After They Drown Our Daughters, I had high expectations about Graveyard of Lost Children, and let me tell you right away that they were not only met, but surpassed. Katrina Monroe threads an eery story about the significance and the expectations of motherhood, the silence(d) trauma of depression, and she does it in a very thoughtful way; no scene feels out of place nor morbid, an adjective I was terrified I might have to use because of the theme (thankfully, it was not the case, and that is an absolute triumph bearing in mind the scene with which the novel opens with).

Again, she is thoughtful and thorough, each moment important, each conversation a labyrinth you know you will end up finding the key for. The reader feels the whirlwind in Olivia’s mind, the fear of her spouse, suddenly facing something she can’t understand; And Shannon’s journal-like letters to her lost, then found, then lost again daughter were a portal to another part of the mind and the way they evolved made me shudder.
Everything related to mental health is still kind of a slippery slope nowadays, but it is easy to feel the change coming, people realizing its importance and its darkness if not treated correctly.
And, even with all the triggers in the novel (perfectly summarized in the beginning, which some readers might like or not, but I feel they are as good as an introduction to the journey you’re about to take), the angst and the lump in my throat every time the black-haired woman was around (or wasn’t, but you could feel her presence anyway), I ended up with the sensation of having found a light in the heart of all the darkness; hope, somehow. There’s always an ending to a long-feared nightmare.
I can’t wait to read whatever Monroe brings us next.

Unfortunately, I did have to DNF this at halfway through. It was so hard for me to get into and stay interested it. It did have spooky qualities, but even those became repetitive and boring.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to read this, however it just didn't work for me.

So dark and delicious read. I love books like these. Been a good while since I’ve sinker my teeth in these kinds books. Loved it. Couldn’t put it down. Hands down one of the best books I’ve read a while.

Olivia has just given birth to her daughter Flora via artificial insemination. Her and her wife Kris are first time parents and Olivia is immediately exhausted by the responsibilities of motherhood. It seems the lack of sleep is making her see and hear things that may or may not be real.

The chapters flip between Olivia’s story and her mother Shannon’s. Shannon became pregnant with Olivia as a teenager and then attempted to murder her due to postpartum depression and mental illness.

First, I must bring up the confusion in whether Shannon was part of an 8 person household or a 6 person household. At the beginning of the book it described her as being part of an 8 person household and then later stated it was 6. There were also several typos in the book.

Honestly, I got bored after reading 70% of the book but forced myself to finish.

After the birth of her daughter, Olivia is feeling anything but glowing and gushy. Feeling the dread building inside her, she feels as though all she does is feed her ever hungry baby. Sensing something isn't right, Olivia starts noticing little changes in her baby - her eyes changing colour, her smell and all of those things start adding up that this baby is not hers. Meanwhile, in a dual POV, Olivia's mother Shannon, was admitted to a women's hospital after believing Olivia was a changeling and the only way to get her own daughter back was to make a trade with the black-haired women living in the bottom of the well near her property. Now Olivia is also seeing the black-haired women too - can madness be hereditary? Or is something more sinister going on with Olivia's baby.

Katrina Monroe has successfully created a deeply dark and delicious read, worthy of a one sitting read. Told over dual POV from Olivia, a mother who is struggling with the appearance of being a good mother and Shannon, told through journal entries, a woman who has lost her child due to mental instability. It's confronting and sometimes a little scary going through the motions with Olivia as she dives deeper and deeper into a post-natal depression, and the physical manifesting "the black-haired women" is thoroughly chilling. As someone who has experienced these kinds of mindset and attitudes, it had a spark of realism, making this read even scarier and much heavier than it probably intended to be. I would be highly recommending this to reading groups and book clubs as this is a read that would be fantastic to discuss and compare how each person is interpreting the read - as it would be good representation of how depression and mental illnesses affect everyone differently.

Graveyard of Lost Children is heavily focused on post-natal (postpartum) depression, mental health issues, feelings of inadequacy and failure to live up to expectations. If that may be upsetting for you, this may not be a read for you.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. Graveyard of Lost Children is scheduled for release 9th May, 2023.

First off, thank you so much to #Netgalley, the publisher and especially the author for this ARC!

This book was a really great read, I loved the dual timelines and it helped me speed through the book! I am now going to go read they drown our daughters by the author! I will say it was a little slow in the middle but picked up by the end.

I really wanted to like this book. But, I found it to be kind of repetitive and I just could not get into it at all. I didn’t want to waste time reading something I didn’t enjoy, so unfortunately this is a DNF for me.

This book,GoLC by K. Monroe, published by Sourcebooks, PPPress, is a full-length, stand-alone that makes you want to take a peek under your bed.
A dark read, heavy and heartwrenching its a masterpiece in history repeating itself.
Olivia is a young woman with a difficult past. And now that she's a new mother she has diffuculies adapting.
This book is nothing what I expected, it's a dark read that deals with some sensitive subjects, not for the faint of heart. A tearjerking, unputdownable read, 5 stars.

This book was so extremely creepy and dark! When I dirt read the synopsis, I had total Rings vibes…..and I didn’t know if I’d be able read this!

Told through dual timelines, it did take me a minute to find the rhythm of this book, but what rollercoaster it is!

I’m not gonna lie this one is written beautifully, and is so damn eerie you just can’t rip your eyes from the pages!

I loved the main, current day story. It was so interesting and I enjoyed not knowing whether there was something paranormal or psychological going on. The past time line wasn't as enjoyable for me. I had a difficult time following the timeline of it and what was going on.

How do you know that you have just read an incredibly good book? For me it’s the feeling of being absolutely drained because the book CONSUMED YOU - and that is exactly what Graveyard of Lost Children did to me.

Graveyard of Lost Children tells the stories of Olivia, who just gave birth to her first child, and Shannon, Olivia‘s mother, who allegedly tried to murder Olivia when she was an infant and was thus committed to a psychiatric hospital. Burdened with the history of her own mother, Olivia soon realizes that Shannon‘s history might not be far from her own truth. Both of the women are haunted by the idea that their daughters might be changelings, fueled by visions of a black-haired woman, who took their "real daughters“. But unlike Shannon, Olivia is ready to not only fight for her daughter but also for herself.

The story is told as a dual POV. On the one hand we have Olivia‘s POV, getting to know her wife Kris and her daughter Flora. On the other hand we follow Shannon‘s POV through journal entries, set during her pregnancy and her stay at the psychiatric hospital.

"It was one thing to be an inferior women. Another thing entirely to be an inferior mother."

The main theme of the book is motherhood (duh) and what it means to be "a good mother“. Society makes us believe that mothers need to be glowing and selfless - but in reality this is not a universal truth but rather a societal trope to keep women in their place. The book opens up the discussion of motherhood and identity, more specifically the loss of the pre-pregnancy identity. It also deconstructs the romanticized version of motherhood, that society is trying to shove on us women.

The thing I enjoyed most about the story is that you can feel your mental health deteriorating with Olivia‘s - and I mean that in the best possible way. Olivia’s growing paranoia really creeps into your bones and makes you question your own rationality. There are a lot elements within the story that manipulate you and play with your sense of what’s right and wrong and I really, really liked to be deceived that way.

The story is deliciously creepy and I caught myself looking over my shoulder and peering at my door more than once. There was not a single part where I felt bored. The only thing that I would have wished for would have been to get to know pre-motherhood Olivia a little bit more because I think that would have been a blast! Olivia is so head-strong and fierce - I really loved her character. But only knowing the paranoid part of Olivia also made me doubt her relationship to Kris a little bit and made me FURIOUS when she was acting irrational at times.

I already know that this story will stick with me for a long time. If you like to be creeped out, strong female characters and an open conversation about female archetypes such as the good mother, this will definitely be a book for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with this arc.

TW: mental illness, murder, attempted suicide

This book was creepy but it spent a lot of time over explaining some scenes and characters, so it was difficult to get through. I think it could have done well without about 60% of the text and it would have been a great novella.

Wow, wow, wow. After having read this and They Drown Our Daughters, I can easily say without a doubt that Katrina Monroe is the queen of novels about intergenerational trauma between mothers and daughters. Graveyard of Lost Children explores what it means to be a mother with such beauty, there are moments that the book feels more like a poem than an actual piece of prose. Monroe is a wickedly talented author who creates a terrifying, realistic world that completely devours the reader. She does a fantastic job juggling the two different perspectives, Shannon and Olivia, while fleshing them out and differentiating them from each other. I saw some reviewers comment on how the book was boring, but I struggle to see it because so much happens with each turn of the page. But there's not so much that the plot feels overwhelming or like it's trying to do too much, if that makes sense. Anyway, this is just a damn good book, and I can't wait to read more from this author. Highly recommend!

Oh my GOD this book! It completely captured my attention from start to finish. Are there paranormal goings on, or is it generational mental illness? The unreliable narrators (two of them!) will leave you guessing, and the deeply dark tentacles of story weaving, love, loss and fear will sink deep into your psyche. This is an amazing book and definitely worth the read.

Thank you for the ARC!
This is going to be a long review.
This novel is visceral. Reading it was like 1000 tiny cuts to my soul. As a woman who has battled postpartum depression with a distant mother I felt all of it. I had to read it over several days because I needed breaks from the pain.
It was too realistic.
I really felt for Olivia. She is adjusting to her mom body and the new routine and confronting her own feelings about her mother, her aunt, and her grandmother. Motherhood is the hardest thing a person can do and this woman is dealing with it.
I have been dealing with motherhood for 20 years now and I have no idea who I even am. The intrusive thoughts were dominating my life until I found an effective medication. I still have no idea how normal people do things. I mean how other mothers manage. I feel like these kids are feeding off of my life force.
Anyway, this incredibly painful book was really good. It was absolute perfection and I may never recover, If anything it is a good example of the complications of motherhood.

I wanted to enjoy this but was overly unimpressed with the relationships, the dynamic, and the plot felt convoluted.

Olivia was nearly killed as a baby, her mother is convinced she is not her child, she’s been replaced and the only way to get the real Olivia back is to make a deal with the dark haired woman at the bottom of the well. Now, Olivia has just given birth to her own daughter, Flora and soon she is plagued by nightmares drawing her back to the well that almost killed her, can she save her daughter and break the cycle of fear.

This is as much a thriller as an exploration of what it is to be a woman and a mother and the emotional turmoil of being good enough in both roles. It is haunting and heartbreaking. It is frightening because it is a really realistic portrayal of the turmoil of being a new mother. Both physical and mental health after birth and beyond is discussed here, alongside explaining how it feels to be the only one who can see something is wrong with your child whilst being haunted by a force others cannot see.

Told from two points of view, the new mother and her mother, it does read a little slow in places but overall I enjoyed it, it’s a good creepy read. 4stars

A superb fast paced thriller. I absolutely loved the story and couldn’t stop reading it. It’s perfect for all readers, especially thriller lovers.

This is my second book by this author. I read her debut earlier this year and didnt enjoy it but wanted to give the author another chance but honestly i didnt like writing. It wasnt for me. It was just to much to me this might be the last time with this author but liked the idea of the story. Just my style

I really like how both this book and Monroe's last one, They Drown Our Daughters, explore the not so nice side of motherhood. As someone with no plans to ever become a mother, it's really interesting to read the about the distressing and uncomfortable aspects of motherhood for a change.
I thought the alternating POVs of Olivia and Shannon worked really well, although Shannon's POVs switching between Shannon when she first got pregnant to present-day Shannon was a little confusing to me at first. It almost felt like there were three POVs instead of two. The black-haired woman was super creepy and I liked how she sometimes appeared as a separate entity and sometimes as Olivia or Shannon themselves.
The ending got a little confusing with Olivia's hallucinations when she was with Shannon at the well, but otherwise this was an enjoyable, solid horror read.