decided to sacrifice himself to take the witch's daughter away and they could both move on. I just don't understand why Avery would stay with older Carlos. He's technically still the same Carlos, he just regretted his actions. But he still did those actions. Avery should have left Carlos altogether and found someone else.
The ending with the seance and mystery and older Carlos is the reason why this book has 3 stars instead of 2.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carlos and Avery return to Carlos's childhood home to investigate potential a haunting. They bring with them a haunting of their own, in the form of a doomed relationship rife with secrets and unspoken resentments. A supernatural, haunted house horror follows, with a generous and enjoyable nod to Filipino culture. The horror elements had so much potential: body, insect, and supernatural horror were incorporated; however, this fell short of a truly scary reading experience for me.

One reason for this was that I never felt like I fully engaged with the story. Ultimately, I think, too much time was spent in the tedious turmoil of an unhappy relationship of incompatible partners. Both of whom, I am sorry to say, were not terribly likeable.

Twists that arrived in the fourth quarter were fantastic, truly the best part of the book; in fact, I don't think I have seen a premise like this in any other horror I have read. But this all came so late, and was so hastily covered - I wish more had gone into an exploration of this component of the story, and less time spent on yet another argument or inner dialogue of resentment between the two star crossed lovers.

Also, while the twist brought the story back to life, the final chapter let me down. It felt like a strange, unfitting afterthought, like a halfhearted bow placed on a carefully wrapped gift.

You may still enjoy this if you don't mind (or perhaps enjoy) a very in depth look into an unhappy relationship in your horror experience and can suspend some disbelief for a somewhat inexplicable denouement.

Thank you to NetGalley, Michelle Tang, and Poisoned Pen Press for sharing an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the eARC!

I always appreciate a book that is culturally diverse, so it was great to see Filipino culture in this novel.

However, I feel the story itself fell a little flat. We follow the story of Avery and Carlos, a couple that probably shouldn’t be together anymore. Avery is seeking fertility treatments, and Carlos refuses to take part in supporting his wife in this way, even though he has consented to having a child with her. Their story arc seems a little confusing, as the book went on, they were very back and forth. One minute they love each other, the next minute they are essentially wishing each other ill or wanting to separate. I never found myself feeling particularly sympathetic towards any of the characters, besides Avery towards the end.

As a big horror fan, there was not enough horror for me. This story arc was also confusing, as Carlos’ family was very firm in their beliefs about the house, and no one was allowed to talk about ghostly things while they were inside, but the next minute they were ghost hunting and trying to get to the bottom of paranormal activities in the house. And then everything is fine again, while they are still in the haunted house. The few scenes we get of creepy happenings are very quick and not very scary, in my opinion.

The first part of the book was very slow, and it did pick up the pace towards the end. All in all I think there is a nice plotline here, but the execution fell a little short for me.

[Jess (fosternfiction) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This eerie horror builds and creeps up on you so slowly that it feels like you experience the tense atmosphere right along with the characters. I'm not someone who gets the creeps easily but there were a few times throughout this novel that made me briefly look at the walls of my house a little differently!

While this novels does have a few horror tropes included, i would say this is more of a domestic horror which is not necessarily my favourite sub genre. I personally did find that i wished for less of that initially, however by the end i appreciated it's necessity. It very much focuses on the characters and has some emotional themes.

The Filipino Chinese culture, folklore and setting is a fascinating addition to the story with the inclusion of some traditional ghost and witchcraft stories. Some of the food descriptions also have me thinking i need to find a Filipino restaurant.

Thanks to @sourcebooks/@poisonedpenpress and #netgalley for the ARC!

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Married couple Avery and Carlos travel to the Philippines to help Carlos's parents try to sell what turns out to be a haunted house.

Michelle Tang draws on the rich folklore of the Philippines for the horror aspects of this novel. Reading about the different traditions of witchcraft, monsters, and protection rituals was fascinating, and could have made this a compelling horror novel if Tang hadn't buried it all beneath the soap opera of an unhappy marriage.

So much time is spent on Avery and Carlos blaming each other for their misery that I often forgot this is supposed to be a horror story. The most horrific thing about the majority of the book is that the two leads have been married for years and apparently never had a frank conversation with each other.

The bulk of the supernatural aspects are dealt with at the end of the book in a way that is deeply unsatisfying; it's rushed through and very much a case of telling rather than showing.

Received via NetGalley.

[Madame Strange · Rating 3 out of 5]

“She Waits Where Shadows Gather” - If I hear whispers coming from the floorboards I’m getting the hell out!

★★★☆☆ (3.5 But GoodReads still doesn’t do half stars)

First of all thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, I leave this review voluntarily.

I really enjoy when a story provides different cultural believes, superstitions and how families combine their faith with the supernatural. This novel combined Filipino culture, family dynamics, and domestic drama with an unsettling supernatural tale. The first half of the book I struggled a bit with the pace but it picked up halfway through the book and delivered a unique and intense ending.

[Maddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an arc in exchange for an honest review!

The haunted house/spirit aspect of this book really drew me in. I found the use of folktales I hadn't previously heard of pretty interesting and a way to make the story stand out. I also really enjoyed the family aspect, and the way the characters mixed their faith with their beliefs in the supernatural. While the horror/mystery elements of this book where easy to enjoy, at some points the unlikability of the 2 main characters, especially in the begining made parts of it feel a bit slow.

[lovelifeandbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over and over I repeated we are too brown for this until Avery finally listened; but it was too late by then. The novel did a good job providing classic western horror elements while introducing me to folktales I am not familiar with. (Note to self: next time google during daylight hours.) While I found myself very frustrated with the characters, I’m glad my curiosity kept pulling me through.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC.

[Megin Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

She Waits Where Shadows Gather is a haunting, atmospheric read that slowly seeps under your skin. The writing is moody and immersive, pulling you into a world where tension builds quietly but relentlessly. I loved how the story balances emotional depth with creeping unease, making the shadows feel just as important as the characters themselves. This is the kind of book that lingers after the last page—perfect for readers who enjoy dark, introspective stories with an unsettling edge.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst some parts of this book were enjoyable like the influence of Filipino culture on the story, there were other parts that I did not enjoy. Overall, I thought there was too much focus on the main characters marriage and infertility difficulties that took me out of the story.

I am not saying no to this authors future works but this story just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC in return for an honest review.

[Samantha Hehr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of all the Filipino books I've tried, this one was the best.
A Fil-Can Toronto couple moves to a family home in Manila, with the intent to try and sell it.

I'd love to read a story about a Filipino who is not rich. Maybe the maid's perspective.

[Remi]

sounds like a nightmare, so i'm here

*thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC*

[Nelly]

need <3

[Trisha]

ooooh I'm IN!

[Aida ☾ · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was ok but I was expecting more