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May the Dead Keep You
Not yet published
Expected 21 Apr 26Perfect for fans of
Don't Let the Forest In
and
Wuthering Heights
,
May the Dead Keep You
is a gothic YA horror about the pasts that haunt us and the stories we decide to make for ourselves.
There’s nowhere Catie East would rather be than the redwood forest that surrounds her family’s unusual historic home, the Heights.
She prefers being alone in the forest. People are…complicated. But when a scientist and his son move into the estate’s cottage, planning to study the woods around them, the boy catches Catie’s eye. And when a dead woodpecker miraculously comes back to life in his precious hands…he captures her heart.
Necromancy isn’t the only strange thing happening in the Heights. There’s an unfamiliar face in the mirror. Blood on the floors. Eyes in the wallpaper. And the men around her—including her once-sweet nature boy—are becoming something else. Something possessive and frightening. Something violent.
As the Heights’s dark history starts to come to light, Catie discovers that the home she loves is imbued with pain. And even though the pain isn’t her own, it will corrupt her and the people around her all the same—unless she can stop it.
A story about breaking cycles of abuse and overcoming generational trauma, May the Dead Keep You is an edge-of-your-seat listen—equally horrifying, heart-wrenching, and hopeful.
There’s nowhere Catie East would rather be than the redwood forest that surrounds her family’s unusual historic home, the Heights.
She prefers being alone in the forest. People are…complicated. But when a scientist and his son move into the estate’s cottage, planning to study the woods around them, the boy catches Catie’s eye. And when a dead woodpecker miraculously comes back to life in his precious hands…he captures her heart.
Necromancy isn’t the only strange thing happening in the Heights. There’s an unfamiliar face in the mirror. Blood on the floors. Eyes in the wallpaper. And the men around her—including her once-sweet nature boy—are becoming something else. Something possessive and frightening. Something violent.
As the Heights’s dark history starts to come to light, Catie discovers that the home she loves is imbued with pain. And even though the pain isn’t her own, it will corrupt her and the people around her all the same—unless she can stop it.
A story about breaking cycles of abuse and overcoming generational trauma, May the Dead Keep You is an edge-of-your-seat listen—equally horrifying, heart-wrenching, and hopeful.
384 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication April 21, 2026
4 people are currently reading
189 people want to read
About the author
Jill Baguchinsky
6 books126 followersJill Baguchinsky grew up fluent in darkness and Disney. She spent much of her life on a barrier island just off the coast of Southwest Florida, where she read way too much Stephen King and dodged more hurricanes than she could count.
Jill still lives in Florida, but after one hurricane too many, she and her mini menagerie of rescue animals moved inland. Aside from the manatees she used to watch in her backyard canal, she doesn’t miss much about island life.
Jill still lives in Florida, but after one hurricane too many, she and her mini menagerie of rescue animals moved inland. Aside from the manatees she used to watch in her backyard canal, she doesn’t miss much about island life.
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August 6, 2025Hey there! Just dropping by to note that content/trigger warnings for MAY THE DEAD KEEP YOU are available here: https://jillbaguchinsky.com/mtdky-con...
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Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I'm quite impressed by this author this time around. This story was original with just the right amount of creepy mystery. I really enjoyed the writing style, character development, world building and consistent pacing. The cover didn't pull me in but the blurb had me intrigued enough to give this book a try, and I'm glad I did. This is an author to watch.
Thank you to Netgalley for offering this title in their catalog. The opinions expressed above are entirely my own.
If you love active book communities, check out LiterALLy BOOKiSh Book Club (on Facebook)! Games, giveaways, discussions, reviews, bingo, swaps, traveling books, and a lot more!
Thank you to Netgalley for offering this title in their catalog. The opinions expressed above are entirely my own.
If you love active book communities, check out LiterALLy BOOKiSh Book Club (on Facebook)! Games, giveaways, discussions, reviews, bingo, swaps, traveling books, and a lot more!
October 24, 2025
May the Dead Keep You is a spooky YA mystery for ages 14+. It mixes ghostly chills with a real look at love, trust, and personal boundaries. I loved how the main character stands up for herself in a pressured moment—and the guy actually listens and apologizes. There are elements of bisexuality exploration and underage drinking that might not suit all readers, but overall, it’s a thoughtful story about recognizing red flags and learning self-respect amid the scares.
December 7, 2025
Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
“May the Dead Keep You” is an atmospheric, slow-creeping YA horror that combines supernatural terror with the real-life horrors of control, abuse, and generational trauma. Intensely eerie and emotionally layered, it reads like “The Haunting of Hill House” meets “The Shining,” with unsettling body horror and psychological tension threaded through every chapter.
The story follows Catie East, a quiet, nature-loving teen who has always felt safest wandering the redwood forest surrounding her family’s crumbling estate, The Heights. She’s lived there for years, but strange things are only just beginning with blood appearing where it shouldn’t, figures flickering in reflections, and the wallpaper seeming to watch her. Interwoven between Catie’s perspective are “ephemera” chapters: haunting historical snippets about Catherine, a former teenage resident trapped in a life of fear under her abusive father. These flashbacks gradually parallel Catie’s reality, tightening the story’s unsettling tone as past and present collide.
When a researcher and his son Hunter move into the property’s cottage, the book briefly shifts toward soft first-crush energy. Hunter is sweet and is golden retriever–coded at first, and their relationship develops quickly in a way that feels authentically teenage. But as the haunting escalates, Hunter’s behavior becomes controlling, jealous, and frightening. The supernatural influence never excuses his actions, and the book does an excellent job highlighting warning signs in relationships like touching without consent, isolation, manipulation, especially for younger readers still learning to recognize red flags.
The horror elements grow steadily more visceral, including possession and moments of disturbing body imagery, making this best suited for older YA audiences. The necromancy subplot is intriguing, particularly during one unforgettable scene with a dead woodpecker, but it receives limited explanation, leaving that thread underdeveloped.
The climax ties together the past and present in a predictable but satisfying way, offering closure, emotional release, and, most importantly, hope. The story wraps up well with a bittersweet resolution centered on reclaiming safety, agency, and identity.
Overall, “May the Dead Keep You” is chilling, thoughtful, and nearly impossible to put down. Those who enjoy haunted houses, psychologically complex characters, and horror with emotional depth will find plenty to love. It’s unsettling, empowering, and a compelling exploration of how cycles of trauma (and the ghosts they leave behind) can finally be broken.
“May the Dead Keep You” is an atmospheric, slow-creeping YA horror that combines supernatural terror with the real-life horrors of control, abuse, and generational trauma. Intensely eerie and emotionally layered, it reads like “The Haunting of Hill House” meets “The Shining,” with unsettling body horror and psychological tension threaded through every chapter.
The story follows Catie East, a quiet, nature-loving teen who has always felt safest wandering the redwood forest surrounding her family’s crumbling estate, The Heights. She’s lived there for years, but strange things are only just beginning with blood appearing where it shouldn’t, figures flickering in reflections, and the wallpaper seeming to watch her. Interwoven between Catie’s perspective are “ephemera” chapters: haunting historical snippets about Catherine, a former teenage resident trapped in a life of fear under her abusive father. These flashbacks gradually parallel Catie’s reality, tightening the story’s unsettling tone as past and present collide.
When a researcher and his son Hunter move into the property’s cottage, the book briefly shifts toward soft first-crush energy. Hunter is sweet and is golden retriever–coded at first, and their relationship develops quickly in a way that feels authentically teenage. But as the haunting escalates, Hunter’s behavior becomes controlling, jealous, and frightening. The supernatural influence never excuses his actions, and the book does an excellent job highlighting warning signs in relationships like touching without consent, isolation, manipulation, especially for younger readers still learning to recognize red flags.
The horror elements grow steadily more visceral, including possession and moments of disturbing body imagery, making this best suited for older YA audiences. The necromancy subplot is intriguing, particularly during one unforgettable scene with a dead woodpecker, but it receives limited explanation, leaving that thread underdeveloped.
The climax ties together the past and present in a predictable but satisfying way, offering closure, emotional release, and, most importantly, hope. The story wraps up well with a bittersweet resolution centered on reclaiming safety, agency, and identity.
Overall, “May the Dead Keep You” is chilling, thoughtful, and nearly impossible to put down. Those who enjoy haunted houses, psychologically complex characters, and horror with emotional depth will find plenty to love. It’s unsettling, empowering, and a compelling exploration of how cycles of trauma (and the ghosts they leave behind) can finally be broken.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Catie has always felt so at home in The Heights, an infamous castle-like home made by a renowned architect in the middle of a Californian redwood forest. When her mother invites the Solis family to stay in their guest cottage, Catie is immediately suspicious of the boy and his father intruding into her woods. But she gets to know Hunter, the boy, more at the insistence of her best friend Ivy, and a relationship blossoms. It's not long before it turns dark, threatening Catie's friendship with Ivy and causing her brother to become more possessive over her. More strange things begin to happen at The Heights, like the sapling man Catie keeps seeing, feathers coming out of a cut on her foot, a woodpecker smashing into her window...as things get eerier, it becomes clear that there is something wrong with the house, and maybe with Catie herself.
The whole story has such a great intense, spooky vibe to it that starts out very early on. Catie's current story is interspersed with sections called "ephemera" (often with photos or illustrations) that reveal more about the people who lived in the home when it was first built. I think there was a lot of potential here, but there was just SO much going on. It was difficult to get through the chapters where Catie and Hunter developed their relationship; it was so obviously abusive that it was hard to stomach, and we don't find out truly why Catie is so blind to the abuse until much later. I was also incredibly frustrated that the magical elements were so easily accepted but large parts of them never truly explained, like Hunter and Catie's ability to resurrect the dead. There are also little hints of commentary on capitalism and big pharma, but it's only very briefly touched on. And we never get a true reason why Hunter and his father even come to stay at the cottage to begin with, other than that his dad is working on a study for Catie's mom's company.
A solid story that the right readers of haunted house stories will devour, despite its flaws.
The whole story has such a great intense, spooky vibe to it that starts out very early on. Catie's current story is interspersed with sections called "ephemera" (often with photos or illustrations) that reveal more about the people who lived in the home when it was first built. I think there was a lot of potential here, but there was just SO much going on. It was difficult to get through the chapters where Catie and Hunter developed their relationship; it was so obviously abusive that it was hard to stomach, and we don't find out truly why Catie is so blind to the abuse until much later. I was also incredibly frustrated that the magical elements were so easily accepted but large parts of them never truly explained, like Hunter and Catie's ability to resurrect the dead. There are also little hints of commentary on capitalism and big pharma, but it's only very briefly touched on. And we never get a true reason why Hunter and his father even come to stay at the cottage to begin with, other than that his dad is working on a study for Catie's mom's company.
A solid story that the right readers of haunted house stories will devour, despite its flaws.
December 16, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me an advanced copy in exchange for a honest review!
This book has a very interesting and eerie presence. It follows our main character, Catie, a rich, semi-feral (queen of ignoring red flags) seventeen year old who lives in a historical mansion in the middle of nowhere. She has a deep connection with the forest and wants to honor the animals within it. The story begins when a teenage boy, who happens to enjoy taxidermy, moves into the cottage her mom is renting and odd things start happening in her home and in her forest.
I really enjoyed putting together the hints of things that are not quite right within the book (the sudden possessiveness, the aggression, etc) that give the book its mysterious edge. Although, there are some things that I think are not quite right in a potentially unintentional way such as: why the CEO of a pharmaceutical company will have her children live in the middle of nowhere, why the mom just automatically buys that her child has powers, and furthermore I don’t think why the powers exist is ever explained?
One thing I absolutely loved was the immersive feeling created by the author incorporating found media from the prior owners of the mansion i.e. photographs, records, diary entries, etc. The ones that were verbatim describing a photograph were a little odd and hard to follow but the diary entries are some of my favorite parts of the book!
Overall, I think this is a great read for fans of eerie suspense, mystery, or forest-related horror!
This book has a very interesting and eerie presence. It follows our main character, Catie, a rich, semi-feral (queen of ignoring red flags) seventeen year old who lives in a historical mansion in the middle of nowhere. She has a deep connection with the forest and wants to honor the animals within it. The story begins when a teenage boy, who happens to enjoy taxidermy, moves into the cottage her mom is renting and odd things start happening in her home and in her forest.
I really enjoyed putting together the hints of things that are not quite right within the book (the sudden possessiveness, the aggression, etc) that give the book its mysterious edge. Although, there are some things that I think are not quite right in a potentially unintentional way such as: why the CEO of a pharmaceutical company will have her children live in the middle of nowhere, why the mom just automatically buys that her child has powers, and furthermore I don’t think why the powers exist is ever explained?
One thing I absolutely loved was the immersive feeling created by the author incorporating found media from the prior owners of the mansion i.e. photographs, records, diary entries, etc. The ones that were verbatim describing a photograph were a little odd and hard to follow but the diary entries are some of my favorite parts of the book!
Overall, I think this is a great read for fans of eerie suspense, mystery, or forest-related horror!
September 22, 2025
Spooky and atmospheric, May the Dead Keep You by Jill Baguchinsky, gives the dark vibes of The Haunting of Hill House. Here are some specific elements of the story which may deserve a warning: possession, body horror, blood, abuse, murder, and death.
The story is told in first person, with little flashbacks (called ephemera) to the first teenager living in the house. As the current inhabitant starts to notice odd things happening with her family, the flashbacks start to turn sinister and the suspense continues to coil tighter and tighter, until it snaps.
The book is a page-turner, and everything is generally wrapped up at the end. I would have liked to have read a little bit about how this was explained to the authorities, though.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews