I absolutely love changeling type thrillers, or in this case verging more on the side of horror. This was a prime example of why I enjoy the trope so much.

Monroe weaves such an intense novel where you truly do not know what will happen next, who to trust, or what is the truth and what is not. I spent so much of this book all locked up with anxiety over our two protagonists (one past, one present) and their spiraling mental health. And I loved how you just simply didn’t know how much was real and how much was psychosis. This book demonstrates that really engaging fine line between haunted and mentally unwell.

This is a great book to showcase both the real truth about postpartum depression and the lengths mothers will go to protect their babies. Such a great read!

GRAVEYARD OF LOST CHILDREN is a hybrid of mystery and horror, part supernatural and part psychological, featuring queer main characters and playing with some extremely intriguing themes (like generational trauma, and changeling legends). Overall, this was a good but not outstanding read for me.

The good: I really liked the themes this book played with, especially those about generational trauma and how it’s passed down. I loved the engagement with the idea of changelings, and I thought the writing was really good – you can really feel Olivia’s growing exhaustion and fear through the book.

The not-as-good: I didn’t feel particularly engaged with or drawn into the plot, and it was very easy for me to pick up and put down, which is kind of a downside for horror/thrillers. The ending was in some ways good, but it felt a little obvious/unsatisfying to me.

The book was of a mixed bag for me personally, but if you like the genre and were intrigued by the premise, I’d say it’s worth picking up! Thank you so much to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks for the ARC!

If you happen to come across an icky, moldy old well, stay away. STAY AWAY.! I've read two books within the past year where creepy, slimy woman/monster/thingies live in ancient wells and want to grab any humans dumb enough to stick their heads in moldy old wells.

The woman/monster/thingy in Graveyard of Lost Children is particularly fond of babies...but not in a good way. Though she's willing to snag anybody's little bundle of joy, she has a fixation on one particular family line. And the generations of women in that family have a hard time figuring out if they're insane or if a woman/monster/thingy is really plaguing them.

Maybe I'm too harsh when I say dumb enough to stick their heads in slim-ridden wells. After all, I've been known to wander into places I don't belong. And the poor young woman in Graveyard of Lost Children is both called to the well by Creepzilla (not her real name) but the shiver-inducing spirit stalks her no matter where she goes. That's one good way to get herself committed to a mental hospital, which in fact it does.

Lots of creepiness. Lots of getting lost in the woods. Lots of misplacing babies in the woods. And a well. A dark, slippery, smelly well. Beware if you come across one.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for allowing me to read and review Graveyard of Lost Children.

Olivia gives birth to her daughter Flora with her wife Kris on her side. Soon after, she starts seeing the black-haired woman and starts saying that her daughter isn't her real daughter at all. Her mother had the same problems after giving birth and was even arrested and put in a mental institution after trying to kill Olivia when she was just a baby.

Told from two POVs and timelines, Shannon's and Olivia's, this book has unreliable narrators. Do they have postpartum depression or generational mental problems or does the black-haired woman really exist and does she really take newborns?

A lot of people seem to love this book and I'm not sure if it's just me but I just couldn't get into it. Although I finished the book, it took me the better part of 2 months, and constant pauses and indecision about whether I should continue reading it or not.

The book is super long and achingly slow, and I think a few chapters could have been eliminated and the book made shorter and it still wouldn't lose its essence. I just felt like it rambled on and on and halfway through I wanted nothing more than for it to finish. I also didn't find the book scary at all.

*Thanks to Net Gallye and Poisoned Pen Press for giving me an ebook in exchange for my honest opinion.*

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Really really good book. Author does a good job of putting you on edge and at the same time making you worry about what may happen next.

I have more questions than answers right now.
Is Olivia a changeling?
Is Flora?
Is Shannon?
Is Angela?
Is Angela's mom?
Is this book is a huge metaphor for post-partum depression/psychosis? The descriptions from a mental health aspect really make it seem like the woman in black is the post-partum trying to exert control over new mothers.
I don't know why Olivia didn't seek help when she first started seeing/hearing things when she monitored herself for other symptoms as the child of a parent with severe mental health.
It is societal pressure for mothers to have it all together and get it right from their child's first breath? Is it her own self-pressure to be a great mom?
It got a little heavy in places, for me as someone who had had post-partum depression and the guilt-ridden thoughts that accompany it. But I was fascinated.
I want answers though!
I received a copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy for review.

Warning: this book deals with mental illness and postpartum depression. It could be triggering for some.

Whoa! I could not put this book down. It was so dark and creepy I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

Olivia never knew her mother and was raised by her grandmother. She is aware that her mother is in an institution but has never wanted to meet her. Now she is happily married and pregnant. When her daughter is born her life changes. She is depressed and paranoid. She is seeing a woman with dark hair. No one believes her. She also feels the need to meet her mother. Will meeting her answer any questions or leave her with more?

I just could not get into this book, it took me a while to finish. It just couldn’t hold my interest for very long.

Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The description of this book really interested me. The idea of a curse passing from mother to daughter was terrifying. The first 30% quickly sucked me in and did not disappoint. The middle unfortunately dragged and I felt this book was a bit too long. I did love the final chapter though and the satisfying ending. Despite the pace/length of this book being off for me, I still really enjoyed the early story of the mother, the horrifying descriptions of the black haired woman, and the awareness this brings to mental health and PPD.

A well writtern thriller that is successful without red herrings and wild twists. Although the title does not seem to match up to the story, the entrigue and mystery of the black haired woman plagueing generations of mothers will definitely keep you turning the pages.

Much thanks to NetGalley and Poison Pen Press for this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book was nothing at all what I was expecting it to be! Olivia Dahl is a grown woman preparing to give birth to her first child. Along with the stress of having any child it brings up the past that she shortly shared with her mother. At 4 months old Olivia's mom Shannon a young unwed mother is caught trying to throw her daughter into a well in the woods claiming that the black haired woman agreed to make the exchange for her true daughter instead of the changeling she now holds. Shannon is caught and spends the rest of her growing life in a mental hospital receiving much needed care.
Olivia goes home and immediately begins to feel more than overwhelmed with life and a new child. She feels as though her wife isn't caring the share of the load that she should be. Olivia begins to hear whispering, the sounds of women speaking to her and swears that she sees a black haired woman that keeps threatening to take her baby. After a night in a seperate room from the baby Olivia swears the beautiful little girl she now holds is nother own. Heer mind begins to unravel trying to survive having child that she believes is slowly trying to kill her. In the eyes of Olivia's family they see Shannon happening all over again and begin to fear for both mother and child.
The Graveyard for Lost Children leaves you comparing the possibility of the black haired woman and post-partem depression.
I was truly on edge though this book not knowing for sure what is reality and what is not.

I want to thank #Netgalley for letting me read a eArc of #TheGraveyardforLostChildren by #KatrinaMonroe in exchange for an honest review.

Decades after her mother almost murdered her, Olivia Dahl becomes a mother herself. She should be happy and glowing, but instead feels herself slipping away into episodes of psychosis, hallucinations and the idea that her baby may not be her baby after all. Afraid of repeating history, Olivia suddenly demands answers to her mother’s story and, really, her own. Graveyard of Lost Children is a beautiful narrative on the postpartum process on women, from the good to the worst.

I absolutely adored Monroe’s debut novel, They Drown Our Daughters, when I read the ARC last year so seeing this book pop up on NetGalley was an instant request for me. The writing of the book is consuming, agonizing in its truth. As a reader, I can feel the characters emotions like my own. This book draws on elements of horror, thriller, and narrative fiction to put forth this thought provoking novel.

As a main character, I loved getting to see inside of Olivia’s head, her thoughts and fears, doubts and desperate need for the truth. The way she’s written is so true and raw. The side characters were okay and played their roles, but Olivia carried the book. It was interesting to see the similarities and contrasts between her own struggle and that of her mother’s through her mother’s journaling.

As a whole, the book was definitely slow to start but then really picks up pace. I wasn’t quite sure where it was going until about a third of the way in and then I just couldn’t put it down. Haunting, beautiful, and definitely thought provoking. I recommend this so much!

This was a very dark novel about two women, mother and daughter, and the struggles they suffer during and after pregnancy. The time frames switch from the past, with Shannon as a young teenage mother and the present with her daughter Olivia. Shannon hears voices and is haunted by visions of a dark haired woman who convinces her that her baby has been traded and replaced by another.. She attempts to get rid of the baby and because of this ends up having her daughter Olivia taken away. Now in present day, Olivia is having a child of her own. All seems to be going well until she, like her mother starts to hear whispers from the dark haired woman. After giving birth, Olivia begins to doubt that the child is hers, and becomes obsessed with finding her baby. Are these visions real or is her mental health starting to fail? Desperate to discover the truth, Olivia must look to the past to find the answers at any cost. Such a nightmarish ride! I gave this novel 4 stars.

A truly moving, haunting story. The writing fit the story, I cared about the characters, and the plot itself was pretty good too. The themes of motherhood were explored well. Horror fans will enjoy this one for sure.

I received an advanced copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
We follow Olivia after giving birth to her daughter, Flora. She begins seeing things and hearing voices she can't explain. She is desperate to figure out what is happening, but she cannot seem to trust anyone around her, not even her wife.
This book is incredible. Katrina Monroe does a fantastic job of weaving a story around birth, motherhood and postpartum depression. She gives voice to the doubts and fears many mothers think and face.
This book has heavy content. TW include description of birth, loss of child, child endangerment, postpartum depression, mistreatment of people with mental illness.

The anxieties and horrors of new motherhood are very real

Last year I reviewed Katrina Monroe’s impressive debut They Drown Our Daughters and her second novel Graveyard of Lost Children revisits some of the same themes. Both feature complex generational family dramas, issues involving motherhood, mental fragility and women who struggle in accepting who they are. Monroe’s earlier novel probably leaned towards thriller territory than this second offering which is more of a meditation on motherhood and the complexities of being a new parent.

Graveyard of Lost Children does not pull its punches in regard to being a new mum and if anything is going to put you off having kids for life. New-born babies are incredibly hard work and this fact is drip fed throughout the pages of Graveyard of Lost Children with a mentally frazzled Olivia Dahl struggling to deal with her demanding and always hungry newly born daughter Flora. If you are after an out-and-out scare-fest of a novel then this might not be the book for you, it is much more of a psychological slow burner with realistic and believable characters with problems which manifest in different ways. How these problems manifest themselves, and how they are diagnosed, is the beating heart of the story.

The novel has two unfolding narratives, a generation apart of two women, Olivia and her mother Shannon. They are similar in that they both involve very small babies, but how they are connected is not immediately apparent in the story, except for the fact that both women face very similar problems. When Olivia takes baby Flora home she feels isolated from her wife Kris who continues on with her life, whilst she remains at home feeling fat, useless and that she should be bonding more successfully with her child. The relationship between mother and child, as well as wife and wife, are critical to the success of the story and the anxieties felt by Olivia came across as authentic and painfully realistic.

The Olivia and Shannon plotlines follow very similar cycles and it is revealed early on that Olivia was not raised by her natural mother and this shadow dominates what follows. For various reasons neither woman is a reliable narrator, with some of Shannon’s story unfolding via journal entries and combined they create a strong sense of maternal/parental ease rather than the supernatural story which may or not be real. The blend of the uncanny with very natural anxieties was perfectly pitched and even though Olivia spoke to her wife she never felt she was ever listened to.

When our daughter was tiny I remember my wife having very irrational fears that our baby was going to stop breathing and no matter what I said she remained very unsettled. On another occasion her sister visited and for some bizarre reason she felt she would make a better mother to our daughter! These types of weird feelings permeate throughout Graveyard of Lost Children where Olivia cannot stop herself from following the same path as her mother. As well as being a very good thriller, with even a true crime podcast being thrown into the mix, the novel is a powerful meditation on irrational fears and insecurities which are very difficult to explain to another person.

Ultimately the book is about fear of failing, pressure to succeed, pain, self-doubt, post-natal depression, isolation and psychosis all mixed into a baby food blender. This is not a light or an easy read and I found myself drifting around the midpoint, wincing at the descriptions of bloody chewed nipples, sore backs and all the other personal problems Olivia suffered from. However, the thriller element which sees the obsessed Olivia investigating into her mother’s past brought the story back on track.

You often hear of women believing their babies were mixed up in hospital or doubting whether the child looks like and this is where the heart of Graveyard of Lost Children beats. Olivia believes that Flora has been in some way switched and that the baby she is nursing is not only hers, but might not even be human. The changeling story is nothing new but Katrina Monroe does a good job of breathing new life into it and keeping the reader on the hook over what exactly ails Olivia and Shannon before her.

Graveyard of Lost Children tackles some very tough subjects and it is very easy for mental health issues concerning new mothers to be pushed under the carpet or be seen as neurotic. This novel builds a very convincing drama thriller around these anxieties and knits it nicely together via a convincing element of dread and horror.

A fast paced, shocking, and disturbing story that I binged because I couldn't put it down! There's no doubt that Katrina Monroe is an amazing writer and it really shows though this book.

Well damn, this book was dark. It was a dark place to go to as a mom of an infant. But it was still a riveting horror story. I can’t get over how hauntingly beautiful the writing was.

Thank you Net Galley for the free ARC. I am afraid that this book really was not for me. The basic premise is post partum depression in two different generations. I did not care for any of
the characters.

3.5 stars. Olivia gives birth to her daughter Flora and finds herself flailing, overwhelmed by motherhood and its many unique facets. Some of the things she's experiencing, though, are unnerving — borderline horrific, even — and she starts to wonder if she's losing her grip on sanity. This fear is confounded by the fact that her mother was committed to a mental health facility when she was still an infant. Is instability genetic? Or is someone really trying to take her child?

I am not a mother. I don't have children, don't want them, and don't really spend much time around them. I still found this book interesting, but I think mothers will be better prepared than I to appreciate the small nuances and the overall message of the story. I found the horror components to be successful; I was thoroughly creeped out by the vivid imagery and depictions of the black-haired woman! One of the smaller twists was obvious to me from the beginning, but there were several other small surprises along the way that I enjoyed.

Overall, I liked this book. I couldn't personally relate to the allegorical component (postpartum depression and mommy guilt) but it worked nonetheless. Thank you to Katrina Monroe, Poisoned Pen Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.