The Thorns We Wear Inside

by Amy Avery

For fans of For the Wolf and Nettle & Bone comes a dark, romantic fantasy about a witch, a monster, and the two parasitic demons who’ll stop at nothing to keep them apart.

Raye is cursed. Living things crumble at her touch, drained by the demon who clings to her like a seductive, malevolent shadow. No wonder the townsfolk want her dead. Tormented and pursued, she seeks shelter in a mysterious castle at the heart of a forest.

The castle is an eerie place. Its residents lie trapped in time like flies in amber, all save one. Mir. Mir has a demon of her own, a creature that forces her to seek and crave blood. When the two women begin to use the castle’s trove of magic to unravel their curses, their demons unite. The parasites refuse to let their hosts escape, and perhaps even more dangerously, Mir can bear Raye’s poisonous touch: the first caress either of them has felt in years.

As monster hunters close in on the forest, both Raye and Mir will have to break both the castle's curse and the binds of their twisted quadrangle before the past catches up with them.

Seductive and cinematic, this dark fantasy has teeth. Step into the castle. If you dare.

Genres: Fantasy, Lesbian, LGBT, Romance, Fiction, Queer, Horror

320 pages, Paperback

Expected publication November 10, 2026

Reviews

[✨ tweety ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

The thorns we wear inside fits the mood of this period. Autumn, fallen leaves, darker nights and shorter days. Witches, demons, ghosts. The main setting is this beautiful, grandiose mansion hidden in the deadly woods where one of the mcs, Raye, finds herself after she runs away from a nearby town. Raye is a witch and is cursed. Not only is she followed by a demon, but whoever she touches, dies. Aside than her demon companion, only one person is safe from her touch. Like Raye, Mir has a demon attached to her. She's half alive in a house full of people whose lives are stuck like in a dream, or more of a nightmare.

What I liked the most was the atmosphere. The house and its inhabitants were well described and I felt the dread, the grief and terror of Raye and Mir as they moved around the corridors. But all the rest was too surface level to me. The characters had personality but somehow they all felt similar and a bit flat. I wanted to know more about their past. I wanted to know more of the reasons the citizens disliked Raye and the Torch and the other orders. Instead the actions and the inner monologues felt repetitive and didn't add anything new or interesting to the narration. Like the characters who repeated everything everyday, the writing was an endless recycle of the same stuff we already knew.

The slow pacing was another reason I couldn't fully enjoy this. This story is around 320 pages long, but nothing much happens for most of it. I would expect to be hooked in the first 2-3 chapters, but come 25% and even more, and nothing. Most of the resolution happens in the last few chapters and super quick.

The beautiful cover lured me in. I thought this story could be perfect for me as well, but I am afraid it didn't. It could appeal to other readers, though! Don't let my review influence you too much.

Thanks so much to DAW for the arc. Opinions are mine.

[Ariel (ariel_reads) · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

I was really hoping to love this book. Demons, curses, sapphic rep, messy entanglements-- this all appealed to me! Where this book shone the most was the characters are all built up in high definition, and each of the character POVs felt distinct. The writing was easy to follow, well done, and engaging, and made for a quick read.

The plot is extremely character driven, which in general is fine, but there didn't seem to be much plot besides the characters themselves, and I found myself wanting more. I would have loved to dig deeper into the Church as a villainous entity, fuller backstories of the demons themselves, and given Mir and Raye more to do than restore a cursed castle and dodge their demons (literally).

I definitely can see how others would enjoy this more than me, and I definitely will recommend it if someone's in the mood for this level of character driven romantasy.

A huge thank you to DAW for the eARC in exchange for my honest thoughts!

[Demetri Papadimitropoulos · Rating 3.25 out of 5]

A Meal Left Waiting for Two Hundred Years: What Love Cannot Restore When the Enchantment Finally Ends
Amy Avery's "The Thorns We Wear Inside" finds its most unsettling image in a suspended household where two dangerous women learn to love, and the ordinary lives interrupted around them must eventually resume without everyone who began them.
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | November 1st, 2026

Death has kept immaculate house at the center of the Wightwood. A woman holds smoking herbs to her lips; a child remains balanced on one foot; dinner gives off its appetizing steam long after anyone should have cleared the plates. In Amy Avery’s “The Thorns We Wear Inside,” the castle preserving these gestures offers sanctuary to a fugitive witch, but its hospitality has a peculiar condition: nearly everyone who lives there has been deprived of the right to live. The enchantment has preserved their gestures without protecting their lives. Mir has learned to exploit the difference. Avery has built a refuge with a cellar full of evidence. At first its silence seems merciful. Then Raye learns where the missing residents have gone.

Even before the castle appears, Raye counts her dead. At eighteen she killed accidentally; at nineteen she killed a man who tried to kiss her; later came four witch-hunters, and now ten more priests and hunters after the execution of Alme, her mentor and surrogate mother. Her first sentence calls that first death a “victim” before any account of innocence, and her next thought acknowledges that accident changes little for the dead man. She concedes the dead man’s loss before explaining her own. Raye’s touch drains life into Avexis, the parasitic demon inhabiting her, and she has spent years protecting others from a body that cannot distinguish a caress from a death sentence. The confession remains on the page when the story turns to Alme’s death and Raye’s flight.

Mir is the castle’s only other moving inhabitant, and Avery gives her the second chapter, before Raye has even learned her name. Almost two centuries earlier, she became a blood-hungry creature in the aftermath of fighting the Deathsbane King; now the demon Shirryn draws power from the misery and killing that sustain her. She also keeps a hidden dungeon full of the people she has drained. We see her measure the promise of a living stranger against her appetite, then drain a captive butcher. Raye has yet to learn what Mir has done; we have watched her do it. By the time they begin to court each other, one of Mir’s victims has already occupied an entire scene.

Every still life in the castle contains an interrupted conversation. Raye disturbs a thread of steam and watches it settle back into stillness; her movement enters the scene without releasing it from the spell. The active characters can eat the food, borrow the clothes, displace a frozen body, even kill its owner, while the inhabitants cannot answer. Time has stopped, but consumption has not. Mir accumulates victims while those who might protest, intervene or remember them together remain imprisoned in a single gesture. No one can challenge the predator or tell a neighbor whose place at dinner is empty.

The ghosts sound most dangerous just before Raye understands them. They hiss, claw and press upon her already fragile mind. Then a group gathers around an undamaged tapestry and, instead of advancing upon her, moves aside. Their broken speech turns from a chant of death into commands: “Stop. Save us. See. Help us.” The scraping that seemed to promise an attack has been an effort to direct her attention. Avery stages the discovery spatially: hanging fabric, concealed door, steep staircase, torchlight, the descent into a place obscured from the splendid rooms above. The ghosts flank the tapestry like guards, leaving Raye the choice to open what they cannot.

Raye reaches the dungeon, and Avery shifts from apprehensive description to blunt enumeration: “The place was full of corpses. Dozens of them.” The three-word fragment offers a number without pretending to count. After the carefully staged descent, Avery gives us nine plain words and no metaphor. Beyond the iron bars lie torn throats and the bodies of people missing from the halls above. The violence has an architecture: Mir stores her victims beneath the life she claims to protect upstairs. Outside, the ghosts have nearly torn themselves apart trying to speak. Among these corpses there are none. The first room to offer Raye certainty is the quietest one. Mir’s own chapter has already told us whose bodies these are. We wait to see what Raye will do with that knowledge. Most of the dead, meanwhile, remain unrecognizable: the scene makes their absence visible without recovering their lives.

If the dungeon makes pity for Mir harder, it should: her suffering has not spared anyone in those cells. She was transformed under circumstances shaped by duty, devotion and the demands placed upon a weapon sent to protect others. Shirryn uses her shame as surely as she uses her hunger. Raye, meanwhile, understands what it means to have another will lodged inside her mind. They know the weight of an unwanted appetite and the relief of meeting someone who can bear it. They do not know the names of most people who paid for that relief. They may free the people still standing in the corridors. The dungeon will remain full.

Perhaps the strangest way to loosen a demonic curse is to finish someone else’s chores. The curse begins to weaken as Raye and Mir investigate the frozen residents’ unfinished desires and complete particular tasks on their behalf. A mother has begun a soft green scarf for her son’s nameday; elsewhere a punished soldier must clean the armory, and a kitchen servant is preparing cinnamon buns as a gift for a friend. Raye’s notebook collects these wants in writing, but no resident can correct what she records or say whether the gesture has been done properly. Each task requires a different skill; none of its beneficiaries can answer back. Raye still borrows other people’s possessions without permission, but now pauses over what they were using them for. Swords would be faster; a scarf is harder to turn into a victory speech.

Avexis can read the residents’ wishes, but will not share them until Raye feeds her human souls. Mir later asks how many people Raye has sacrificed to Avexis, refusing to let her speak as though all the bodies belong to Mir. Avexis has manufactured the price of useful knowledge. The notebook keeps track of what someone wanted, but not the life Raye has taken to learn it. She could fill every page and still be in debt.

Pressed skin, bitter magic and the resin at Mir’s neck often tell us more than the narrators’ explanations. Mir dresses a body she can barely tolerate seeing; the touch of a ghost can wound. Even desire arrives through appetite and scent. Avery’s physical vocabulary is more varied than the rhythms she gives it. Hearts race, chests tighten, muscles tremble and shame washes over the narrators with sufficient regularity that distinct experiences begin to borrow the same bodily vocabulary. An exhausted Raye, a hungry Mir and a woman about to be kissed do not always need to clutch the same figurative chest.

A cinnamon bun has an uglier history than its fragrance suggests. Raye enters the kitchen to find the serving girl she has begun addressing every morning missing from her place at the chopping board. The girl’s repeated greeting and undiminished smile had become a kind of companionship, although she has never been free to choose it. Mir has fed on her. Raye’s bitter question – was she delicious? – meets a countercharge about the souls Raye herself has given Avexis. Mir even asks whether Raye would feel differently if she knew the victims’ failings, as though another person’s private wrongdoing might lessen the offense of eating them. Neither accusation leaves the other woman much room for innocence. Their acknowledgement, “We’re murderers, both of us,” does not mend the empty space. Raye takes up the abandoned dough, intended as a nameday gift, and begins working it beneath her palms. “Knead, fold, turn. Knead, fold, turn.” Three short verbs become a rhythm Raye can obey when she can no longer reason herself calm. The servant’s unfinished gift passes beneath Raye’s hands. The dough will soon hold the marks of Mir’s claws as well.

Dough records what their bodies cannot yet safely say. Mir joins Raye, and her sharpened nails leave punctures in the soft mixture. She retracts them, allowing Raye to guide her hands, then briefly leans into a kiss on her neck before recoiling. She can shorten her nails at will. Her desire for Raye proves harder to put away. Avery then changes viewpoint. Raye has experienced rejection, but Mir’s ensuing chapter reveals desire entangled with disgust at her own appearance and fear of betraying Aria. The force of the shove remains; its meaning is no longer straightforward. Then Mir spends so long accounting for her excitement and her guilt that the kiss begins to resemble a question with the answers printed beneath it. The dough, meanwhile, remains on the kitchen table. No one has asked the dead servant whether the buns should still be made.

In their short chapters, Avexis and Shirryn make a grotesque sport of possessing what they want. Avexis feeds on souls and desires; Shirryn cultivates misery, with an especially vicious pleasure in Mir’s humiliation. Their intimacy involves tearing at one another’s bodies, wounds healing as fast as they are made. Avexis later takes control of Raye’s body to approach Mir, making literal the violation hidden inside the demon’s earlier professions of intimacy. We learn their intentions well before their hosts do. The suspense shifts from what the demons want to when the women will discover the bargain being made with their bodies.

Mir cuts roses for Aria as though flowers might be counted instead of years. Aria knew her before the Deathsbane King, when Mir was still a young warrior rather than a thing that needed blood. Mir does not trim the thorns from her roses because Aria saw the blades beside the blossom as an image of them: one woman gentle, the other a weapon guarding her. The untrimmed flower preserves an old arrangement: Aria the gentle beloved, Mir the weapon permitted to stand beside her. Mir comes to understand how completely she has made Aria the keeper of her lost innocence. Saving Aria is a loving ambition, but it is also an effort to keep open a route back to someone she no longer is. Raye has never known that earlier girl. Raye knows the bloody version Aria has never met. That may make loving Mir easier, and judging her harder.

Inside Aria’s rose-filled room lies the person whose death would solve almost everything. If Aria dies, the other inhabitants will be freed and Mir can leave. Mir refuses. Raye, who has watched Mir suffer and is herself growing weaker, sees the bargain differently. Yet the woman whose death would accomplish these things is unconscious and incapable of refusal. Mir loves Aria, so her refusal is not impartial. Still, the usefulness of Aria’s death does not entitle either lover to cause it. Mir, who has taken so many lives without permission, refuses to take this one. Raye, who has resisted Avexis, prepares to do it for love.

The betrayal is prepared as carefully as a romantic evening, which is why Raye’s earlier history matters. Midway through the novel, Avery abandons the castle for a long memory of Gemma, the seamstress Raye once adored. The fitting room promises the touch Raye has long desired. Later Gemma kisses her with the taste of apricot hand pie still on her tongue; pleasure ends when she transfers Avexis to Raye and murmurs, “I’m sorry.” Years afterward, Raye dresses for a final evening with Mir, drinks a sedative designed to pass through her blood, and offers the intimacy they have fought to make possible. When the drug takes effect, Raye enters Aria’s room with a dagger. She too says, “I’m sorry,” to the woman she is about to kill. Raye had also apologized while taking gloves from a frozen stranger, a tiny trespass she could acknowledge without asking leave. At Aria’s bedside, the words accompany a dagger. Gemma transfers a demon; Raye attempts a murder. The earlier episode occupies a full retrospective chapter, set among fittings, silk and the pleasures of being chosen; the later betrayal occurs after prolonged negotiations over whether touch can be safely offered. A kiss is permitted; the possession and the drugging are not. The apology comes after the choice has been taken.

Raye’s honey-mint candies recall childhood and Alme. As the jar empties, Mir leaves her another pot, with a note. Later she refuses to let Raye kill Aria, though the Church is approaching and escape seems impossible. A pot of sweets does nothing for Mir’s victims, but it is care with no blood in it. And when Mir prevents the killing of Aria, her attachment imposes a limit upon what Raye may do for her. Mir’s refusal is not purely disinterested, since Aria is also the last living connection to the person she hopes she once was. But mixed motives do not nullify the boundary she keeps. Here care means refusing something the beloved desperately wants. Nor should the parallel make their harms interchangeable. Mir has killed frozen residents for decades; Raye has fed her demon and now attempts a deliberate murder after exploiting her lover’s trust. Sharing a word for what they are does not make their deeds match.

Over forty-six chapters, feeling too often returns before circumstances have changed. The women complete a task, experience a surge of feeling, recoil from an advance, revisit guilt, endure an intervention from a demon, and return to the work. The house’s stalled conversations justify repetition; the plot’s stalls do not. Midway through, short demon chapters and intimate confessions interrupt conflicts whose terms barely change. Emotional intensity becomes the default, even where quiet would serve better. A small note beneath a new pot of candies, or Mir’s insistence on dressing a body she can scarcely look at, could stand on its own a little longer.

Pain is what keeps Shirryn’s enchanted box locked. Every completed wish chips away at its spikes, weakening the demon who feeds on the residents’ anguish. Mir realizes that she too is among the suffering, and that clinging to Aria as proof of her lost innocence has nourished Shirryn. The mechanism is coherent. Then the remaining spikes crumble, Mir destroys the box, Raye kills Avexis with a shard and a prayer to Thale, and the two women become mortal. The book scarcely gives us time to register the return of an ordinary pulse before an arrest and a rescue follow. Shirryn’s death ends Mir’s supernatural punishment, but none of the dead are returned to the dining hall. The magic makes misery measurable in crumbling spikes; the murdered residents cannot be restored by the same subtraction. For a few pages, smashing the box seems easier than deciding what Mir owes those she has survived.

One older fairy tale provides a useful measure of what is at stake. In her 2016 University of Michigan Library essay on “Beauty and the Beast,” Juli McLoone notes the Beast’s willingness to accept Beauty’s refusal, particularly amid eighteenth-century restrictions on women’s autonomy. Avery’s lovers are frightening for reasons a kiss cannot cure: beyond claws and gray-stained fingers lie victims they chose. Consent, when the women manage to practice it, must coexist with remembered harm. Avery’s transformations restore the lovers’ bodies, but the questions of refusal and responsibility survive them. Aria must confront those questions in the few pages left.

Under the restored castle’s roof, the survivors can finally answer, though the dead never will. Aria awakens to learn that Mir has killed members of her household; she orders the woman she loves arrested. The Church arrives to assert its own brutal authority. Raye kills its Torch and escapes with Mir. Aria deceives the surviving hunters with a story of the fugitive’s death, shielding the newly awakened community from the Church’s attention. Her lie does not forgive Mir; it acknowledges that surrendering her to the Church would expose the entire castle to another form of coercion. Aria cannot speak for the dead, but she can refuse to remain the sweet, motionless object of Mir’s hopes.

Letters behave strangely in a castle where the recipient has been denied nearly two centuries of time. Raye and Mir, restored to mortal bodies, ask whether they still love each other without the curses that made their compatibility exceptional. They decide they do, declaring themselves monstrous together. Aria cannot undo their escape. She can tell us what it looks like from the place they have abandoned. She reads a letter Mir wrote before the curse broke, a farewell meant for the death Mir expected rather than the flight she achieved. Mir writes that her own death will have paid for her crimes. Aria reads the promise after Mir has been spared, while the castle’s bereaved must reckon with losses no execution could undo. The letter arrives at a future its writer did not imagine. It has lost the power to say goodbye, but not to hurt.

Only Aria can read the letter as both an avowal of love and an account of a punishment that never happened. Her last sentence, “Perhaps I was a monster too,” undoes the lovers’ certainty without denying their love. “Perhaps” withholds the acquittal; “too” joins Aria to their world of compromise without making their crimes the same. Aria helped send Mir against the Deathsbane King; after awakening, she sentences her former lover to die, then lies to protect the castle from the Church. These choices are not equivalent to Mir’s murders. She cannot absolve Mir, and she does not claim the innocence of a judge outside the story. She looks beyond the walls for someone who will not come back, the letter still in her hand.

Some chores can be resumed when the spell lifts. The girl who was making cinnamon buns will not resume hers. My rating is 73/100, equivalent to Goodreads 3.25/5: an inventive and genuinely affecting gothic romance, substantially weakened by repeated emotional explanation, a circling middle and a climax too eager to settle its own complications. Raye and Mir can touch without dying, but the people at the table must learn who will never sit there again. The gates open; the lovers depart; somewhere inside, a meal interrupted two centuries earlier finally has to be cleared away.

[The Sapphic Nerd · Rating 2 out of 5]

*** Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC! ***

This is generally a not terrible read. I don't hate it, but I also don't have anything I love or that's memorable. I don't feel strongly for any of the characters and the story is bland. A sapphic Beauty and the Beast inspired Gothic tale - if the Beast were a vampire and the Beauty were a witch - could have been delicious.

There are full chapters of exposition where the character tells the reader (because this is in first person) about their past and what led them to this point. Only there isn't something triggering the character to give you their whole backstory at this particular point in the book, which makes it feel pointless to find out. I honestly could have done without the exposition and just let the backstory remain a mystery because it carried no emotional weight.

Similarly, the romance carries no emotional weight. Somehow, Raye becomes attracted to Mir, and I don't understand why, other than they exist in the castle together, Raye able to touch her, and Mir's not evil the way Shirryn is. It seems like it comes out of nowhere. I don't feel the tension or chemistry build. The author writes on the page they're attracted to each other, but I don't feel it. I read the words that they've been getting comfortable with each other over months, but I don't get to see it and experience it so that their conflicting desires create emotions in me. It's so much telling and not enough showing.

It makes more sense for Raye and Avexis to fall in love since they've been sleeping together for years. They have an established relationship of fulfilling each other's desires and, especially for Raye, that comes with a vulnerability she doesn't share with anyone else. For Avexis, I can see Raye's familiarity and their mutual understanding becoming more attractive than being passed around from host to host without a "home" to stay anchored to, provided that Raye continies to feed her. A wasted opportunity.

There's also this thing with Raye continuing to hit on Mir after being rejected/ignored by her. It's weird. She can't control herself for some reason, and it makes me wrinkle my nose that she doesn't stop.

By the end of the book, they've known each other a year. That's plenty of time for a believable romance to develop. Unfortunately, most of that year is recounted after the fact with generalities, so I couldn't develop emotional investment.

There isn't much plot here. A deadline is mentioned every now and then with the Church coming to the woods, but the characters then proceed to take weeks and months to accomplish things in the castle. It makes the sense of urgency feel fake because the story happens at its own pace regardless of what's going on in the outside world. And sadly, what's going on between the characters doesn't make up for the lack of action. The whole thing just sort of drags on. Even the ending feels dull.

The author's note mentions the original work being a novella. The story would have been far better served at that length rather than being extended to a full novel. There isn't enough plot or internal character development at its current length, and a more concise word count would have kept it from feeling stretched thin. There's potential here. It just didn't live up to the promise.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and DAW for providing a copy of this novel!

I don't know why this book has such a low rating, I liked it. The story is quite slow, with the majority of the book just Raye and Mir wandering around and wallowing, but I didn't mind it. I was really invested in the characters and what was going to happen next.
I also really liked the characters. As I mentioned, there was a lot of wallowing in this book, but I liked it. I loved all the angst with Mir. I really liked the way her bloodlust was handled. I feel like most vampire characters don't really feel like that much of a threat. That wasn't the case with Mir. It really felt like she could lose it and kill Raye at any time. I also loved all her self-loathing and how it was tied to her relationship with both Aria and Raye.
Speaking of Raye, I liked her sections, but she wasn't really as interesting of a character. I remember enjoying her passages, but reflecting on the book now, I cannot remember anything about her character. I think I mainly just liked how she added to the angst and further moved the plot along.
I liked what the demon characters added as well. They didn't have that many chapters, as the majority of the focus was on Mir and Raye, but the few they had were quite daunting. I do wish they would have been better utilized though, as they didn't really serve as that much of an active threat to the story.
Even though I liked each of the character perspectives, I can say their voices were quite similar. I couldn't tell the voices apart and would sometimes forget who was speaking.
Anyway, while this book was quite slow, I really enjoyed it and think it deserves a higher goodreads rating.

[Cassandra Western · Rating 3 out of 5]

The gorgeous cover and the promise of witches, demons, ghosts, and a sapphic Gothic romance immediately drew me in. Set within a grand, eerie mansion hidden deep in deadly woods, the story follows Raye, a cursed witch whose touch brings death to anyone she comes into contact with. Haunted by a demon companion and feared by those around her, she finds refuge in a strange house where the only person safe from her touch is Mir, a girl carrying demons of her own. The premise had everything I usually love, and the atmosphere was undoubtedly the strongest part of the book.

The mansion itself felt alive with grief, dread, and lingering horrors. The descriptions of the house and its inhabitants created an unsettling Gothic atmosphere that I genuinely enjoyed. I could feel the loneliness and despair that surrounded both Raye and Mir as they wandered through its halls, trapped amongst people whose lives seemed suspended somewhere between a dream and a nightmare.

Unfortunately, beyond the atmosphere, I struggled to fully connect with the story. The characters all had distinct personalities on the surface, but many of them felt underdeveloped. I found myself wanting far more depth, particularly regarding their histories, motivations, and the wider world around them. Important elements such as the Torch, the Church, and the hostility toward witches were introduced but never explored in enough detail to feel meaningful. Instead, much of the narrative felt repetitive, with characters revisiting the same thoughts and emotions without adding much new insight.

The pacing was another challenge for me. Despite being over 300 pages long, very little actually happens for a large portion of the book. The opening throws readers straight into the action with minimal context, yet after that energetic start, the story settles into a slow, repetitive rhythm. The sense of urgency surrounding the approaching Church never fully materialised because the characters seemed to have endless amounts of time to complete even the simplest tasks. Most of the major developments and plot resolutions occur in the final chapters, making the ending feel rushed after such a slow build-up.

I also struggled with the romance. While Raye and Mir are clearly intended to be the emotional heart of the story, their relationship never felt fully developed to me. I was told they were growing closer, but I rarely felt that connection on the page. The chemistry lacked tension and emotional weight, making it difficult to become invested in their romance. There was a lot of telling rather than showing, and as a result, many of the emotional beats failed to land.

The same issue applied to the character backstories. Large sections of exposition explain past events, but they often felt disconnected from the present narrative and lacked emotional impact. Rather than deepening my understanding of the characters, these information dumps slowed the story further.

The antagonists also felt surprisingly ineffective. The demons attached to Raye and Mir are positioned as major threats, yet they rarely influence events in meaningful ways. Likewise, the Church is heavily foreshadowed throughout the novel only to arrive very late in the story and be dealt with surprisingly quickly. The result is a narrative that often feels like it's building toward something substantial without ever quite reaching it.

Ultimately, this wasn't a terrible read, but it was a forgettable one for me. There are elements here that I can absolutely see working for other readers, especially those who enjoy slow-burn Gothic atmospheres and character-focused stories. Unfortunately, I needed more: more world-building, more character development, more emotional depth, and more plot progression. The foundations were all there, but I never felt they were explored deeply enough to make the story truly memorable.

While this book wasn't the right fit for me, I would still encourage readers who love atmospheric Gothic fantasy and sapphic romance to give it a try. My experience may not be yours.

[a. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this as an e-arc from NetGalley. Thank you to the publisher, DAW for the copy!

This book started off in a very disorienting place, something that set the tone for the rest of the novel. We open knee deep in the middle of the action, as the book threw out multiple character names, plot events, and worldbuilding all in the first few pages. I found this decision puzzling and a bit concerning, that we were relying on action and momentum so early on in the narrative, and in it's more quiet moments the story may not be able to sustain itself since we had not cared to lay the foundations. Unfortunately, I found I was right, which hindered the story the most in the characters, and the romance.

After the breakneck opening, we sit in a weird slow limbo for our protagonists where i'm sitting in a high stakes situation with characters i don't know yet (who's backstory is important enough to constantly summarize, but not actually show) in a world i do not understand. It takes the two leads six chapters to meet even though they are literally in the same building. This influenced my experience with their romance, which I was only sort of invested in during the second half of the book, the other characters (who did nothing? not a very convincing love quadrangle, given how limp and irrelevant the demons are), and the plot as a whole.

Our original antagonists are the two demon's attached to the girls, Avexis and Shirryn, who had little influence on the plot and mostly spent the whole novel doing nothing, or trying to do something and failing. Avexis was more active than Shirryn, but for two characters who were the novel's main antagonists for 90% of it's runtime, they were surprisingly easy to ignore. We also got POV chapters from them on occasion, but they added very little from the narrative as a whole. This goes the same for the church, who are foreshadowed early on, only show up 90% of the way in after snippets of ominous scenes and proclamations, and are subsequently dealt with in about a chapter. The narrative felt flimsy and ephemeral, like it was constantly grasping for a book it could never quite reach.

When I learned that this was turned from a novella into a novel, things made more sense to me. It read like novella length plot with too much filler stuffed in. Ultimately, while what was on page wasn't bad, it was lacking as this book needed more. More context, more buildup, more character interactions and points o view, and overall more story in order to make this worth a full length novel.

[Cate · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Thorns We Wear Inside is a story about two cursed women trapped in an equally cursed castle who attempt to escape while their demons conspire against them to keep them in. It's filled with sapphic longing and morally grey characters, which, by right, should have meant I'd thoroughly enjoy it. Unfortunately, it fell deeply below my expectations. For one, I didn't quite like the writing style. This is more of a subjective opinion, but the writing just felt flat and pretty cliche at times.

The relationship between the two main characters simply didn't appeal to me either, and I found myself rolling my eyes more and more towards the end, especially when they were having their whole 'epic confession of love'. To put it simply, the chemistry felt forced. There's this whole idea of two touch-starved women finding solace in one another that I should have loved, but for some reason didn't. In comparison, I was really intrigued by the relationship between the two demons haunting our main characters. I thought they had something quite interesting going on between them, fuelled by abuse and masochism. Given that the book was marketed as a love quadrangle, I was hoping to see this relationship between the demons be equally fleshed out as that of the main characters', but it disappointingly felt very surface-level. To be fair, the relationship between the main characters also didn't feel so fleshed out, so maybe I was asking for too much.

Apart from that, the ending felt way too rushed as well. I think I'm only now realising how much of a slog the rest of the book was, the kind that just drones on and on with not much happening, until something finally happens and within 20 pages the book is over. The epilogue just confused me even more, as I fear I don't see its relevance at all. We're finally introduced to the woman whom one of the main characters has supposedly been in love with for the longest time, yet nothing much is revealed about her. There's no additional insight to her character that might have necessitated her pov. Ultimately, this story just felt undeveloped from the characters to the plot, and I unfortunately grieve the time I'll never get back used to finish reading it.

Much thanks to DAW and Netgalley for the e-ARC!

[Ander Ray · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

~Thank you, DAW, for the complimentary ARC of The Thorns We Wear Inside~

This sort of dark fairytale-esque sapphic story drew me in by its premise and promises (a quadrangle with demons?! Sign me up). And though it didn't ace the performance for me, I think it stuck the landing. It's worth checking out if you're drawn in by the idea of two demon-cursed women trapped together in a castle frozen in time, working to break their curses and be free.

✨ What worked for me:

The visceral aspects of the novel! The moments with blood, gore, and absolutely dastardly choices are powerful. They had me cringing in the best way. The intensity of those scenes is the right volume. The dynamic between the demons is particularly impactful, a relationship that's only possible in this fantasy world.

The complicated loyalties. Each character had their own goals, and the secrets between them wind complicated webs. I enjoyed watching them scheme and manipulate each other in all the different ways.

The resolution. For me, the ending draws everything neatly together. Even though I didn't quite buy the romantic relationship between Raye and Mir for most of the book, the climax sold me on it. The way the two women connect over their shared monstrosity is satisfying.

✨ What didn't work for me:

There's a tonal juxtaposition that I don't think is intentional, and it felt awkward. We have the aforementioned violent and visceral aspects, the darkness, and that works well. But there's also this almost cozy video game quest line that feels so out of place. They have to go around the frozen castle doing chores and tasks to make the villagers happy, like baking or knitting or polishing swords, and it just doesn't feel like it fits.

The pacing is uneven. The beginning and ending are strong, but much of the middle feels muddled. The tension doesn't quite sustain itself throughout. The narrative has to keep reminding us what the threats are because they aren't relevant for much of it. The antagonism gets a little lost in the cozy vibes. Not totally; there are still some good moments, but those moments don't always carry from scene to scene.

✨ Overall, it's got enough enjoyable moments to keep going, and I found the payoff at the end to be worthwhile.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Thorns We Wear Inside is a dark, atmospheric sapphic fantasy that sits comfortably at a solid 3.5 stars for me. It delivers an incredible gothic vibe, but it comes with a few pacing stumbles along the way.
First off, let’s talk about our leads: Raye and Mir are the definition of the grayest of morally gray characters. They aren't just brooding; they are host to literal demons and plagued by lethal curses. Raye crumbles living things with a single touch, while Mir is cursed with a hunger for blood. Naturally, when you trap them together in a creepy, time-frozen castle surrounded by a haunted forest, things get complicated.
Speaking of complicated: the publisher promises a "love quadrangle," which translates to four entities (two women, two inner demons) trapped in one grand castle. Everyone basically has an infatuation with everyone. Is it toxic? Absolutely. But honestly, when you only have four entities in an eerie, isolated estate, I guess you share?
The narrative balance tilts heavily toward Mir for a good portion of the book. Since she’s been alive much longer and carries a significantly more powerful demon, the plot naturally anchors around her misery, her curse, her deep loneliness, and her desperate bid to break free. That said, I really loved Raye. Even though she feels a bit suppressed in the narrative at times mentioned often, but kept somewhat in the background the snippets we get of her showcase immense determination, perseverance and quiet pain.
If you're here strictly for a fast-paced romance, prepare yourself for a very slow burn. A basic understanding between Raye and Mir takes ages to form, mostly because Mir is in zero rush and spends a chunk of the book hiding around the castle so she doesn't accidentally end up hurting Raye.
The book’s main hurdle is its pacing. It opens right in the thick of the action and then immediately slams on the brakes for a long, quiet middle section filled with repetitive castle roaming before hurtling toward a rushed ending.
Thanks to Amy and DAW for ARC.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this tightly written sapphic romantasy, Raye and Mir are hosts to demons that have ruined their lives but have also drawn them together in a darkly enchanted castle frozen in time. A deliciously sensual if rather slow-moving story, Avery makes great use of her major setting and minimal characters, taking us on a journey as much about love as it is about struggle, sacrifice, and survival. In a rare turn of events, the publisher’s comparison of this to For the Wolf and Nettle & Bone has a lot of merit, and, while it took me a while to settle into this, once I did, I was rewarded with a complex and nuanced romance that I would highly recommend to those who enjoy sapphic tales.

While Raye and Mir are the standout characters, their demons, Avexis and Shirryn respectively, were intriguing, and I was glad that they had a few POV chapters of their own, which allowed them to feel like full beings rather than more nebulous demonic entities. All these characters fit very well into the castle setting, and the opening sequence as Raye and Avexis explore the castle and find people literally frozen mid-action in time drew me in and kept me reading, even through the long middle. While the goals of the characters are pretty transparent, the intimate setting allows Avery space to imbue depth to their personalities and motivations.

I was disappointed with the ending, which felt rushed to the slow build throughout the book, and the epilogue was a little bit of a “shrug” that I felt could have been worked into the end of the narrative more organically. Overall, I appreciated the gradual build in Raye and Mir’s relationship, and I particularly liked that their demons actively affect how they perceive each other due to the initial power imbalance. This would be a great read for those who love atmospheric supernatural and gothic fantasy without too much worldbuilding to take away from the focal romantic relationship.

[Lilith's_Library_ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay… this title alone had me expecting emotional damage, and honestly? It delivered. 🖤🌹

The Thorns We Wear Inside pulled me in with that feeling of knowing you're about to get emotionally attached to characters who are carrying way more than they probably should be. And once I was invested, I was in it. The kind of book where you keep reading because you NEED to know how everything is going to unravel.

I really enjoyed the emotional weight running through this story. There’s something about characters who are wounded, complicated, and trying to navigate everything they're carrying that always gets me—and this one definitely had those moments where I wanted to reach through the pages and give them a hug… before remembering that fictional characters rarely make things easy. 😂🖤

The atmosphere had a beautiful darker edge to it, and I loved the combination of emotional tension, complicated relationships, secrets, and characters trying to survive their own inner battles. There were definitely moments that hurt in the best possible way.

I did feel like a little more depth and development in certain areas would have made the emotional payoff hit even harder, which is why I'm landing on four stars. But overall, this was a compelling and emotionally charged read that kept me invested.

If you enjoy books that make you feel everything, question everyone's choices, and quietly destroy your emotions while you're reading, this one deserves a spot on your TBR. 🌹🖤

Thank you to the author for the opportunity to read this ARC! 📖✨

🌹🖤 Tropes & Vibes

🖤 Emotional Romance
🌹 Wounded Characters
💔 Emotional Angst
🔥 Romantic Tension
🤫 Secrets & Hidden Pain
🖤 Complicated Relationships
🌑 Dark & Moody Atmosphere
🥀 Healing & Heartbreak
👀 Emotional Slow Burn
💫 Character-Driven Story
🩶 Inner Demons
🌹 Love Through the Pain

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had such a fascinating concept, and the gothic atmosphere immediately pulled me in. Two cursed women, an eerie castle filled with people trapped in time, demons attached to them both, and Raye finally meeting someone she can touch without destroying? There was so much here that should have completely worked for me.

Raye and Mir were easily the most compelling part. I loved the idea of these two women who have been denied something as simple as physical touch finding that possibility in each other. There’s an intimacy to their connection that goes beyond attraction because of what touch actually means for both of them, and I really liked exploring that alongside their individual curses.

The castle itself was another highlight. It had this strange, unsettling quality that made me want to understand what happened there, why everyone was frozen in time, and exactly how all of these pieces connected. The demons added another interesting layer, especially once their relationships with Raye and Mir became increasingly tangled.

Unfortunately, I think the execution lost me in places. There are a lot of moving pieces between the curses, demons, castle, romance, past histories, and monster hunters, and at times it felt like I was working harder than I wanted to in order to follow everything. I also wanted more time for certain relationships and emotional developments to breathe. With such an intriguing setup, some of the moments that should have hit hardest didn’t quite land for me.

I still enjoyed the darkness, the sapphic romance, and how unapologetically strange the entire story was. There are some genuinely cool ideas here, particularly around intimacy, monstrosity, and what it means to live inside a body that has become dangerous to others. I just ultimately loved the concept more than I loved the execution.

[꣑ৎ sue (hatter-pendragon version) ꣑ৎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

"[..] it was a reminder to accept things—and people—as they come, both the pleasant and the terrible."
"I suppose we're both full of them now. The thorns we wear inside. All that pain and sharpness."

if there is anything this book has, it is that it has a fantastic concept. Even though it has been touted as a beauty and the beast retelling, the author completely transformed into something wholly theirs. The idea of a curse being in the form of a demon feeding from you is so interesting to me. I also liked how gory and bloody it got—how our beast is actually a beast with fangs that struggles to control her urges. and that in the end, everyone was their own monster. Bottom line, the book was beautifully written—very atmospheric—and I found myself completely intrigued to see what would happen next.

Unfortunately, it was the execution that I had a bit of trouble with. The book, with its compelling ideas and concepts, felt a bit too noisy. We have Raye and Mir, but also their two demons, who had their own POV chapters and agendas. There was also Aria, Mir's childhood sweetheart, who was constantly haunting the narrative. And then there were the gods and witchhunters and Torches. Everything was just all over the place; concepts were introduced but surface-level. It was so disappointing. As a result, the relationship build-up between Raye and Mir suffered.

Regardless of all these listed, I still think it was a decent read. Maybe it was not for me, but I could name a few of my friends who would eat this up!

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and not AI-generated.

[Sifa Poulton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an eARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review - and I also know the author. It has not affected my opinions.

THE THORNS WE WEAR INSIDE is a dark fantasy on the horrormance side. It has two women bound/cursed with demons that want them to kill - something they've both done a fair bit (and do even more in the book!) They want free of their curses but don't know if they can stomach doing what it takes to do that (one to kill their love and the other to seduce someone in order to pass the demon on). And then they collide and fall in love, able to see the human beneath the curse due to their shared experience.

There is a fairy-tale-gone-wrong feel to this book. It has echoes of Sleeping Beauty in the enchanted castle with its sleeping denizens and the twisted forest around it. But there's no prince charming here to save the day, just two women who are just trying to survive. I liked how it took that familiar set up and made it dark and bloody and something different.

The book is largely told from Raye and Mir's perspectives, but there are also chapters from the two demons (Avexis and Shirryn) which lets you see the desires and schemes of the infernal pair. I liked seeing their betrayals and plots, as well as what motivated them. They're monstrous in the same way the women are, and it also gave more depth to the two demons - given the book is basically the four of them trapped in a castle.

This book was originally a novella (I read that novella) and has been expanded out. Even knowing that (and having read the shorter version), the new bits fit seamlessly into the old. It enriches the world and the characters, giving them more depth, which was really fun as a returning reader to this story.

[M.S. Hawthorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for allowing me access to this book.

I really enjoyed The Thorns We Wear Inside. The four main characters were one of the strongest parts of the book for me, and I loved seeing their individual personalities, relationships and experiences develop throughout the story.

The writing itself is beautiful and incredibly visual. I could easily picture the places, characters and events being described, which made the world feel vivid and immersive. I particularly loved the ideas surrounding the demons. Some of the concepts were genuinely abhorrent, yet somehow beautiful at the same time, which made them fascinating to read about.

The pacing was slightly slower than I personally prefer in places, although I remained invested in the plot and wanted to see where the story was going. I also would have appreciated a little more variety in the romantic relationships represented, as the relationships and attraction explored within the story are predominantly between women. This is very much a personal preference rather than something that detracted significantly from my enjoyment of the book.

And then there is that ending. Phenomenal. It was bittersweet, emotional and incredibly satisfying, and easily one of my favourite parts of the entire book. It left a much bigger impact on me than I was expecting.

Overall, The Thorns We Wear Inside is a beautifully written fantasy with memorable characters, striking imagery and some wonderfully dark ideas. The slightly slower pacing kept it from being a full five stars for me, but that ending came very close to changing my mind.

[Tee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I enjoyed my time reading this book!

One of my favorite aspects of this book was the eerie atmosphere. There was a dark fairytale feel throughout the story that I really loved. From the cursed castle with ghosts, to a dark forest with the undead, the setting felt very nostalgic to me (especially with the Beauty and the Beast vibes). Along similar lines, I thought the writing was very vivid, descriptive, and immersive, which added a creepy, gothic feel to the story.

The sapphic romance between Mir and Raye was great. The yearning was wonderful, and I liked that they were monstrous in their own ways, but still fell in love with each other despite their darkest parts.

I also liked the demons in their heads, Avexis and Shyrrin, and I appreciated that we got occasional POVs from them. But I wish they had had more of a presence in the book, and had more of an impact on the story (as it was the demons in the premise that initially piqued my interest to read this book). I also wish that the witch hunters had been present more, so that they came across as more of a threat.

One aspect I struggled with was the pacing of the book, as I felt it was a bit slow and repetitive at times. The exception would be the last few chapters, where the action picked up the pace (to where the ending actually felt rushed). So I wish the pacing had been smoothed out a bit more.

Ultimately though, I had a good time reading this book, and I think others should give it a chance.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and DAW for allowing me to read the eARC!

[Fiona · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley, DAW and Amy Avery for providing me with an Arc of The Thorns We Wear Inside!

First of I gotta say that I found the concept of this story, really, really cool. A sapphic love story, an entire castle where everything is completely frozen in time and two girls who are cursed in their own different ways, always being followed by their personal demon. Literally.

But because I loved the concept, it pains me to say that the implementation disappointed me somewhat.
Around the midway point nothing really happened anymore and the things that did happen made it feel so repetitive.
In fact, I wish I counted the times Mir bolted from a room or freshly made plans were thrown away almost immediately after introducing them.

When Raye mentioned that she was in her thirties, I was shocked as hell because both Raye and Mir acted as if they were literal teenage girls. Their actions and behavior felt like straight out of a YA book and yet from the rest of the book I didn't really get the impression that this was the books goal?

To end it with something positive, I was getting through it so fast! The writing style itself was captivating, it was only the story that made me feel like the author didn't really know what she was going for.

[Ryann Cohen · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

Thank you to the DAW books team for the ARC copy of The Thorns We Wear Inside!

I really enjoyed eerie atmosphere and gothic writing style in this book. The haunted forest, castle frozen in time, demons, magic, and monsters made for a complex storyline that felt moody and spooky - perfect for fall.

What was lacking for me was the romance development between our witch and monster. They were in a forced proximity type of situation, but they seemed to go from completely ignoring each other to falling in love way too quickly without many conversations between them. There was really one conversation where they talked about themselves rather than their circumstances, and to me, that wasn’t enough for the romance to make sense. I appreciated that they could bond over their circumstances, but to go from that to being each other’s person so quickly lost me a bit.

This is a short bingeable book, so I would still recommend it to readers who are looking for a solid spooky read. But I would caution that the romance gets a little lost. All in all, the dark fantasy elements were solid, but I was left wanting more for the romance piece.

[El Moore · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

Beauty and the beast except they're both the beast and sometimes they kind of want to kill each other 😍

all the best aspects of sapphic magic-horror:
-a daunting curse (with the perfect amount of horror attached to it)
-two demons corrupting thier souls
-a rose garden fit for a lost love
-an appropriately astronomical level of sapphic pining


I had some difficult understanding what their actual task was and how they were trying to stop the curse. There were also just a lot of magical aspects that weren't explained very well. It was super confusing.

Especially near the end, it felt like the plot and character drivers bounced around a lot. I couldn't really pinpoint a linear development emotionally. There was also a lot of the same "we can't, but we want to, but we can't" over and over again until it honestly became annoying that it kept happening.

Overall I did enjoy this book, but I would have liked if it was a little more fleshed out lore wise. Definitely a good halloween read though!


Thank you to NetGalley and DAW publishers for the ARC copy!

[Holly Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss+ for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The Catastrophic Pacing Valley: While the premise of a cursed castle and a touch-starved sapphic connection held initial promise, the structural execution completely collapsed. Far too much of this book is comprised of dense, cyclic internal monologues and repetitive backstory padding that stalls the momentum dead in its tracks.

Total Character Alienation: By the 40% mark, the character writing was so heavily alienated from the reader that I actively disliked the entire cast of characters. The narrative relies on "telling rather than showing," making it nearly impossible to root for any of them.

A Chaotic, Disjointed Finale: The entire atmosphere is relentlessly dark without earning its emotional weight. The third-act climax felt completely frantic, rushed, and disjointed, rushing through a messy resolution rather than delivering a satisfying payoff.

[On Laura's Shelf]

𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺

DNF at 21%

Thank you to DAW for providing me with an ARC.

𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵.

I really wanted to connect with the story, especially because the premise sounded right up my alley, but I found myself struggling to connect with the characters, the plot, and the overall atmosphere.

I kept hoping the story would pull me in as I continued reading, but I never reached that point and ultimately found myself reading without feeling invested in what was happening.

There are definitely elements of the premise that intrigued me, but unfortunately, this one just wasn't the right fit for me. I appreciate the opportunity to read and review it.

[Morgan Vorwald · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for sending me this ARC!

3.5 stars

The start of this book had me very confused about where it was going, but I liked the gothic vibe I was getting, so I continued. There were many great things about this book that I enjoyed, especially Raye and Mir exploring their connection and building a relationship while learning about their curses. The demons were also another intriguing element of this novel I didn’t expect, and the author did a great job describing the demons and their purpose throughout the novel. The only problem I had with this book was how disjointed all the different parts felt at times, where the reader was flipped through many perspectives, the past and the present, and how quickly some key pieces of the story were moved past. Overall, this book was good and had a very intriguing premise, but I wanted a bit more from the execution.

[Merlyn Fereira · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was lucky to grab this ARC on NetGalley as it was READ NOW. Thanks to the publisher for this! DNFed at 17%

𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖌𝖔𝖔𝖉:
-The setting of the story;
-I liked the description as well. Very interesting;
- The cover design tells us so much about the story by just looking at it. I loved the cover design since I design covers myself, it was very pretty.

𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖇𝖆𝖉:
- Too much repetition of the things we already know;
- The pacing was very slow and there was nothing important happening that would keep me up at night and continue reading. Honestly speaking, the writing was dragging the tension between Mir and Raye by preventing something from happening. When will the action start? Why was it taking so long (I DNFed at the start of chapter 6 bdw) for the two characters to meet?;
- Sorry, this one was very interesting, but the pacing was the problem.

[Cheyenne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definitely enjoyed many elements of this book from the atmosphere, the descriptions of everything, to the two women realizing you can be loved even in your most monstrous moments! It did lose me a bit at parts cause I am gonna be honest I did not care that much about the two demons! I know they were a big part of it with both Mir and Raye having been cursed with their own but sadly didn’t stick out to me too much! Even when they had their own POVs! It felt like there was so much talk about high stakes with the church but not much show for it! But I do love a good sapphic romance so I did have fun with that! Grateful to have gotten a chance to read this and that cover is gorgeous

Thankful to have received an eARC from DAW and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own

[Cherie • bookshelvesandtealeaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you DAW and Netgalley for the eARC. All thoughts are my own.

This is a hard one to rate. I thought the characters were great and the magic and concept of demons attaching to a host was really fascinating, but I found a lot of this book repetitive and the demon POV’s added nothing for me. I think this would have worked better as a more romance-focussed novella.

But Mir and Raye were both really great, complex characters. I loved getting to know them and watching them get to know each other. I liked their romance but I wish it had felt a bit more strongly developed. That being said, I did love where they ended up and I’d eat up any short story or novella follow ups with them building a new life together.

I did enjoy the gothic vibes too. The vibes were honestly great, just missed the mark a little for me in terms of overall execution.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a wide cast of characters in this book: there is a witch (MC), a vampire (MC), two demons (one for each of the MCs), a whole host of ghosts and zombies. This complex, very dark fantasy is sometimes difficult to read because of the violence and gore and at other times it is a sweet romance between the main characters. The writing is sterling, the story moves along at a sprightly pace with no story-stopping saggy places. The two main characters, both women, are well drawn. The demons are angry mean entities with no redeeming factors. Avery has created a world set inside a cursed castle.

If you haven’t read any dark fantasy, pick this book - it will surprise you because Avery does not dwell on the violence even though it is a necessary part of this story, and there are enough twists and turns as the author slowly unfolds her story.

My thanks to Daw and NetGalley for an eARC.

[El Fish | libro.vermo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is this book a romantasy? Maybe? I feel like it might be and now I have to reevaluate my feelings towards romantasy. I've always said I wasn't a fan but maybe I just need it to be queer because this was a great read. The yearning was sooo good.

It's so beautifully written and atmospheric. It reads like a dark sapphic fairytale and I am so here for it.

Raye and Mir are trapped in a castle together and each has her own curse and demon to contend with. They're both haunted by the horrible things they've been forced to do to survive but also omg they're so cute together. I can't handle it.

We get both Raye and Mir's POVs for most of the book (so we get to read about the yearning both ways!) but a few of the chapters are from the POVs of the demons and I really like that we got to see inside their minds as they schemed.

I devoured this book like Mir wishes she could devour Raye. I wish it wasn't over.

Thanks very much to DAW for the ARC.

[Gee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book starts out right in the thick of it, and it’s very confusing to have so many things introduced to you simultaneously. I kept reading and instead of finding solace, I got more and more confused. The world-building is minimal at best in the introductory chapters, yet we are bombarded with information and have no idea why it’s relevant or important. Then there is an attempt to fill in the gaps as the story progresses, but it becomes a bit cyclical and stagnates the plot. I felt like an adrenaline rush was fizzling out because I was lost and trying to find my way, only to find a plateau where nothing really happens for quite some time. My interest sort of waned from that point out.

Many parts of this did work for me though. I loved the eerie atmosphere with vivid descriptions of the castle, and of course the “monstrous” women who fall in love who have demons residing within them. The cover art is gorgeous and there are bits of prose that I sincerely adored. On paper, it checks all of my boxes for my favorite type of read, but the pacing became a hurdle too great for me to overcome.

Thank you to Amy Avery and DAW for providing this eARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. This book will be released on November 10, 2026!

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF'd at 24%. I tried with this one. It sounded spooky and different, but it's a clunky, repetitive mess. I love a moody, emotional story but the writing here felt juvenile and melodramatic. So many times, the author repeats the same phrase, the same action, the same thought and I stopped a quarter in! I can't imagine how much for the entire book.

The story as far as I read is barely there. Why this girl has run into the most obvious cursed place in existence and is surprised that it's cursed strains belief. The book blurb describes the demons as parasites, but they're more like JoJo Bizarre Adventure stands.

I would be more okay with a lot of this stuff if the book was YA, but it's not. This is a spooky season dud.