I loved Monroe’s They Drown Our Daughters and Graveyard of Lost Children has the same dark gothic feel.

Olivia, a woman whose mother suffered from terrible delusions when she was born is now suffering the same as her baby girl is born. A black-haired woman appears to Olivia, as she did before to her mother, bringing up old and new traumas.

Lord have mercy! This book! There’s a sinister undertone throughout and I was never quite sure if there was something supernatural occurring or if it was a case of PPD or generational trauma or a mixture of both.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one! Putting Katrina Monroe on my auto-read list!

Graveyard of Lost Children by Katrina Moore is a haunting tale of a women facing deep postpartum depression. This book was unputdownable. The Black-Haired Woman she saw was horrifying and haunted my dreams for sure. Loved the book!!
Thank you NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press and Katrina Moore for the ARC for my review.

Graveyard of Lost Children by Katrina Monroe
Other Books by this author: They Drown Our Daughters
Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/9781728248233
Release Date: May 9th, 2023
BISAC Categories: Ghost, Horror - General, LGBT - Lesbian, Occult & Supernatural, GothicThrillers - Supernatural, Women, Feminist

Sub-Genre/Themes: Reads Like a Thriller, Mystery, Human Monsters, Strong Women, Psychological, Folklore, Cursed, Haunted, Motherhood, Family Drama, Institutions, Postpartum Depression, Changelings, Secrets & Lies, Mental Illness

Writing Style: Intricately plotted, Multiple POV, Descriptive/Detailed

What You Need to Know: I think it’s important to know that this is a plot-driven story. Even though the central characters, Olivia (present-day POV) and her mother Shannon (past POV) have all this page time with the reader, I still felt detached from them, less like authentic people going through trauma and more like general women in a larger narrative. Not necessarily a bad thing, just a good thing to know in order to set early expectations. And of course, every reader’s mileage may vary. Also, the “black-haired woman” mentioned in the synopsis felt cliched at first due to iconic, horror movie imagery of black-haired female ghosts, but I still find it scary. It worked on me.

My Reading Experience: This book is a psychological thriller dealing with themes of postpartum psychosis as a generational affliction but with some welcomed horror elements.
There are dual timelines, Olivia and her partner with their new baby, Flora, and a look back on the events in Olivia’s mother’s life leading up to Shannon being institutionalized for throwing baby Olivia into a well. Sometimes, when there are dual timelines, I will favor one storyline over the other which makes me want to hurry through one of the timelines just to get back to the other one I find more intriguing and that was the case with Graveyard of Lost Children. I preferred the present-day story. Some of the chapters with Shannon at an institution were confusing. I lost the threads of the story a few times.

Olivia’s mental health crisis is disturbing and terrifying. There were times I felt like I shouldn’t read the book at night. The whole “black-haired woman”/ bent-neck lady imagery from movies is scary and this book plays with the trope well. I also enjoyed the way the author explored the stigma of teen pregnancy in some families. As Olivia’s postpartum condition worsens I enjoyed questioning her reliability.

As things escalate toward the climax/ending, everything straightens out and I appreciated the way the author ties things together but I’m not sure I liked where we wound up. A Deus Ex Machina.
The overall message and the introduction of motherhood folklore as a symptom or causation for postpartum psychosis. I feel like it crossed a boundary. I can’t really say too much about it with spoiling some major plotlines, so I’ll have to wait until more people have read it.

Final Recommendation: I absolutely love motherhood themes in horror and I will be recommending this one in big lists of books to read if you enjoy them too. This book is compelling, entertaining, and pretty scary at times. Unsettling and creepy. I definitely wouldn’t read it if I was a first-time mom–the newborn/changeling stuff would freak me out.

Comps: Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage, The Push by Ashley Audrain, Beneath Cruel Waters by Jon Bassoff

I struggled with Monroe's Graveyard of Lost Children, which was a bit of a disappointment considering how much I enjoyed They Drown Our Daughters last year. I do want to make it clear that this is not at all a reflection on Monroe's writing abilities. The writing was lovely, the emotions palpable. But the middle section of the book was slow and a bit repetitive, and I could feel myself losing interest.

I don't know, this one might be one me. I think I need to just opt out of horror books about motherhood/birth trauma at this point. Lately they feel more like a miss than a hit.

I feel weirdly bad not liking this book. It seems like I almost have to. But I didn’t. I was bored and found it to be predictable and trite. I don’t know what would have made it better.

When I tell you this book had me extremely unsettled… I mean it! The story centers around new motherhood with heavy themes of postpartum depression/postpartum psychosis that were so vivid and dark, I felt completely submerged at times. At one point in the story, I got genuine chills. The mental health themes that were explored were very unsettling but appealing to me as a reader.

There were a couple of confusing bits and the book started off by gradually building the dread but kind of plateau around the middle for me which was a bummer but I still enjoyed this book.

Thanks to Sourcebooks and Poisoned Pen Press for letting me enjoy this book early in exchange for an honest review!

Whoa...whoa...whoa! This is a dark, deeply twisted, disturbing read. That will take you in its skeletal grip and not let you go. It is a slow burn that quickly builds steam, making your mind bend and warp in directions you did not expect or want to go. As a mother I was flung back to the days of having an infant. The exhaustion that I have never experienced before. Everything is out of your control and in the control of a tiny crying human. Completely and totally dependent on you for everything. You on the other hand are hanging by a thread.

There is much more to this story than the beginning of a human life. It is about the dark, untalked about issues that Olivia has never faced before. Her mother committed early on in her life for trying to kill her. She does not ask questions, and no one gives her any information. Leaving her to dwell on just how dark her mother is. The woman who still sits in the hospital. When Olivia and her wife Kris are pregnant, thoughts begin to circle Olivia's mind. Dark, horrific thoughts. Thoughts that everyone in her life has told her never to talk about or you too will become committed. Once Flora is born and utter exhaustion hits, Olivia begins to see things, and hear things. Is this what happened to her mother?

Wow! This book will take you on a ride that you will not expect. You will go down dank, chilling wells of thoughts that are beyond your comprehension. Until the final few chapters begin to shed light on what has been occurring this entire time. Making you wonder if there is a little dark-haired woman in all of us? Thank you to Katrina Monroe and Poisoned Pen Press for this uniquely twisted book.

I don't know about you but sometimes a title alone can make my interest peek.

Graveyard of Lost Children

I wanted to be scared, I wanted the pulse pounding, heart racing, feeling that would ignite my soul.

Goal, achieved.

This book was absolutely terrifying (in the best way possible) . I don't think I will be sleeping with the lights off any time soon.

Katrina Monroe, is a force to be reckoned with. Her ability to tell a story is like no other. Monroe sets the bar high for my thriller expectations to come.

If you enjoy the feeling of having your heart in your throat, this is the book for you. Even if it's not, read it, you won't regret it! Due out May 9th, this is not a book you want to miss!

Teaser :

ONCE SHE HAS HER GRIP ON YOU, SHE'LL NEVER LET YOU GO.

At four months old, Olivia Dahl was almost murdered. Driven by haunting visions, her mother became obsessed with the idea that Olivia was a changeling, and that the only way to get her real baby back was to make a trade with the dead women living at the bottom of the well. Now Olivia is ready to give birth to a daughter of her own...and for the first time, she hears the women whispering.

Everyone tells Olivia she should be happy. She should be glowing, but the birth of her daughter only fills Olivia with dread. As Olivia's body starts giving out, slowly deteriorating as the baby eats and eats and eats, she begins to fear that the baby isn't her daughter at all and, despite her best efforts, history is repeating itself.

Soon images of a black-haired woman plague Olivia's nightmares, drawing her back to the well that almost claimed her life—tying mother and daughter together in a desperate cycle of fear and violence that must be broken if Olivia has any hope of saving her child...or herself.

Baby Teeth meets The Invited in a haunting story of the sometimes-fragile connection between a woman's sense of self and what it means to be a good mother.

This book was a very interesting concept for a horror — and a great way to comment on postpartum depression. It fully creeped me out many times throughout. I don’t know that someone who isn’t a mother would have been as freaked out, but it was still interesting. Overall, though, I didn’t super love logistically how everything played out. A lot was confusing and it seemed to drag a bit. It was okay.

Katrina Monroe leads readers into one woman’s horrifying bout with mental illness and motherhood in her sophomore book “Graveyard of Lost Children.”

Monroe entwines elements from multiple genres including psychological thriller, mystery, suspense and especially horror. Be warned that this is an excruciatingly triggering read—especially as a mother and even more so if you are a mother who has dealt with postpartum depression or any mental illness. I can’t decide what was most upsetting in this book— the suffocating isolation Olivia found herself facing as a new mother, the fractured mother/daughter relationships or the biting exposure of the darker side of motherhood and feelings of inferiority mothers face against impossible expectations. Admittedly, the book could’ve been clipped a bit as I found my mind wandering at about the 60% mark, but it was a slow build horror and the extra length did lend to more time into the thoughts of our two main characters (Olivia and her mother Shannon).

Hard and triggering with razor-sharp commentary on the expectations of motherhood, "Graveyard of Lost Children" takes a closer look at the sometimes unspoken battles mothers face daily with their biggest enemies…themselves.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poison Pen Press for the eARC.

Graveyard of Lost Children was my first novel by Katrina Monroe. And woah, did it sink its teeth into me. I could not put it down. Fast paced, a good thriller, and a bit spooky. (Especially as new-ish mom). Definitely recommend for thriller lovers!

The black haired woman haunted Olivia's mother- and now she's scared the ghost is coming for her as well. Olivia is a new mom, with a little daughter she should be thrilled about but something isn't right, This is told in two time lines- Olivia's and her mother's- as two women struggle to deal with psychological pressure, It's a well done horror story as well as a sympathetic portrait of two mothers. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

"Having to be two people at once, both temptress and caregiver, wife and mother, minds are split in half. Even if somehow it didn't, if they managed to keep themselves whole, the act of mothering was torture. Breasts reduced to milk bags for animal rutting, sleep all but impossible to get, and the mind constantly twisted with wonder and worry for this helpless thing that would become no less helpless as it got older. An entire life devoted to care and nurturing of another, always fearing, always convinced you were screwing up. Knowing deep down that whatever happened would be your fault.
The surprising thing was that more mothers didn't lose their minds."

I lovvvveee books about how hard it is to be a mother and especially love when those hardships play out in the supernatural. In Graveyard of Lost Children, Olivia is a new mom and she's struggling. Her partner Kris is trying to be a support, but like most new moms, Olivia feels isolated as the main caregiver for newborn Flora. And Olivia herself has her own mommy issues. When Olivia was an infant, her mother Shannon tried to kill Olivia, leaving her for dead in an abandoned well in the woods. Shannon has been committed all of Olivia's life in a place called Sleepy Eye, where she claims that the Black Haired Woman told her to do it.

The story alternates between Olivia's first person narrative and Shannon's diary entries, which both detail the past and her present. When Olivia begins to see the Black Haired Woman herself, it made me begin to question what was real and what was not.

"In her darkest moments, in the middle of the night when Kris slept peacefully on one side of her and Flora breathed gently on the other, Olivia believed she'd lost her mind. That, in the hours between pregnancy and birth, something had snapped inside her, terrifying and irreparable.
But what if it was something more than that? Something bigger. scarier."

I really liked the beginning and the middle of the story, I just think the ending could have been a little stronger and a little scarier. There was so much subtle creepiness throughout the story that just didn't quite carryover to the end.

I want to start off this review by saying I do not consider this much of a thriller, but more of a distinctive way of showing the difficult side of postpartum. That said, if you are considering reading this book please check out the content warnings. Some of it may be triggering and isn’t for everyone.

In this story we follow a new mother, Olivia, who just gave birth to her own daughter. When she was just baby her own mother had attempted to murder her. Now with her own child she fears that she may be capable of doing the same. As she is going through the after effects of birth she notices a change in her that is vastly picking up. It’s as if she looks in the mirror and doesn’t know who she is anymore. Olivia, now fearing that she may be turning into the person she never wanted to be, knows there is only one person who will be able to help; her own mother Shannon.
Told through dual POV, this book shows such a unique and raw side of becoming/being a mother. At times I found myself having a hard time reading this because of the vivid picture Monroe is able to paint. This is a very eerie and fast paced book. And when I say you won’t be able to figure out what’s coming next, I mean it.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more by the author.
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen for allowing me to read and review this book.

This was a creepy and interesting read.

When Olivia Dahl was four months, she was nearly murdered by her own mother Shannon who was then sent to a mental facility. Now Olivia has become a mother herself to a baby daughter, Flora. Being a mother would have made Olivia feel happy and exhilarated but it feels completely opposite to Olivia. She fears that the baby isn't hers and suddenly, she feels like history is repeating itself. Then Olivia was also haunted by a dark-haired woman tying her mother and Olivia together.

I do like the plot of the story. I also like how there's a tinge of horror element in the book. The story divides between past and present--past told in Shannon, who is Olivia's mother POV and present told in Olivia's side so we can see both their thoughts and feelings. Did Shannon try to kill her own daughter because a certain dark haired woman told her to do? Is Olivia feel like history might repeat itself? The ending was OK to me but nonetheless, this was a good horror read--the middle of the story is where it became fast paced. In my opinion, reading Olivia's part was interesting. Overall, if you like a thriller with a horror element in it, then try this book out. Worth 3.5 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

This book is a complicated one to review because I'm unsure how to phrase all of my feelings about it. I loved so many things about the concept, but it took me forever to get through. On paper, this was set up to be a five-star read for me. It includes many of my favorite things like the trials of motherhood, horror elements, and a dual timeline. In its execution, however, the story was slow and had a predictable ending. I wish I could give out a half-star on Netgalley because this book definitely suits a 3.5-star rating.

Since the story is about post-partum depression it makes sense that the story felt bleak and melancholy, but that isn't what bothered me. I've read other stories like The Push by Ashley Audrain that have a similar theme and tone but manage to keep my attention. What I think really made this hard to get through is that I don't think this story needed a dual timeline. Shannon's chapters were always my least favorite and didn't deliver much. I think the twists would've been way more interesting to us as a reader to see Shannon's backstory discovered exclusively with Olivia. The reader would have much more to ponder and look forward to if it wasn't on the table from the beginning. Additionally, having known so much about Shannon and her motivations throughout the book made the ending very unsurprising and uninteresting.

The message of the story was also something that didn't 100 percent work for me. I think the metaphor needed more attention in the story, especially in the ending. The ending felt very unfinished because it doesn't show a lot of growth for Olivia past the main ending scene in the well. I think elaborating more on her experience and growth after her journey in the story could've been a really poignant moment for the book. Jumping to 6 years after the ending events felt very jarring and incomplete.

I would like to take time to commend the story for the eerie ambiance it created. All of the scenes with the black-haired woman scared the crap out of me. This says a lot because I wouldn't typically say that this type of horror usually works for me. The author has a real talent for writing and it is obvious. Her descriptions are so vivid and tangible that really brought out the horror so beautifully. In the future, I would definitely want to read another book from Katrina Monroe.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this novel !!

At just 4 months old, Olivia survives after her mother tries to unalive her. Fast forward and Olivia has her own daughter, but she's feeling anything but glowing. Something isn't right with her child, can her mother help?

This is a very dark, creepy book and I loved it!

Graveyard of Lost Children is a chilling read by bestselling author Katrina Monroe. This is my second read by this author, the first being They Drown Our Daughters. I adore the themes, writing and stories of both of these books and will purchase anything else going forward that they write. The themes in this book will tug at hear heart strings, while the almost horror elements will leave you feeling uneasy and wondering what’s real. The story is set over multiple timelines with multiple generations of narrators. Olivia and her wife, just recent gave birth to a daughter. When Olivia was born her mother tried to kill her declaring that Olivia was a changeling and to get her ‘real baby’ back she needed to trade her with the women in the well. Now Olivia herself is questioning and something seems a bit off about her own daughter, Flora. Is this history repeating itself, post-partum depression or something much more sinister. You won’t want to miss this hauntingly beautiful tale that will make you ask yourself some hard questions and think about what you would do if in the same situation. I adored this book and can’t wait to see what the author puts out next.

A dark and chilling look inside the mind of a mother struggling to cope with a new baby. Post partum . depression and psychosis is a very real thing and this novel portrayed it so brilliantly. Wonderfully written and truly haunting.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc

I struggled with this book because it was on the line of supernatural vs postpartum depression and I was never quite sure which side the author was choosing. The end seemed rushed and the jump in time seemed out of place. I went in thinking it would be more horror/suspense and because of that I could never really connect to the plot. Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for the digital ARC of ”Graveyard of Lost Children.”