“We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.” –H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu (1928)
Hannah Whitten’s newest title, Reliquary, is a fast-paced journey through layers of grief, trauma, and survival. At 320 pages, the novel is a quick read with action-packed scenes that skillfully move the reader through the narrative.
Reliquary is a bit of a departure from Whitten’s most recent work, the Wilderwood duology, including For the Wolf (2021) and For the Throne (2022), which falls firmly into the dark fantasy and fairy tale genres. Though Reliquary is horror, it certainly fits the tone and scope of the many novels Whitten shares on her social media (Instagram).
Unlike some of Whitten’s other works, Reliquary is placed in a contemporary setting on the west coast of the U.S. Whitten adopts a third-person limited perspective for the protagonist, Claire, whose fiancé, Elias, has recently passed. Due to family estrangement, Claire has not yet met Elias’s family, but when they extend an invitation for her to visit their family home, Claire accepts–and then is whisked away on a luxury jet, taken on a high-end shopping excursion, and finally to a private island–all perfectly normal behavior for a grieving family.
In a Lovecraftian sense, the novel focuses on body horror as well as a sense of primal fear of the unknown–but Whitten adds a layer of snark and humor to Claire’s interiority. Though the spice level is low-to-none, that bodily horror rating and gore in general is pretty high–perhaps not one to listen to in the parent pick-up line, for audio-listeners with children. In the earlier chapters, the structure of the novel is a bit disjointed–probably intentionally so–with frequent flashbacks and short scenes before evening out once Claire arrives on the island. The novel also uses section titles, chapter titles, and then scene numbers, which is quite helpful for the reader to know how much time has passed after her arrival.
Ultimately, the novel explores several main themes. It serves not only as a critique of the wealthy but also as a reflection on how some achieve their status and power and the lengths they will go to protect and continue it. Even moreso, the novel delves into the impacts of trauma, both on the mind and the body. Trauma is deeply multifaceted, and survivors may experience anything from nothing at all to depression to full catatonia, but the risk of fully abandoning the self can allow someone else to take over–and giving that self-control to someone else is a dangerous thing. Something Claire must learn in this novel. To grieve is normal; to completely abandon the self in the long-term can be life-threatening.
After accepting the invitation to her deceased fiancé’s family’s compound, Claire must continually face her anxiety and claustrophobia, which leads to frequent panic attacks. As she tries to remain open-minded and polite, the world around her descends into one shock after another–and once again, a woman trying to be polite puts herself in a great deal of danger (take heed, ladies).
Soon, Claire notices the presence of oddly-behaving servants with various bodily anomalies, which she at first ascribes to open-minded employers–until she sees one such woman eating raw meat with a human finger dangling from it. Combine this with the odd prayers of the men of her fiancé’s family, and Claire is, rightfully, more than ready to call it quits.
Her attempts at escape are, of course, fruitless, and so she must navigate this island of Dr. Moreau–or forever become a part of it.
Reliquary is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and other good book retailers, as of August 11th 2026, and perfect for readers of gothic or horror genres, a briney adventure awaits.
Will you be picking up Reliquary? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis
A young woman is lured to her late fiancé’s remote island estate—only to uncover eerie family secrets, a haunting past, and a monstrous hunger stirring beneath the sea in this deliciously atmospheric horror debut from New York Times bestselling author Hannah Whitten.
When Claire’s fiancé mysteriously dies of an unknown neurological illness, she’s prepared to sink back into the lonely life she lived before. Orphaned by a freak boating accident in her childhood, she never expected to find connection like she did with Elias, anyway. Their relationship wasn’t perfect—his coldness, his secrets, his strange aversion to the ocean—but what relationship is?
When Elias’s family reaches out—his incredibly wealthy family, from whom he was estranged—and invites Claire to a three-day wake at Harrow Point, their family home on a private island, Claire is given the chance to find family again. To belong to something, just like she’s always wanted. Just like Elias knew she was desperate to have.
Even if that family is a little strange. Even if their coastal home stirs up memories of the accident that killed her parents and sister. Even if Ash, Elias’s older brother, seems insistent on Claire leaving as soon as possible.
As she dives deeper into the world of Harrow Point, she will uncover the nature of her own traumatic connection to the ocean. There is something swimming in the bowels of Harrow Point, and it is hungry…
