I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
A woman dealing with a tremendous loss finds herself in a haunting location, battling her own inner demons while desperately searching for answers to the mysteries surrounding her in the gothic thriller “From Daylight to Madness (The Hotel #1)” by author Jennifer Gordon.
The Synopsis
The latest book from the critically acclaimed author of Beautiful, Frightening, and Silent; Jennifer Anne Gordon.
On an almost uninhabitable rocky island off the coast of Maine, a Hotel looms over the shore, an ever-present gray lady that stands strong like a guard, keeping watch. For many who come here, this island is a sanctuary and a betrayal.
This is a place where memories linger like ghosts, and the ephemeral nature of time begins to peel away …like the sanity of all who have been unlucky enough to step foot on its shore.
In the late spring of 1873, Isabelle gave birth to her son Oscar, he cried for three startling minutes, and then went silent. During the months that follow, Isabelle is drugged and lulled into an almost hallucinatory world of grief and fear. Her life begins to feel as though it exists in a terrifying new reality separated from those around her …
When her grieving begins to make her husband, Henry, uncomfortable, he and his mother conspire to send Isabelle away to a Summer Hotel on Dagger Island, where she can rest and heal. While they are adamant that the hotel is not an asylum and that Isabelle will be able to return eventually to her home, Isabelle understands in her heart that it is all a lie. That perhaps, everything about being a woman in this time, may have always been a lie.
Her family has lied to her, and she has lied to herself.
The Hotel, of course, is not what it seems, and the foreboding Dagger Island begins to feel more like a prison than a retreat. Isabelle hears relentless sounds coming from the attic above her room, and the ever-present cries of small children scream in her head almost constantly. Are they hallucinations, or are they connected to the small cemetery she found, filled with the fresh dirt of little graves, the brokenhearted reminders of people that no one believes ever existed?
She meets a fellow guest at the Hotel, a young, enigmatic, and deeply damaged priest, named Francis.
Together they teeter on the edges of reality and try desperately to become free from the fates that their pasts have bound them to.
From Daylight to Madness is a poetic, and haunting Gothic Fiction novel that is both profoundly unsettling and darkly romantic.
The Review
What a beautiful yet tragic and engaging read! The author has become one of the best voices for the gothic horror genre in recent years, crafting a narrative that incorporates haunting scenes that send chills down the reader’s spine and overwhelming emotional beats in the character’s stories that keep the reader hanging onto every word of every chapter.
The way the author highlights the overbearing role women were placed into in society at this time and how it can be applied to how some people still view women’s roles in society only adds to the depth and tone of this wonderful read. The protagonist Isabelle and Francis and their bond with one another really grab the reader’s attention. Isabelle is an especially amazing character, as she is not only dealing with the loss of a child, but an uncaring husband and his mother, and her own struggles with never having felt the true love of any kind. The haunting reality of whether or not someone feeling that way could ever recognize love if they saw it is something many readers could identify with and adds to the emotional and haunting atmosphere of the novel.
The Verdict
A memorable, beautifully haunting yet heart-breaking and evenly-paced read, author Jennifer Gordon’s “From Daylight to Madness (The Hotel #1)” is a must-read gothic horror tale of 2020. One of the best gothic reads of the year, this novel creates chilling imagery and truly remarkable poetic storytelling that is not to be missed, and with a shocking final chapter that leads into a second novel, this is a story not to be missed. Be sure to grab your own copy of this book today!
Rating: 10/10
About the Author
Jennifer Anne Gordon is a Gothic horror novelist. Her work includes Beautiful, Frightening and Silent (2020) which won the Kindle Award for Best Horror/Suspense for 2020, and From Daylight to Madness (The Hotel book 1), and When the Sleeping Dead Still Talk (The Hotel book 2).
She had a collection of her mixed media artwork published during spring of 2020, entitled Victoriana: mixed media art of Jennifer Gordon
Jennifer is one of the hosts as well as the creator of Vox Vomitus, a video podcast on the Global Authors on the Air Network, as well as the Co-Host of the You Tube Channel “Talk Horror to Me”. She had been a contributor to Ladies of Horror Fiction, as well as Horror Tree.
Jennifer is a pale curly haired ginger, obsessed with horror, ghosts, abandoned buildings, and her dog “Lord Tubby”.
She graduated from the New Hampshire Institute of Art, where she studied Acting. She also studied at the University of New Hampshire with a concentration in Art History and English.
She has made her living as an actress, a magician’s assistant, a “gallerina”, a comic book dealer, a painter, and burlesque performer and for the past 10 years as an award-winning professional ballroom dancer, performer, instructor, and choreographer.
When not scribbling away (ok, typing frantically) she enjoys traveling with her fiancé and dance partner, teaching her dog ridiculous tricks (like ‘give me a kiss’ and ‘what hand is the treat in?’ ok these are not great tricks.) as well as taking photos of abandoned buildings and haunted locations.
She is a leo, so at the end of the day she just thinks about her hair.
https://www.jenniferannegordon.com/
https://www.facebook.com/JenniferAnneGordonAuthor/
https://www.instagram.com/jennifergenevievegordon/
https://www.patreon.com/JenniferAnneGordon
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