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Back in December, I read Kylie Lee Baker’s adult horror debut, BAT EATER AND OTHER NAMES FOR CORA ZENG and I’ve pretty much been thinking about it ever since. Just one of those books that checked off boxes for me I didn’t even know I wanted checked off, and I think the more I sit with it, it’s really one of my favorite horror novels of all-time. 

Obviously I was as excited as the rest of the horror community for her follow-up, JAPANESE GOTHIC, and we may have a generational run on our hands here, because oof. 

This is a very, very different book from BAT EATER, it’s worth mentioning up front. I’m always so amazed by authors who can switch things up from book to book, never repeating themselves, keeping readers on their toes. And that’s what JAPANESE GOTHIC did for me. On a purely personal level, I definitely preferred BAT EATER, and still, I have no doubt JAPANESE GOTHIC will wind up on my Favorite Reads of 2026 list! Kylie Lee Baker is just fucking incredible!

Lee Turner can’t remember why he killed his college roommate. Or what he did with the body. In a drug-fueled fugue state, Lee flees New York City for Japan, where his father has recently bought a very secluded house, one shrouded in mystery and hidden by sword ferns. There Lee begins to try and unpack a lot of the issues in his life: the disappearance of his mother, his strange relationship with his father (and his father’s new girlfriend), and then, yeah. The whole roommate-killing situation.

In another timeline (back in 1877), but in the same house, we follow a young samurai-in-training named Sen. The time of the samurai is winding down, and Sen’s father has become something of a disgrace. He is training his only daughter as a samurai, as he deems his sons too weak. Sen’s life is brutally hard, and her father is a tyrant. At the same time, becoming a samurai and honoring her father is deeply important to Sen. 

These two characters are on a collision course with one another, impossibly, with nearly 150 years separating them. 

There’s a surreal quality to much of JAPANESE GOTHIC, especially where Lee’s story is concerned. Lee does a lot of self-medicating, and so much about his mother’s disappearance takes on the hazy feeling of a fever dream. Lee is kind of lost in his head, lost in his own grief and shame. He seems directionless, and listless. On the other side is Sen. While Sen’s life is every bit as tragic as Lee’s, she lives with such intentionality, with so much purpose and dedication. Lee & Sen are very different characters, but they are bound together in more ways than one. The how and why of their connection, both to each other and to this unusual house, provides the central mystery of the story. 

This is a tough one to describe without giving too much away. Additionally, this isn’t a terribly plot-heavy story. JAPANESE GOTHIC is occasionally weird & super puzzling, the narrators (or Lee, at least) are not very reliable, and at no point did I know where Kylie Lee Baker was taking me with this story. To reiterate, some moments in Sen’s storyline are incredibly upsetting, so much so that I found myself setting the book down more than once to message a friend who had recently finished the book. Misery loves company and all. 

I think with BAT EATER and JAPANESE GOTHIC (I do know she has several YA books out and I still have a copy of THE KEEPER OF NIGHT to read) Kylie Lee Baker has really established herself as one of the stronger voices in horror. Someone who is pretty fearless with the stories she wants to tell, and wildly original. I’m a big fan & I can’t wait to see what’s next!