The first line of the Publisher's synopsis for Grey Dog, by Elliot Gish, promised me the following good time:

'A subversive literary horror novel that disrupts the tropes of women’s historical fiction with delusions, wild beasts, and the uncontainable power of female rage...'

There is no way I could walk away from that and I'm so glad I didn't. This has probably been my most surprising read of the year in the best ways possible. Words cannot express what I felt after reaching the conclusion of this novel. Grey Dog delivered EXACTLY what I was promised. I absolutely loved it!

It's 1901 when Ada Byrd, described as a spinster, schoolmarm and amateur naturalist, accepts a teaching post in the remote town of Lowry Bridge. We get told this story through a series of Ada's journal entries, beginning as she arrives in Lowry Bridge for the first time. We follow along with her as she settles into her home and begins to navigate life in this new environment.

She arrives a wee bit before the school year starts, so she does have time to meet people and acclimate a bit to her surroundings. Ada is very happy to have this chance at a fresh start, around folks who know nothing of her past. Ada makes friends, gets to know her students and explores the lush natural setting of the small farming community.

Everything seems to be going swimmingly, but then Ada begins to notice odd things around her, like insects and animals behaving in unnatural ways. Her senses tell her to be afraid. The longer she's there, the more unsettled she seems to become. It starts to weigh heavily on her mind. It's taking a real toll.

How much of Ada's story can we believe though? She's a tainted woman, after all. Maybe it's in her head, the result of some previous issues? Or is there something actually evil lurking in Lowry Bridge?

I had the pleasure of listening to this on audio and highly recommend that format. The narration of Natalie Naudus was perfect for the voice of Ada. Being presented as journal entries, and listening to it, it made it feel so personal; like I was getting a secret glimpse into Ada's life. It made for a gripping reading experience.

In addition to this, I found Gish's writing style, in and of itself, to be a fantastic fit for my tastes. It was very fluid and engaging. Highly readable. The historical feel of this was spot on. I felt transported. When I was reading this, I was so invested. When I wasn't reading this, I was thinking about it and wanted to be.

I liked how it felt subtle and understated. There was an overall gothic-sort of feel that stayed eerie throughout. I felt ill at ease frequently without being able to pinpoint why. I wouldn't say it delivers earth-shattering levels of action, or suspense, but it's just uber-intriguing, the human nature of it all. It gets under your skin and stays there.

Overall, I was very impressed with this. The ending had my jaw on the ground and a wicked laugh escaping my lips. It was a perfect conclusion; wow. I definitely plan to get a hard copy for my collection. I'd love to reread it someday and annotate.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Dreamscape Media, for not only providing me with a copy to read and review, but also for introducing me to the talent of Elliott Gish. I cannot wait for more!!!

This book was gorgeously atmospheric, brooding, and a bit of a slow burn in the very best way. Once the wheels of this gothic locomotive get rolling, though, it just accellerates until its break-neck conclusion. Ada is a wonderfully complicated protagonist --- passionate, impulsive, achingly lonely in a way that makes her susceptible to the creeping darkness in her surroundings. I loved the exploration of queerness, obligatory womanhood, and the nature's raw and terrible power. This book hooked a sickly finger into my skull and tugged me, hypnotized, deep into its forest lair.

These type of stories I love and hate. The indignation of being a female makes me bubble over with rage. You want to believe, "this treatment happened in the 1900s but not the modern age" until.... Until you know that's not true. Is it cathartic to read these stories? Stories that feel lost to time and like yesterday at once? I don't know. But Natalie Naudus has this perfect combination of telling the facts as it is and imbues those facts with a simmering rage that eventually bubbles over. That bubbling over happens at the exact times that my own bubbling would need a release. But I can't forget about Eliot Gish that provided these words for Naudus to deliver. Thank you for the elegant words to apply to our female rage.

From the premise, I really wanted to like this one but I was ultimately so bored. I did not enjoy the narration and found it hard to stay focused because the performance was so dry.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

Thank you Dreamscape for my gifted ALC!

I loved this! I saw Natalie Naudus post about it on her IG and I was immediately drawn to the concept. It exceeded my expectations, and Natalie's narration is impeccable as always! SO GOOD!


My recommendation as posted to my IG today:

📖 In the early 1900s, a schoolteacher accepts a post in a community far from home, determined to leave her past where it belongs. But strange occurrences have her questioning the town, herself, and her grasp on reality.

Read if you like:
•historical fiction
•supernatural horror
•sapphic themes
•female rage
•profoundly feminist fiction

Set in 1901, Ada is forced to re-establish herself in the small isolated town of Lowry-Bridge following the scandal from her previous posting. Her father is less than happy with Ada's conduct, and explains his displeasure frequently. As Ada navigates the new town, she makes friends with the neighbors, and towns people, but when the parents begin to start complaining about the lessons that Ada is giving her students, she begins to feel the rage of being considered less than due to her gender. Then the book gets bizarre, and Ada struggles with differentiating between reality and delusion. She begins to see oddities in the forest, to which she attributes to "the grey dog".

Seriously, I finished this book with a huge question of "what did I just read"... so analyzing this is difficult. I would say that those that enjoyed novels such as "bunny" by Mona Awad, and "The Garden" by Claire Beams, will find this novel enjoyable. There is certainly a strong element of feminism in the novel, and a discussion of fitting into the expectations of society.

The audio quality was good, and the narrator was easy to listen to and enjoyable.

I loved reading this ARC so much that I requested the audiobook ARC as well and honestly, I can’t say which I enjoyed more. Natalie Naudus is one of my favourite narrators and she absolutely nailed this one!

In 1901, Ada Byrd, a 30-ish spinster school teacher, accepts a job in an isolated town for a fresh start. She forms friendships, explores the woods with her students, and begins to find hope in the simple farming community. However, strange visions and occurrences begin to haunt her, dredging up past traumas and making her question her sanity. Eventually, Ada’s behavior becomes completely erratic and she’s left pondering the source of horror.

I found this story very immersive and any time I had to put it down, I was anxious to get back to it. Ada is an incredibly flawed fmc but in the very best ways - I loved her!

Grey Dog by Elliot Gish published earlier this month with @ecwpress and @dreamscape_media and I cannot recommend both the book and the audio enough. Both are absolutely ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ worthy.

The slowest of burn!
The narrator really nailed it. The story sucked me in and lulled me, but all the while I knew something was brewing underneath.

Ada Byrd is a spinster teacher with a secret. Her story unfold in 1901 and is told through her journal entries. The chapters are quick and engaging. I immediately like Ada but didn’t know if I could trust the story she was telling.

The layers of her story peel away, each with a new horror. This isn’t a story that is neat and tidy and everything is clear. The ending is satisfying and the whole experience is a solid 4 stars.

In 1901, spinster school teacher Ada Bird accepts a teaching job in the small community of Lowry Bridge. It’s isolated, so she has the opportunity to re-establish herself somewhere where no one knows her secrets. As she gets settled and gets to know her students and neighbors, her past seems far away. That is, until she starts seeing grisly visions that she believes come from some supernatural force she calls Grey Dog. Her life begins to make her question what’s real and what’s not, and ultimately, what’s real horror.

I thoroughly enjoyed this slow burn, understated horror. I love the exploration of being a woman, what that means, and what it costs through the lens of horror. It builds slowly, constructing an errie mood and vibe to take us all to places we don’t expect.

This was a bizarre book, quiet in its intensity. As the reader you are never quite sure if our narrator is reliable or not. In a lot of ways this book felt like The VVitch to me. I imagined it in a muted color pallet and stark black contrasts during the night. Following our main heroine in a Puritanical society, and her longing to be free; and the beast who promises her that freedom. This is not a book for people who need all their questions answered, for it's far too artsy for that. But if you let yourself get swept up in the story you might start to hear the Grey Dog too.

this book was so sad and depressing. It was well written and i'd read more from Gish, but I just wound up being sad reading this.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Horror is slowly becoming a genre I'm enjoying, and the more I read, the more I like it and plan to read more.

I saw an Instagram post from the audiobook narrator that enticed me and immediately requested the audiobook despite it already having been released into the world.

This book was really good and I liked it but I also somehow needed a bit more. It was described as a slow burn horror and I liked the slow burn but then it felt like the last quarter just jumped out at you. Grey Dog felt reminiscent of the female rage genre that's been becoming more common and building an audience. It reminded me a bit of Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder. The historical 1900's setting gave an eerie, witch trials era anxiety around women's mental state and the Christian morals and expectations of women.

The book follows Ava Bird, a young teacher moving to a new town to escape her wild, mysterious, and suspiciously "unethical" past. A small religious town with strong Christian values takes her in and she soon befriends the reverend's wife. As she settles into her new life, Ava begins to draw suspicion and criticism from the townsfolk as she practices teaching worldly information rather than sermons and poetry. Alongside the growing distrust the town has for Ava, mysterious activity from nature and the creatures around her begins to distress her and cause more suspicious activity that begins to turn her mind and cause trouble for her.

I really just became so attached to our heroine and her history, as well as her new budding relationship. Ava is a wild child and her wonder of the world is so enduring. I loved the nature vibes and the 19000s setting which made me anxious for her safety as a reader. The suspicion of witchery and those who don't comply with the common religious beliefs make her an interesting outcast in this setting, and incredibly sympathetic as her behavior and attitude begins to change.

Side notes + triggers:
I'm very much not a bug person, but I really enjoyed the mystery aspect and freakiness of disappearing creatures around our main character. Absolutely a great book and as always, I'm such a fan of Natalie Naudus! Would recommend for those who are into horror and enjoy a good period piece. Definitely not for everyone.
Trigger warnings would include gore, dead animal parts, strong religious beliefs, and ostracism, as well as physical harm for the punishment of children.

A slow burn gothic tale. Perhaps a little more of a slow burn than I would have liked as it took a bit to get into. Once it did get moving though it paced along nicely.

Definitely a writer to keep an eye out for. Looking forward to see what she can do next.

3+ Stars

This gothic horror novel somehow manages to be a very surprising example of both a gothic novel and a horror novel.

Ada, approaching 30 and starting a new teaching position after her disgraced exit from her last position, is a deeply conflicted character. I found her mesmerizing as she processes her childhood and recent trauma while navigating her new life.

Grey Dog is a feminist rant in a suppressed period drama. Ada’s fight to know and become her true self within the expectations of patriarchal Christian society of 1905 is wrenching and dramatic to read. As Ada appears to unravel she becomes stronger, as she becomes unlikeable I could not help but love her.

The horror of Grey Dog is subtle yet chilling. Her visions, the whispers, the “gifts’,” were they in Ada’s head? Was she being manipulated? True gothic horror elements.

Beautifully written, emotionally wrenching, inducing anger and grief, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

If Anne of Green Gables was a creepy horror, it would be Grey Dog.

Ada heads off to a teaching position in a small town after being removed from her previous post. Again, things go sideways and I'm still not sure if her problems were due to some supernatural goings-on or mental illness.

Natalie Naudus was as fantastic as ever.

I've had several books I've been looking forward to this year but this is the first one to live up to my expectations. I loved every bit of this! The setting of this book was perfectly dark and creeping. The way the darkness seemed to creep up on not just the mc but the reader was exactly what I was wanting. This book was absolutely perfect in every way!

Couldn't finish. The audiobook dragged. Might be a slow burn on paper, but felt glacial. Did not care for voice actor.

It's 1901--to be a woman is to be hemmed in and made small in the service of others. But the Grey Dog wants different for you, wants YOU. A creepy slow burn I could not put down. It was everything I wanted from Laird Hunt's 'In the House in the Dark of the Woods' and a true heir to Sylvia Townsend Warner's 'Lolly Willows'.

The audiobook narrator was incredible. Such force and emotion in a book that is packed with it. Would absolutely recommend the format.

This is BRUTAL. A classic addition to the feral queer women in horror genre. My only hangup is similar to the one I have with Robert Egger's The Witch that I really struggle to articulate. I'm obviously in favor of using folk horror and visceral imagery as allegorical tools to represent stifled women in puritanical culture, and I'm not against violence as an extreme representation of this. However, I'm always wary of this "true womanhood" being represented with cruelty and violence in some attempt to... reclaim it from men? I'm also... not sure about sapphic desire being shown this way? I recognize I sound here like I don't like horror and of course I understand (and appreciate!) hunger and cannibalism as stand in for desire and sex/love, but... I don't know. I think it can be done really well and maybe I just have high standards. I wasn't sure if there were times in this book I was supposed to be thinking that Ada was being manipulated and corrupted by a malevolent force that she interpreted as freedom from her rigid societal expectations, or if we were supposed to be like yes! Stop bathing! Hit your kids! Girl power! Kill those people! I don't know. Maybe I'm overthinking it. Still a really good read and I'm ALWAYS happy to hear Natalie Naudus' fantastic narration.

This was really good - especially because I didn't really know what I was getting into. Grey Dog follows a spinster teacher sent to a new teaching appointment after.... something mysterious. As she settles in, strange things start to happen and she's not sure if she's losing it or if something really weird is happening in this odd town.

Grey Dog was haunting, spooky, and kinda relatable, and I really enjoyed it. I listened to it as an audiobook, which really increased the moodiness and tension!

Thank you to NetGalley and ECW Press for this audio ARC!