Hemlock: A Novel [Paperback]

Town & Country's Must Read Books of Winter 2026 | Most Anticipated in Autostraddle, Literary Hub, and Debutiful | Book Riot's Best Queer Books of January 2026 | Debutiful's Best Debut Books of the Year (So Far)

A woman haunted by a dark inheritance returns to the woods where her mother vanished, in this queer Gothic novel.

Sam, finally sober and stable with a cat and a long-term boyfriend in Brooklyn, returns alone to Hemlock, her familys deteriorating cabin deep in the Wisconsin Northwoods. But a quick, practical trip takes a turn for the worse when the rot and creak of the forest starts to creep in around the edges of Sams mind. It starts, as it always does, with a beer.

As Sam dips back into the murky waters of dependency, the inexplicable begins to arrive at her door and her body takes on a strange new shape. As the borders of reality begin to blur, she senses she is battling something sinisterwhether nested in the woods or within herself. 

Hemlockis a carnal coming-of-addiction, a dark sparkler about rapture, desire, transformation, and transcendence in many forms. What lives at the heart of fearanimal, monster, or man? How can we reject our own inheritance, the psychic storm thats been coming for generations, and rebuild a new home for ourselves? In the tradition of Han KangsThe Vegetarian,Hemlockis a butchBlack Swan and a novel of singular style, with all the edginess of a survival story and a simmering menace that glints from the very periphery of the page.