The Macabre by Kosoko Jackson is a lush, atmospheric book that blends urban fantasy with queer horror, blending magic with art and sorrow that is felt through generations. The world building is very interesting, though I wish that more had been done with the magic system. That being said, the fantasy and magic is not the main focus of this book- rather, the way that characters understand their own pain and grief is a bigger focus, and I think that the way this book handles pain, grief, and loss is beautiful.

The Macabre by Kosoko Jackson is a gorgeously chilling read that absolutely deserves five stars. It’s dark, lush, and immersive—full of gothic atmosphere, slow-burning suspense, and a creeping dread that builds beautifully with each chapter. I devoured it in just a couple of sittings and kept thinking how perfect it would’ve been to read around Halloween. Jackson crafts a haunting, twisted world where nothing is quite what it seems, blending supernatural elements with deep emotional resonance and some very sharp social commentary. If you like your horror intelligent, eerie, and beautifully written, The Macabre is it. Just maybe save it for a foggy October night if you want the full shiver-down-your-spine experience.

An incredibly unique addition to both the horror and fantasy genres! From the prologue, I was immediately drawn in and read the book fairly quickly because I had trouble putting it down. Lewis is a character who I felt almost attached to! I was invested in what was happening to him and just as eager to figure it all out. The author’s writing style flows easily and he does a great job with world-building as well as creating a different type of magic system. All in all, this was a 5 star read and I look forward to reading more from the author.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to read in advance!

4.25

How to explain this book? Literary fantasy with elements of horror. It defiantly leans into the urban fantasy aspect but for me there is not enough detail on the workings of the magic system to be a successful fantasy novel. It focuses more on the darkness and horror of the air work itself vs deep diving into the magic system. As for character development, I thought it was done well. There is depth and dimension to them and as the reader I did develop an interest in their lives. I wish we had more of the dark and dangerous interactions with the pairings. I will admit this one did start a little slow for me. Which is why it is a 4 and not a 5. It took until about 30% in before it really peaked my interest. But once it did, I was hooked. Overall, this book is written so well and the descriptions are incredibly vivid.

Jackson’s prose is vivid and evocative, immersing readers in a narrative that explores themes of identity, legacy, and the transformative power of art. While some readers have noted that the magic system could benefit from more defined rules, the novel's unique premise and emotional depth have been praised. The blend of horror and fantasy elements creates a compelling story that resonates with fans of both genres.

Kosoko Jackson does a fantastic job in writing this horror adventure novel, I really enjoyed the idea of the cursed paintings and how it was used in this plot. The characters were everything that I was looking for and was engaged with how they were used in this adventure book. It was everything that I was hoping for and enjoyed in this type of book, I'm excited to read more from Kosoko Jackson as this was really well done.

Unexpected! Deliciously creepy and atmospheric, this horror novel kept me on edge from the first page to the last. The tension builds steadily, with eerie twists, unsettling imagery, and a chilling climax that lingers long after you finish. Who knew historical horror could be my thing!

Premise? Magical. Concept is so interesting and I found myself struggling with putting the book down once I'd find time to read. If there's a sequel, I'd definitely read it.

Lewis, an unwitting possessor of bloodline magic connected to a series of deadly paintings created by his ancestor, finds himself catapulted from everyday life into the thick of international magic investigation. Working at the service of the British museum, he learns quickly that his gift has the potential to eliminate dangerous works of art specific to his family. But what will Lewis be willing to give up to address the danger?

I went into this novel incredibly excited about the premise of “haunted / cursed” paintings, and the bloodline aspect of the magic really drew me in and piqued my interest. However, I found myself confused at several points and desiring of more information or more depth for certain plot points. My favorite parts of the novel were Lewis’ forays into the Dumonts, and the backstory of each of the paintings for Edgar. While the story always felt high stakes and was mostly engaging, I struggled at times with the antagonist(s). As a personal preference, I prefer character-heavy novels so this fell a bit flat in that respect for me.

Thank you for the advanced copy of Macabre!

Overall, especially at the beginning, I was totally in the story of Lewis. I felt his grief, his struggles, and I was so excited to see how he dealt with his magic he was uncovering. I felt the book was best when Lewis was able to truly describe himself within these Macabre paintings and survive.

Unfortunately, I felt after a strong start that the story began to get muddled. I felt very much thrown around, telling things versus showing. It felt like much of the story ended up being the reader feeling behind (at least I did) and then just having to ignore the lost feeling and continue on. I also felt this was a bit more fantasy, versus horror which initially I thought.

Overall happy to have given this a shot! I hope to see what else Kosoko has to show us.

Thank you NetGalley & the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for a review!

I've been a fan of Kosoko Jackson since Yesterday is History and this book is just as good. I loved that this book felt like an adult novel and not a YA pretending to be an adult novel. I liked that Noah and Lewis had a slow burn relationship that didn't start towards the middle of the book when it was clear both had feelings for each other. The payoff felt nice and didn't make the book feel romance heavy, which I think would pull the book down. The only reason I don't think this is a perfect book is because I did think there were a few phrases that felt awkward.

I thought the plot of this was really cool. It reminded me of a video game almost with a linear plotline that was not so linear as it went on. The addition of Cassanrda's POV chapter was also interesting since it added extra mysteries. I like the magic in this, but I do think it was slightly confusing at times and could have used more world building. I still really enjoyed the progression of the story and the rich tales of Edgar, Lewis, and Cassandra.

I know a lot of people probably won't be a fan of the romance in this since it does feel—I won't say forced, but convenient. However, I didn't feel that way at all about it. Noah felt like a fully thought out character with his own goals and motivations. To me, it was a great romance and I liked that it was added.

Overall, this was a big hit for me and one I'll be getting for my shelf when it releases.

I really enjoyed this book. My first impression was that it started too quickly into the action, but upon reflection I feel like that pulled me into the story quickly. I'm more of a plot-driven reader though. I think this book will appeal to fans of Lev Grossman's The Magicians, but might prove challenging for readers who are very character driven.

As an artist, any story about haunted paintings are an immediate read for me. Unfortunately this wasn't it. The only time this book ventured into "horror" (and I'm using that term loosely), is when Lewis delved into the paintings. And that was about 10% of the book.

I would even say it leaned more towards sci-fi at times. The magic system was explained at length, but still came out convoluted.

The main bad's motivation was... disappointing, to say the least. The relationship between Lewis and Noah was cute though.

I went in hoping for more Duma Key Stephen King vibes, but ended up getting more Doctor Who wibbly wobbly timey wimey instead.

In general I enjoyed this book. Generally speaking I prefer my fantasy reads to explain the rules of the world and stick to them, but this read was such a unique premise I could get past my preferences. I did feel misled by the horror category, as I was expecting more. I’d only mark this as fantasy, the horror elements were so sparse. Interesting read overall.

What an intriguing, thought provoking book! I’m hoping for more books like this from this author. A completely original concept that had me hooked

As an art lover, and a person who enjoys magical/horror takes on art, I was incredibly excited about this book - magic paintings! unseen fantasy! mysterious organizations! And, as a reader, I have... a lot of thoughts.

TLDR: I think this book went too broad and not deep enough. There are a lot of cool ideas that aren't followed up on, and a lot of pretty forgettable moments.

Fantasy is at its best when it has stringent rules, and fantasy-horror is most effective when it shows how those rules are broken. Kosoko Jackson is pretty loosey-goosey with the rules, and that freedom works against the book. It gets a little repetitive ("go on ten of the same magical quest!") and some of the horror is more effective than the rest. Not to mention the character work is pretty thin at points, and I was not super impressed by the portrayals of Japan nor physical disability in this book.

That being said, I was hooked enough to read to the end! I loved the revelations about what the Macabre actually are, and while the Noah-Lewis relationship started as being flimsy, I liked them a lot by the end. I'm not familiar with Kosoko Jackson's other work, and this had pretty big debut energy (or genre-debut energy), but I bet the next one will be killer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I wanted to like this book more than I did, as I really enjoy Kosoko Jackson's work. Unfortunately, the subject matter of art and magic just don't do it for me as a reader, though that is absolutely not a comment on his craft!

Lewis is taken under the wing of the British Museum and is sent to assist in neutralizing Edgar Dumont's series of paintings which are killing people. Throughout his time, he learns to wield magic and stand up to colonizing forces. And, perhaps, gets a first date with Noah.

This was a fun romp, but fantasy isn't my thing--there was lots of explanation and bits that I didn't fully comprehend and had to reread. Still, this got me out of my comfort zone and I'm grateful for that.

Enjoyed this book but felt a bit misled by the term horror. I thought this was a bit more on the fantasy side. I loved how original of a concept it was and it was extremely well written and unique. I would recommend this to someone who was interested in fantasy not horror.

I was so excited to receive an ARC of this book as it was on my most anticipated to read book list. This book did not. disappoint. I found the story very interesting, original and scary. Mr. Jackson uses very descriptive writing that really brought The Macabre to life. I haven’t read any other of his books but I will definitely be grabbing more soon.

A big thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins Publishers for providing an ARC upon request!

The Macabre is a roughly 300-pg adult fantasy book set to publish in September 2025. I’ve never read Kosoko Jackson’s books before, but the cover and the book description had me fascinated, so I had to give it a try. Overall, I think this is a solid 4/5 for me, and I’m going to find the other books written by this author, as well as keep an eye out for any other work he does!

Kosoko’s writing style is terrific. Every other page, I found myself going “wow.. that is such a good way to describe that!” He is so good at using adjectives and verbs in one sentence that you wouldn’t think go well together, but do, and it adds so much flavor and personality to the book. It makes the magic feel more real and fascinating, in spite of the magic’s more fantastical elements.

I really liked Lewis Dixon as a protagonist, too; he is easily one of the best characters in the book, in my opinion. He is introverted and artsy but also impulsive and stubborn, and he feels like a real person I’d want to be friends with in real life. I’m also an artsy person with an art background, so some of the more intimate details about painting and art felt so relatable to me, from reminiscing on how bad your old stuff was to the way art shapes the way you observe others. Lewis being an artist feels like a genuine fact about his life, rather than a trait tacked on to differentiate himself from the rest of the characters. The shoutouts to SCAD also delighted me; I never went to SCAD, but as any art-obsessed teenager in high school, I was looking at that college to attend after I graduated.

I also liked the way Jackson depicts a black gay man – it’s authentic and to-the-point without being too cloying or forced. It comes so naturally, something I feel is kind of lost in other books that attempt to inject LGBT+ characters in this book, and as a bisexual woman, I appreciated that. His relationship with Noah Rao is really cute too, and I found myself wanting to see more of their relationship with each page.

Now, I think where I struggled with this book was what I thought this book was versus what it actually is. When I saw the cover art, title and novel description on Netgalley, I was under the impression that The Macabre would be a dark modern fantasy novel that would be more horror and abstract, something like The Night House by Jo Nesbø or a typical Stephen King novel. The book itself is actually more like a Young Adult urban fantasy with a secret magical society, and you get that sense after the first major set piece that it’s a little more whimsical than expected. I am LOATHE to compare it to Harry Potter and the Fantastic Beasts books, but I couldn’t help but think of those while reading this.

I didn’t mind the magic systems not being excruciatingly written out and just having a ‘roll with it’ feel (it does a good job of introducing things without being large infodumps, something I see a lot in modern fantasy books), but I do think that towards the middle-end of the book it felt like magic just happens without much explained. One of the biggest twists involves a memory wipe that feels like a deus ex machina. There is time travel, and there is the threat of a major historical rewrite. Most of the magic used in the book is more practical (seals, offense, defense, illusions), and that’s well and good, so it feels a little out of place that people are also suddenly doing things like memory alteration and rewriting the history of the world altogether.

Also, without getting into details, the villain feels one-dimensional. Their motivations feel almost comically evil and misplaced, and their personality goes from zero to one-hundred seemingly overnight. They’re also extremely overpowered, but don’t have much going on aside from being powerful and having misplaced faith in something you shouldn’t have faith in and want to ruin the world for. And considering the character’s background, it doesn’t… make much sense? Again I’m keeping this vague on purpose because this book is slated for a September release, and I don’t want to spoil, but I think that’s what knocked this book down a star for me. I don’t know if their motivations aside from what is stated are being kept unclear for the sake of a sequel hook, and there’s inklings of something more going on in their head, but not much is added beyond that. Which sucks, because we are constantly told how dangerous they are and how Lewis needs to be prepared for anything, but we don’t know much about them aside from what’s outright stated?

The Macabre also does something I’ve seen a lot in newly released books recently that I don’t have an inherent problem with, but is so widespread that I can’t help but beef with it: a scene with morbid and horrific gore. Again, without getting too detailed about it, there is a scene that involves the grotesque rendering of widespread death, and while yes, this is The Macabre, it feels out of place in comparison to some of the lighter elements and occasionally quippy dialogue. I guess this is a side effect of ‘new adult’ novels that possess a snappy YA writing style, and then suddenly there’s a meticulously detailed smut scene. I can’t help but think of the LitRPG genre (a genre I’m not really jazzed about because of stuff like this) and how it will pingpong from epic gamer references to Cannibal Holocaust-level violence. It makes more sense in this book, but I couldn’t help but feel weird of the way extremely horrific death gets casually dropped in on some scenes, and the book ponders on it for a few chapters before promptly moving on.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and I think if you’re looking for an adult modern fantasy, this will tickle your fancy! But if you’re looking for a more horror-based experience, look elsewhere.