I really wanted to love Gothic Town. The premise hooked me right away—I adore Southern Gothic vibes, and the eerie, atmospheric setting had so much potential. Unfortunately, the execution completely fell flat for me.

Billie, the main character, was insufferable. I found her frustratingly annoying, making it difficult to stay engaged in the story. The plot itself felt disjointed, lacking a clear direction, which made the book feel like a slog rather than an immersive experience.

To make matters worse, the audiobook narration didn’t help at all. The narrator’s subdued, almost whispery voice whenever Billie spoke to others was grating and made those moments feel forced and unnatural.

Overall, Gothic Town was a huge disappointment. If you’re drawn to it for the Southern Gothic atmosphere, you might want to look elsewhere because the frustrating protagonist and messy storytelling make it a tough read.

I love anything to do with cults, so this book seemed like a great read from the start. I was genuinely chilled when we found out what happened in the beginning of the book, which left me wondering what dark secrets were left for the reader to seek out in the rest of the book. However, the book fell flat in that regard. Everything that happened was told at the beginning, and there wasn’t an even darker secret that was omitted.

I liked the creepiness of how when people move to Julianna they can’t leave (always adds a spooky factor), but this book to me wasn’t so much a gothic horror book as it was cozy mystery. There weren’t any real jump scares or anything that left me wide-eyed and wondering.

The FMC also wasn’t the most sympathetic character. I did feel she was very naive and hard to empathize with (especially for accepting such a sketchy offer in the first place).

As for the narration, I very much enjoyed it. At fiet, I wasn’t sure about the narrator’s voice but as she continued it sounded like the voice of someone I would listen to as a little kid during storytime at school. The voice was calming, she created voices for the different characters (which made them easy to differentiate from one another), and it was engaging to listen to and put me into the story.

The narrator also embodied the FMC very well and I was grateful for that. Sometimes the narrator’s voice seemed to go in for a while without a change in tone which made the audiobook feel longer at times or made it easy to zone out. But overall, I thought the narrator did a great job (especially with the southern accents)

The perfect combination of spooky and suspense. I would love a sequel to know the continuation of Sweet Juliana.

Mexican Gothic comes to Georgia! I love the vibe! Cool historical background but I got a little lost in the details at times. Lots of "founding family" members to keep up with. I would definitely recommend to readers who enjoy their fiction with a small side of "weird!" Thanks to NetGalley for the audio ARC!

Wow, I enjoyed this thriller very much and would recommend it. This is a Southern Gothic Thriller of a family moving from New York to Juliana, Georgia. A home, a beautiful mansion for $100, 12 acres included? What’s the deal? Although skeptical they decide it’s a great opportunity to own their own house and have their daughter able to play outside safely without the fear of traffic hazards. She can attend great schools.

The people are welcoming and nice but after a time they notice something’s is not quite right. Is the house cursed or haunted?

4.5 stars
Publish date March 25, 2025

Thank you NetGalley and RBMedia for this audio ARC copy for an honest review.

This book ended up surprising me as I had a slightly rocky start with listening to the audiobook as I was getting a bit confused at times. I am not sure what it was but I needed to keep “rewinding” the audio trying to make heads or tails of some things. This isn’t typical for me. So I contacted the publisher and was fortunate to receive an eARC so I could do an immersion read.

So armed with both the audio and the ebook I started again having a much better experience! The first half is a bit slower but it is setting the scene for the action at the end. Could there be a bit more connection between the halves? Yes but that’s nitpicking.

I will say that the FMC wasn’t too likable to me. The choices she made and how she treated her daughter was concerning but I don’t have to like the characters to enjoy the book. They sparked emotion in me and I enjoy yelling at fictional people!

I loved the supernatural elements and the twists and turns that the story took. Having the southern gothic vibe set up at the beginning of the book did its job with creating the eerie vibes. It was a true “if something looks to be too good to be true, it is” lesson for the characters to learn.

I will say that the most freighting part of the book was the parallels to life in 2025 in the US . The concentration of power and wealth and how it shapes the town in the book and keeps its residents disgusted and ignorant speaks volumes.


I am thankful to have gotten the audio ALC for free from RB Media through NetGalley and the eARC from Kensington Publishing through Edelweiss to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

I really wanted to like this better than I did. For about 2/3rds, it was feeling like a strong 3.5, and I was looking forward to recommending it to a friend, but then it just. Kept. Going. Finally, it fizzled to an end, and I was left wondering what the point was.

This started off intriguingly. In most horror/mysteries I’ve read, the narrator is nervous about something, reasonably or unreasonably, and her partner dismisses her worries. Or, the narrator thinks something is perfectly fine while the reader is screaming at them to pick up on the signs. Here, everything seems fine and the narrator thinks everything is fine, while her husband spirals into paranoia for seemingly no reason. It was a fresh set up. Plus, the setting was vivid and the characters interesting enough for me to keep reading, and I was willing to wait for the slow burn of the mystery to heat up. I also enjoyed the audiobook narrator.

However, it wasn’t enough.

There were many scenes that were just info-dumps of past times and, and made me wonder why the story was based so strongly in one person’s viewpoint if the writer seemed to want a sprawling sense of the town and its history. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Billie’s tough, New Yorker attitude and love for her restaurant and her daughter (despite her more unlikable choices), but there seemed to be a mismatch between her outsider’s perspective and the holistic view of the town we were getting.

Speaking of the type of book Gothictown was, I’m so confused by the marketing. There’s no real sense of the gothic here, and it played so safely on the line between horror and grounded mystery that I don’t know if either audience would be happy. I’ll go into more detail in the spoiler section (because I need to rant, but want this part to be readable to all audiences), but if I were marketing this, I would have placed this firmly on the mystery/thriller side of things.

In addition, one of the main reasons I picked this up was “The Lottery meets Sharp Objects” pitch, which turned out to be completely wrong. This has NOTHING of Flynn’s darkness or level of screwed up main character, and while I can see bits of The Lottery in the plot points, it’s not at all what I was hoping for (in writing circles, people always say not to comp based too much on the plot - instead, look at the AUDIENCE. The audience for this is completely different than either of those two titles).

Between the info-dumps, the unwillingness to commit to the best part of any genre, and the dragged out ending, I wouldn’t recommend this. However, I did like over half of the reading experience, and maybe someone who is used to thrillers but wants to (just barely) dip their toe into something more speculative would enjoy this.

<i>Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.</i>

4.5 Stars – Gripping & Unsettling!

I loved the premise and execution of this book! It hooked me from the start, even if the beginning was a bit slow. The eerie small-town atmosphere, creeping tension, and unraveling mystery made for an engrossing read. Juliana felt as much a character as Billie herself—charming yet insidiously menacing. The ending was satisfying, tying everything together in a way that felt earned.

As soon as I finished, I added the author’s entire backlist to my TBR! Thank you, NetGalley & RBmedia, for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

3.50 stars

Billies move to Juliana for a fresh start , and at first it seems like a dream come true. Pretty soon though weird things start to happen , and she cant seem to "escape" the towns scary past. It was creepy, wrapped in southern history. At times it was predictable but spooky enough to keep you hooked

Welcome to Juliana, where the greatest horrors are wrapped up in the prettiest of packages and see if Billie and her family can escape the town that promises everything, but demands more.
When Billie gets an email that is too good to be true she finds herself asking, "But what if it is true?" Billie has had it rough recently and when she gets this email about $100 houses for sale in Georgia, she and her husband go and visit the town. It is sweet, cute and much different then her NYC life. They both want a new start, so they decide to make the move. Much like any horror story and movie you have watched this is the point when things are too good to be true.
I loved the mystery, the twists, the paranormal and gothic feel of the book. Where there were times when it seemed to be predictable there were other times when I was so surprised.

I kind of wish there was a surprise chapter in Jamie's POV, when you get into the book you will see why

The narrator Cassandra Campbell did an amazing job!

This book gave me chills! The eerie Southern Gothic vibes, the unsettling small-town secrets, and the creeping sense of doom had me hooked from the start. Billie’s move to Juliana feels like a fresh start, but the deeper she digs, the more the town’s charm turns suffocating. The slow unraveling of its dark past is deliciously haunting.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and RBmedia for the ARC!

“We take care of each other, we live, we bleed, we die for each other.”

Welcome to Juliana, Georgia. Juliana surely welcomes Billie Hope and her family with everything they could want. But this idyllic town has a secret hiding deep beneath the veneer of southern Stepford perfection. It’s up to Billie to discover the secret and serve justice for the ghosts of Juliana.

I really enjoyed this audiobook, the performance is fantastic. The story is so well paced and, just when I thought I had it figured out, it would take a turn and I’d be trying to work it out all over again.

Thank you NetGalley and RB media for the audio arc of this book.

Times are hard for small businesses after the pandemic. So when Billie Hope receives an email to be a part of the Juliana Initiative—a small town’s plan to boost the economy—for a meager $100, she can’t pass it up. She gets a beautiful, old Victorian home and business grant to re-open her restaurant in the quaint town of Juliana, Georgia. When Billie arrives, everything seems perfect but nothing can stay that way forever.

Friends, what have books taught us about buying houses in small towns at an unreasonably low price? We know it’s going to end bad, ok! This was a really interesting book for me to read at this time in my life; venturing from a big city to a small, Southern town like our MC here. Everyone appears so sweet and friendly on the surface but it’s clear that they’re all hiding something. Wait, am I being cynical again? Ok, back on track…

I grew impatient with Billie and her choices; often times it seemed to me that she deserved any consequences that came her way. Even though I didn’t always side with or enjoy our MC, I was still interested in the way that the story would play out which, I believe, speaks to the quality of the writing and the storytelling ability.

It’s no The Lottery like the publisher wants to compare it to but the tone is foreboding and things are clearly not right in this tow and as it stands, I love small town stories and I love the whole “let’s buy this stupidly cheap house, what could go wrong!” trope and Gothictown delivered on both. Still, this didn’t satiate me the way that I had hoped. It was too… Neat? Too cleanly wrapped up in a bow? It’s one of those stories that is well worth the read if you’re looking for a lighter fare; a slight chills and thrills tale rather than terror.

I was worried that the narration by Cassandra Campbell wouldn’t be my cup of tea at first as the narrative voice seemed a little robotic but that faded away and I ended up really enjoying it.

Thank you RBmedia for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. Available March 25 2025

There’s something about Gothictown that creeps under your skin in the best way possible! Imagine moving to what seems like the perfect little town, big house, fresh start, friendly neighbors but then things start getting weird. Like, really weird. Billie, the main character, is just trying to rebuild her life after the pandemic wrecked her restaurant, but Juliana, Georgia, is not the fresh start she hoped for. The town gives major Stepford vibes that feels more sinister than sweet, and let’s just say the town elders are way too involved in everyone’s business.

The audiobook only amplifies that eerie, unsettling feeling, and the slow build of tension had me on edge the entire time, I loved it! It’s one of those stories where you know something is wrong, but you’re not sure what, until things start unraveling in the creepiest ways. The sense of unease just keeps growing, and by the time you start piecing things together, you realize this town is way more messed up than you ever expected.

The narrator captured the Southern charm and did a great job bringing the story to life. The voice work for the different characters, especially the eerie town elders and there were moments where I had chills just from the way certain lines were delivered.

If you like books that feel like a mix of The Stepford Wives, Sharp Objects, and a little bit of Midsommar, this one’s for you.

Audio ARC provided by NetGalley

This story was quick to grab my attention and locked it in. The vocal performance was delightful as long as there was only one male character. Multiple males and I lost track of who was who.

The pacing was overall well done and the central mystery was mostly well explained with a few parts left for you to draw your own conclusions, which I really appreciated.

4 stars, will recommend.