October, 2026: Lee Turner doesn't remember how or why he killed his college roommate. The details are blurred and bloody. All he knows is he has to flee New York and go to the one place that might offer refuge-his father's new home in Japan, a house hidden by sword ferns and wild ginger. But something is terribly wrong with the house: no animals will come near it, the bedroom window isn't always a window, and a woman with a sword appears in the yard when night falls.

October, 1877: Sen is a young samurai in exile, hiding from the imperial soldiers in a house behind the sword ferns. A monster came home from war wearing her father's face, but Sen would do anything to please him, even turn her sword on her own mother. She knows the soldiers will soon slaughter her whole family when she sees a terrible omen: a young foreign man who appears outside her window.

One of these people is a ghost, and one of these stories is a lie.

Something is hiding beneath the house of sword ferns, and Lee and Sen will soon wish they never unburied it.

Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker is atmospheric and mysterious, engrossing and haunting as it leads you on a journey about both characters, touching across time with vivid details and a dark ending.

What makes this novel so compelling is the little touches, like shadows, the memories of Lee's mother, Sen's thoughts about her father and the culture of Japan. Interspersing narratives between the two characters creates a story that is dark and haunting, but also lays out secrets one by one until the truth is revealed, almost darker than the secrets each character believes.

If you like Gothic mysteries, atmospheric and mysterious, with both horrors and beauty, empathy and caring, you will fall into this story and absorb it as quickly as you can. It will touch you to your core especially as Lee and Sen's secrets are revealed and the truth is unburied. The mysteries will haunt you.

Rating: 5 out of 5 swords ~~ Andrea Rittschof