Gothictown

by Emily Carpenter

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Pub Date Mar 25 2025 | Archive Date Apr 01 2025

Kensington Publishing | Kensington

General Fiction (Adult) | Horror | Mystery & Thrillers

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Description

In an immersive Southern Gothic with echoes of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, a restauranteur lured by pandemic-era incentives moves her family to a seemingly idyllic small town in Georgia, only to discover a darkness lurking beneath the Southern hospitality and sun-dappled streets...

Welcome to gentle Juliana, where you can have it all…if you pay the price.

The email that lands in Billie Hope’s inbox seems like a gift from the universe. For $100, she can purchase a spacious Victorian home in Juliana, Georgia, a small town eager to boost its economy in the wake of the pandemic. She can leave behind her cramped New York City rental and the painful memories of shuttering her once thriving restaurant and start over with her husband and her daughter. Plus, she’ll get a business grant to open a new restaurant in a charming riverside community laden with opportunity. It seems like a dream come true…or a devil’s bargain.

*A Publishers Marketplace BUZZ BOOKS Selection*

A few phone calls and one hurried visit later, and Billie, Peter, and six-year-old Meredith are officially part of the Juliana Initiative. The town is everything promised—two hours northwest of Atlanta but a world away from city living, a “gentle jewel” with weather as warm as its people. Between settling into their lavish home and starting her new restaurant, Billie is busy enough to dismiss any troubling signs…

But Billie’s sleep is marred by haunting dreams, and her marriage with Peter is growing increasingly strained. Meanwhile the town elders, all descended from Juliana’s founding families, exert a level of influence that feels less benevolent and more stifling day by day.

There’s something about “Gentle Juliana”—something off-kilter and menacing beneath that famous Southern hospitality. And no matter how much Billie longed for her family to come here, she’s starting to wonder how, and if, they’ll ever leave.

For readers of Stacy Willingham, Sarah Langan, Ashley Winstead, and Jess Lourey, a bewitchingly foreboding story about sacrifice, privilege, family, guilt, and the vengeful ghosts of a haunted past – from the bestselling author of Burying the Honeysuckle Girls.

Advance Praise

“Just the right amount of creepiness to add a scary but not terrifying element to the promised gothic tale, and the post-pandemic what-do-I-do-now feeling is spot on.” —firstCLUE

“Masterfully intermingles mystery and psychological tension…[a] thrilling adventure into the depths one will go to for family and the haunting shadows which can lurk beneath the surface of a picturesque facade.” – Suspense Magazine

“A high-energy read that effortlessly reinvents the modern Gothic while delivering all the elements that make the genre so captivating: a haunting atmosphere, a dark legacy, a determined heroine and a whisper of horror. I love the Gothic and I love Gothictown.” —Jayne Ann Krentz, New York Times bestselling author

“Emily Carpenter is quickly becoming one of my new favorite authors. She has a distinctly Southern Gothic voice that brings to mind the greats like Michael McDowell and Shirley Jackson. I can't wait for Gothictown to hit shelves, this is a book I'll be hand-selling for a long time!” – Robin O’Bryant, Auburn Oil Co. Booksellers (Auburn, AL)

“A triumphant southern gothic that's equal parts Flannery O'Connor and Shirley Jackson.” – Tracie Harris, The Book House (Smyrna, GA)

“Carpenter has a spectacular voice, and I was drawn into this story immediately. With all the gothic spookiness layered into a suspenseful family drama, this pulse-racing story of a New York family relocating to an idyllic southern town with a dark secret is timely, intense, and terrifyingly good.” —J.T. Ellison, New York Times bestselling author of A Very Bad Thing

“Just the right amount of creepiness to add a scary but not terrifying element to the promised gothic tale, and the post-pandemic what-do-I-do-now feeling is spot on.” —firstCLUE

“Masterfully...