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Vanishing Daughters
A haunted woman stalked by a serial killer confronts the horrors of fairy tales and the nightmares of real life in a breathtaking novel of psychological suspense by a Bram Stoker Award–winning author.
It started the night journalist Briar Thorne’s mother died in their rambling old mansion on Chicago’s South Side.
The nightmares of a woman in white pleading to come home, music switched on in locked rooms, and the panicked fear of being swallowed by the dark…Bri has almost convinced herself that these stirrings of dread are simply manifestations of grief and not the beyond-world of ghostly impossibilities her mother believed in. And more tangible terrors still lurk outside the decaying Victorian greystone.
A serial killer has claimed the lives of fifty-one women in the Chicago area. When Bri starts researching the murders, she meets a stranger who tells her there’s more to her sleepless nights than bad dreams—they hold the key to putting ghosts to rest and stopping a killer. But the killer has caught on and is closing in, and if Bri doesn’t answer the call of the dead soon, she’ll be walking among them.
It started the night journalist Briar Thorne’s mother died in their rambling old mansion on Chicago’s South Side.
The nightmares of a woman in white pleading to come home, music switched on in locked rooms, and the panicked fear of being swallowed by the dark…Bri has almost convinced herself that these stirrings of dread are simply manifestations of grief and not the beyond-world of ghostly impossibilities her mother believed in. And more tangible terrors still lurk outside the decaying Victorian greystone.
A serial killer has claimed the lives of fifty-one women in the Chicago area. When Bri starts researching the murders, she meets a stranger who tells her there’s more to her sleepless nights than bad dreams—they hold the key to putting ghosts to rest and stopping a killer. But the killer has caught on and is closing in, and if Bri doesn’t answer the call of the dead soon, she’ll be walking among them.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 11, 2025
295 people are currently reading
13.5k people want to read
About the author
Cynthia Pelayo
67 books549 followersCynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker Award winning and International Latino Book Award winning author and poet.
Pelayo writes fairy tales that blend genre and explore concepts of grief, mourning, and cycles of violence. She is the author of Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, Poems of My Night, Into the Forest and All the Way Through, Children of Chicago, Crime Scene, The Shoemaker’s Magician, as well as dozens of standalone short stories and poems.
Loteria, which was her MFA in Writing thesis at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was re-released to praise with Esquire calling it one of the ‘Best Horror Books of 2023.’ Santa Muerte and The Missing, her young adult horror novels were each nominated for International Latino Book Awards. Poems of My Night was nominated for an Elgin Award. Into the Forest and All the Way Through was nominated for an Elgin Award and was also nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection. Children of Chicago was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award in Superior Achievement in a Novel and won an International Latino Book Award for Best Mystery. Crime Scene won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection. The Shoemaker’s Magician has been released to praise with Library Journal awarding it a starred review.
Her forthcoming novel, The Forgotten Sisters, will be released by Thomas and Mercer in 2024 and is an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.”
Her works have been reviewed in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Review of Books, and more.
Pelayo writes fairy tales that blend genre and explore concepts of grief, mourning, and cycles of violence. She is the author of Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, Poems of My Night, Into the Forest and All the Way Through, Children of Chicago, Crime Scene, The Shoemaker’s Magician, as well as dozens of standalone short stories and poems.
Loteria, which was her MFA in Writing thesis at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was re-released to praise with Esquire calling it one of the ‘Best Horror Books of 2023.’ Santa Muerte and The Missing, her young adult horror novels were each nominated for International Latino Book Awards. Poems of My Night was nominated for an Elgin Award. Into the Forest and All the Way Through was nominated for an Elgin Award and was also nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection. Children of Chicago was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award in Superior Achievement in a Novel and won an International Latino Book Award for Best Mystery. Crime Scene won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection. The Shoemaker’s Magician has been released to praise with Library Journal awarding it a starred review.
Her forthcoming novel, The Forgotten Sisters, will be released by Thomas and Mercer in 2024 and is an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.”
Her works have been reviewed in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Review of Books, and more.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
February 26, 2025
3.25 Stars 🌟 A huge thanks to Thomas & Mercer & NetGalley for the ARC! 💌
Vanishing Daughters by Cynthia Pelayo was definitely a wild ride. The premise was sooo intriguing 😲 – a haunted woman + serial killer + fairy tale vibes? YES, PLEASE! But... there’s a but.
So, Briar Thorne’s life is a mess after her mom’s death 💔. She’s stuck in their creepy mansion, haunted by her mother’s ghost and weird happenings around the house. Sounds exciting, right? Well, that’s where it kind of lost me. The execution was a bit all over the place – like, we start with this intense ghostly setup, but then we’re thrown into these philosophical musings about grief, dreams, and consciousness... and I’m like… wait, what just happened to the creepy serial killer plot?
Don’t get me wrong, the atmosphere was AMAZING. The mansion, the weird occurrences, the eerie vibes, all of that had me hooked. But, then the pacing... Ugh. Snooze fest in the middle of the book. I was literally waiting for the thriller to kick in, but it was like watching paint dry until the last 10 pages, where everything goes CRAZY (in a good way).
Now, I do love a good dark twist, and this book had some cool ones, but the fairy tale connection? Eh. 💤 It felt forced at times, and the serial killer just didn’t have the oomph I was expecting. He was more of a mystery in himself, which was cool, but I was hoping for more edge-of-my-seat moments.
Let’s talk about Briar. She’s a journalist, super smart, but honestly, she frustrated me at times. Her grief felt over the top, and I get it—losing someone sucks, but it seemed like she was just stuck in a loop of reflection. I wanted more action!
In the end, if you love dark, supernatural thrillers with a philosophical twist and fairy tale inspirations, then you’ll totally vibe with this. 🌙 But if you’re expecting a straight-up edge-of-your-seat thriller, you might wanna pass. 🙅♀️
Overall, it’s a good read but just not my cup of tea! ✨
Tropes:
🏚️ Haunted House
🌙 Grieving Protagonist
🏚️ Serial Killer
🌙 Supernatural Thrills
🏚️ Philosophical Musings
🌙 Fairy Tale Inspirations
CW: Grief and loss, Ghosts, Serial Killer
Vanishing Daughters by Cynthia Pelayo was definitely a wild ride. The premise was sooo intriguing 😲 – a haunted woman + serial killer + fairy tale vibes? YES, PLEASE! But... there’s a but.
So, Briar Thorne’s life is a mess after her mom’s death 💔. She’s stuck in their creepy mansion, haunted by her mother’s ghost and weird happenings around the house. Sounds exciting, right? Well, that’s where it kind of lost me. The execution was a bit all over the place – like, we start with this intense ghostly setup, but then we’re thrown into these philosophical musings about grief, dreams, and consciousness... and I’m like… wait, what just happened to the creepy serial killer plot?
Don’t get me wrong, the atmosphere was AMAZING. The mansion, the weird occurrences, the eerie vibes, all of that had me hooked. But, then the pacing... Ugh. Snooze fest in the middle of the book. I was literally waiting for the thriller to kick in, but it was like watching paint dry until the last 10 pages, where everything goes CRAZY (in a good way).
Now, I do love a good dark twist, and this book had some cool ones, but the fairy tale connection? Eh. 💤 It felt forced at times, and the serial killer just didn’t have the oomph I was expecting. He was more of a mystery in himself, which was cool, but I was hoping for more edge-of-my-seat moments.
Let’s talk about Briar. She’s a journalist, super smart, but honestly, she frustrated me at times. Her grief felt over the top, and I get it—losing someone sucks, but it seemed like she was just stuck in a loop of reflection. I wanted more action!
In the end, if you love dark, supernatural thrillers with a philosophical twist and fairy tale inspirations, then you’ll totally vibe with this. 🌙 But if you’re expecting a straight-up edge-of-your-seat thriller, you might wanna pass. 🙅♀️
Overall, it’s a good read but just not my cup of tea! ✨
Tropes:
🏚️ Haunted House
🌙 Grieving Protagonist
🏚️ Serial Killer
🌙 Supernatural Thrills
🏚️ Philosophical Musings
🌙 Fairy Tale Inspirations
CW: Grief and loss, Ghosts, Serial Killer
October 8, 2024
3.75 rounded up - thank you to Thomas & Mercer for an early ebook copy of this book on netgalley in exchange for my honest thoughts.
The first thing I want to mention about this book is the prose. It felt like I was reading a modern mystery/horror but told in a way that was reminiscent of a fairytale. I also really enjoyed Briar’s character and her connection she had with her friends and her dog.
My main issue with this book was the ending, I was a bit confused about certain parts and felt like I didn’t get the closure I needed. Overall, solid read and recommend preordering!
Thoughts: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFP2vEnP/
The first thing I want to mention about this book is the prose. It felt like I was reading a modern mystery/horror but told in a way that was reminiscent of a fairytale. I also really enjoyed Briar’s character and her connection she had with her friends and her dog.
My main issue with this book was the ending, I was a bit confused about certain parts and felt like I didn’t get the closure I needed. Overall, solid read and recommend preordering!
Thoughts: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFP2vEnP/
September 16, 2024
4 stars
when briar's mother passes away she inherits the family house. while struggling with her grief she starts having weird dreams and weird encounters in her house- simultaneously there is a serial killer roaming the streets of chicago. the dreams and the killings are somehow connected and briar has to get to the bottom of it. overall it was a pretty good book with a decent storyline and was easy to read- i just kind of feel with the ending it wasn't exactly my cup of tea. i enjoyed the premise of the book just some things felt a little far fetched for me.
thank you to the publishers and netgalley for this ARC!
when briar's mother passes away she inherits the family house. while struggling with her grief she starts having weird dreams and weird encounters in her house- simultaneously there is a serial killer roaming the streets of chicago. the dreams and the killings are somehow connected and briar has to get to the bottom of it. overall it was a pretty good book with a decent storyline and was easy to read- i just kind of feel with the ending it wasn't exactly my cup of tea. i enjoyed the premise of the book just some things felt a little far fetched for me.
thank you to the publishers and netgalley for this ARC!
October 16, 2024
"Screaming. Screaming. They are screaming in their glass coffins. In their golden towers. I will let them out in the nighttime, and then they will scream. And then they will walk , and then they will repeat their ghostly patterns."
"She neither sleeps, nor dreams, but ever dwells."
Enchanting, magical, wicked 💀🖤
A blend of Urban Legend. Myth. Fairytale. Chicago Folklore.
💀 Story of an adult Briar-Rose 🌹and what life has in store for her after her dearest mother Aurora's passing...
💀 How she is connected to Mary a.k.a. Bloody or Resurrection Mary...
💀 To stop the killings, she needs to break the pattern - she needs to bring Mary home..but How will she stop the Chicago Strangler and the evil fairy Mal?
The story is lyrical in its prose..beautiful and haunting..morose and melancholic. Not impervious to our main character's suffering, my only complaint is that it seemed to focus heavily on Bri's dealing with grief and loss, her anxiety and fears. Ruminations and flashbacks of conversations with her mother, Aurora, as she comes to terms with her death. The story lingered around grief a bit longer than necessary and was repetitively emphasised throughout. I didn't mind the ending though it took a different turn from what I expected.
Bonus:
🖤 I learned other revisions and retellings of Sleeping Beauty :
🌹Perceforest
🌹“Sun, Moon , and Talia.” from Pentamerone
🌹 The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods - Charles Perrault’s adaptation
🌹Grimm's Little Briar Rose and also The Glass Coffin
🌹And also the latest Disney Version- Maleficent (starring Angelina Jolie, no less 🖤)
🌹 Her different names - Talia, Rosamund, and lastly, Briar Rose.
🖤 Little bit of trivia and science behind binaural beats, sound waves, vibrations and its power to manipulate energy. Think ASMR! As a lover of ASMR to alleviate stress, I find this appealing and noteworthy. 👌🖤
🖤 Once Upon A Dream by Lana del Ray (Maleficent OST - Young Ruffian Remix) is a perfect soundtrack for this book.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the free arc 🖤
4✨
"She neither sleeps, nor dreams, but ever dwells."
Enchanting, magical, wicked 💀🖤
A blend of Urban Legend. Myth. Fairytale. Chicago Folklore.
💀 Story of an adult Briar-Rose 🌹and what life has in store for her after her dearest mother Aurora's passing...
💀 How she is connected to Mary a.k.a. Bloody or Resurrection Mary...
💀 To stop the killings, she needs to break the pattern - she needs to bring Mary home..but How will she stop the Chicago Strangler and the evil fairy Mal?
The story is lyrical in its prose..beautiful and haunting..morose and melancholic. Not impervious to our main character's suffering, my only complaint is that it seemed to focus heavily on Bri's dealing with grief and loss, her anxiety and fears. Ruminations and flashbacks of conversations with her mother, Aurora, as she comes to terms with her death. The story lingered around grief a bit longer than necessary and was repetitively emphasised throughout. I didn't mind the ending though it took a different turn from what I expected.
Bonus:
🖤 I learned other revisions and retellings of Sleeping Beauty :
🌹Perceforest
🌹“Sun, Moon , and Talia.” from Pentamerone
🌹 The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods - Charles Perrault’s adaptation
🌹Grimm's Little Briar Rose and also The Glass Coffin
🌹And also the latest Disney Version- Maleficent (starring Angelina Jolie, no less 🖤)
🌹 Her different names - Talia, Rosamund, and lastly, Briar Rose.
🖤 Little bit of trivia and science behind binaural beats, sound waves, vibrations and its power to manipulate energy. Think ASMR! As a lover of ASMR to alleviate stress, I find this appealing and noteworthy. 👌🖤
🖤 Once Upon A Dream by Lana del Ray (Maleficent OST - Young Ruffian Remix) is a perfect soundtrack for this book.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the free arc 🖤
4✨
January 29, 2025
”What people don’t really tells us about ghosts and death and dying is that when a loved one dies, a part of you will die too.”
Vanishing Daughters really intrigued me with its plot from the start - blending fairy tales, urband legends, serial killers and grief. The themes were extremely compelling but, as the story progressed, it started to lose its momentum.
”There is nothing more permanent than death.”
The pacing felt off and by the halfway point it seemed like there was a lot happening but somehow nothing at all. The narrative became repetitive at times and the conclusion felt rushed, wrapped up in what seemed like only a couple of pages.
”A lot of people are uncomfortable with the idea of sitting still with their own minds.
While the plot is intriguing, the final product left me feeling like it was both too much and not enough at the same time.
A thank you to the author and NetGalley for providing me a copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.
Vanishing Daughters really intrigued me with its plot from the start - blending fairy tales, urband legends, serial killers and grief. The themes were extremely compelling but, as the story progressed, it started to lose its momentum.
”There is nothing more permanent than death.”
The pacing felt off and by the halfway point it seemed like there was a lot happening but somehow nothing at all. The narrative became repetitive at times and the conclusion felt rushed, wrapped up in what seemed like only a couple of pages.
”A lot of people are uncomfortable with the idea of sitting still with their own minds.
While the plot is intriguing, the final product left me feeling like it was both too much and not enough at the same time.
A thank you to the author and NetGalley for providing me a copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.
March 5, 2025
Review in the March 2025 issue of Booklist magazine and on the blog:
https://raforall.blogspot.com/2025/03... (link live on 3/5 at 7am central)
Three Words That Describe This Book: elegiac, retelling, ode to murdered women
More words-- unbalanced, uneasy, unsettling-- as Bri works through her grief readers are inside her head. We fall into her intense grief-- the prose itself is unbalanced but also lyrical, you can feel the grief. The story becomes an elegy for the dead and forgotten in general as well. Readers will be able to connect easily. the prose itself drips of sadness, unease, emptiness, despair.
"Keys and gates and locks and thorns." a refrain from her Mom-- the key to Bri stopping the family history of violence against its women.
The title is great because so many daughters have vanished over time but also it is specific to the family and Sleeping Beauty.
This is a ghost story but from a different angle. The house is haunted yes, but it is trying to speak to Bri through her intense grief. There is a family history here.
Lots of frame and atmosphere and detail. But there is a central mystery-- who is the woman that Bri keeps seeing in her dreams, that the house.
The mom's stories shared after death through Bri's memory-- thin places,
The details about Chicago, the house, the family's history all add to the unease. The radios are a great addition. The family made their money in radio (which explains why they have this crumbling mansion) and in that old house having them scattered everywhere makes so much sense. Them turning on to help Bri figure out the mystery-- that was also creepy and cool.
Briar Rose (Bri) and the Chicago Strangler are both pov's-- typical Thriller, we don't know exactly which character the killer is, but the payoff between 3 male recurring characters is worth it. All three are a satisfying addition to the over all story. I can't say more but readers will be happy with the resolution of all of those plot points.
Retelling of Sleeping Beauty : that part is sustained throughout and it works really well to unite the novel. Details of the story are carefully integrated into the novel but not in an obtrusive way-- it makes sense in the modern story.
Family history is intertwined with a specific slice of Chicago history and urban legends.
A not to miss for fans of Jennifer McMahon in general. Ghost Eaters by Chapman and Daughters of Block Island by Carmen specifically. Also give out to your True Crime fans because there is a lot here about True Crime-- specifically known serial killers. And out is very clear that Pelayo is trying to criticize modern True Crime for the violence it perpetuates against its female victims-- turning the killers into stars and making their victims ghosts (monsters)- silencing them completely.
https://raforall.blogspot.com/2025/03... (link live on 3/5 at 7am central)
Three Words That Describe This Book: elegiac, retelling, ode to murdered women
More words-- unbalanced, uneasy, unsettling-- as Bri works through her grief readers are inside her head. We fall into her intense grief-- the prose itself is unbalanced but also lyrical, you can feel the grief. The story becomes an elegy for the dead and forgotten in general as well. Readers will be able to connect easily. the prose itself drips of sadness, unease, emptiness, despair.
"Keys and gates and locks and thorns." a refrain from her Mom-- the key to Bri stopping the family history of violence against its women.
The title is great because so many daughters have vanished over time but also it is specific to the family and Sleeping Beauty.
This is a ghost story but from a different angle. The house is haunted yes, but it is trying to speak to Bri through her intense grief. There is a family history here.
Lots of frame and atmosphere and detail. But there is a central mystery-- who is the woman that Bri keeps seeing in her dreams, that the house.
The mom's stories shared after death through Bri's memory-- thin places,
The details about Chicago, the house, the family's history all add to the unease. The radios are a great addition. The family made their money in radio (which explains why they have this crumbling mansion) and in that old house having them scattered everywhere makes so much sense. Them turning on to help Bri figure out the mystery-- that was also creepy and cool.
Briar Rose (Bri) and the Chicago Strangler are both pov's-- typical Thriller, we don't know exactly which character the killer is, but the payoff between 3 male recurring characters is worth it. All three are a satisfying addition to the over all story. I can't say more but readers will be happy with the resolution of all of those plot points.
Retelling of Sleeping Beauty : that part is sustained throughout and it works really well to unite the novel. Details of the story are carefully integrated into the novel but not in an obtrusive way-- it makes sense in the modern story.
Family history is intertwined with a specific slice of Chicago history and urban legends.
A not to miss for fans of Jennifer McMahon in general. Ghost Eaters by Chapman and Daughters of Block Island by Carmen specifically. Also give out to your True Crime fans because there is a lot here about True Crime-- specifically known serial killers. And out is very clear that Pelayo is trying to criticize modern True Crime for the violence it perpetuates against its female victims-- turning the killers into stars and making their victims ghosts (monsters)- silencing them completely.
September 11, 2024
"She sleeps, nor dreams, but ever dwells." - Lord Alfred Tennyson
March 12, 2025
#ad many thanks for the advance copy @cynthiapelayoauthor + @kayepublicity #partner
🆅🅰🅽🅸🆂🅷🅸🅽🅶 🅳🅰🆄🅶🅷🆃🅴🆁🆂
ᴀᴠᴀɪʟᴀʙʟᴇ ᴠɪᴀ ᴋᴜ ᴀꜱ ᴀ ʀᴇᴀᴅ/ʟɪꜱᴛᴇɴ ɴᴏᴡ
☆ 𝑃𝑢𝑏 𝐷𝑎𝑦 ☆
“𝑾𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒔. 𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒅𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔, 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑,” (p. 303).
𝕽𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖊𝖜:
Vanishing Daughters by Cynthia Pelayo is a mystery/thriller that has a supernatural edge to it. The writing is lyrical and pulls you right into the story.
Briar Thorne suffers restless nights plagued by nightmares. Having recently lost her mom, she thinks her nightmares are being triggered by her grief. But for the first time in her life, she begins to wonder if maybe science isn’t the answer to everything that happens. Perhaps there’s really something else happening. Something not explained by science.
I loved the mystery of the story and the deeper more philosophical dialogue that happened throughout the book. It’s one of those books, that despite it being a work of fiction, makes you think about the world around you more critically.
I also loved how critically the author looked into fairytales. When you really think about them there’s always some horrible terrible thing associated with them. It’s an interesting aspect of the story.
Reads like a historical mystery. You’re in for a treat.
🆅🅰🅽🅸🆂🅷🅸🅽🅶 🅳🅰🆄🅶🅷🆃🅴🆁🆂
ᴀᴠᴀɪʟᴀʙʟᴇ ᴠɪᴀ ᴋᴜ ᴀꜱ ᴀ ʀᴇᴀᴅ/ʟɪꜱᴛᴇɴ ɴᴏᴡ
☆ 𝑃𝑢𝑏 𝐷𝑎𝑦 ☆
“𝑾𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒔. 𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒅𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔, 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑,” (p. 303).
𝕽𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖊𝖜:
Vanishing Daughters by Cynthia Pelayo is a mystery/thriller that has a supernatural edge to it. The writing is lyrical and pulls you right into the story.
Briar Thorne suffers restless nights plagued by nightmares. Having recently lost her mom, she thinks her nightmares are being triggered by her grief. But for the first time in her life, she begins to wonder if maybe science isn’t the answer to everything that happens. Perhaps there’s really something else happening. Something not explained by science.
I loved the mystery of the story and the deeper more philosophical dialogue that happened throughout the book. It’s one of those books, that despite it being a work of fiction, makes you think about the world around you more critically.
I also loved how critically the author looked into fairytales. When you really think about them there’s always some horrible terrible thing associated with them. It’s an interesting aspect of the story.
Reads like a historical mystery. You’re in for a treat.
February 14, 2025
Do you like fairy tales? Serial killers and dogs?! Look no further.
This beautiful tale tells a very accurate and heartbreaking portrayal of grief mixed with the tellings of Sleeping Beauty. I did not know there were so many versions?! I was totally captivated and couldn’t stop reading. I loved all the descriptions of Chicago (that is where I grew up as a youngin) and my favorite part was Prairie, the pittie! This would make a wonderful book for a book club because there is a ton to unpack and discuss. Pelayo’s background in writing poetry is really highlighted here so get your annotation sticky’s ready!
This beautiful tale tells a very accurate and heartbreaking portrayal of grief mixed with the tellings of Sleeping Beauty. I did not know there were so many versions?! I was totally captivated and couldn’t stop reading. I loved all the descriptions of Chicago (that is where I grew up as a youngin) and my favorite part was Prairie, the pittie! This would make a wonderful book for a book club because there is a ton to unpack and discuss. Pelayo’s background in writing poetry is really highlighted here so get your annotation sticky’s ready!
February 27, 2025
DNF @ 43%
I thought the writing was great - but it's not what I was in the mood to be reading and just didn't connect to it despite being very intrigued.
I thought the writing was great - but it's not what I was in the mood to be reading and just didn't connect to it despite being very intrigued.
February 28, 2025
Now that I have been podcasting and interviewing authors for a couple of years a new thing has started to happen. Towards the end of most interviews, I will say “What are you working on now” or “What is coming next?” I am starting to have the regular experience of getting to read those books and it is really fun. The latest example is Cynthia Pelayo’s latest, and as much as I enjoyed Forgotten Sisters, this one was even better.
Despite being marketed on the cover as a thriller, Cina’s Wheelhouse is a horror novel about haunted Chicago. That would be cool enough, Chicago is a city I have enjoyed visiting but Pelayo’s Chicago is haunted not just by ghosts but by the long specter of this strange history that has swirled around the Windy City. In the hands of a less talented storyteller this history would roll out in fake newspaper articles or prologues, but the characters in her novels are haunted by history and the information as much as the ghosts. Part of the vibe is the modern fairy tale, and as such Pelayo is building a reliable catalog. No surprise as she has Bram Stoker and Latino book awards on her shelf.
Vanishing Daughters has all the elements that she is known for while adding some subtle but meaningful Sci-fi elements. It is the story of Bri, a journalist whose mother died recently in her massive southside childhood home. Her mother had passed on obsessions with what she calls “thin” places, haunted places including their home, and one that will become important, Archer Avenue. The thin place nature of their home always affected her with nightmares just around the surface.
Those nightmares included visions of a serial killer, very similar to the deaths of fifty-one women around Chicago, Bri feels the killer behind her. As a horror fan who is also an archive nerd, I love how Pelayo’s vibe almost always includes musty old books and a story that depends on someone cracking those spines to get answers.
Two plots interweave as the killer is obsessed with the idea that he is putting his victims to sleep, so you can guess which fairy tale Pelayo is playing with her. He has his eyes set on Bri, and she gets closer to the truth of origin, tied directly to the real-life history of the city. Chicago is a city I find interesting, and this novel is horror, Chicago history all pulled together with a light sprinkle of sci-fi worked for me. As much as I liked Forgotten Sisters, I enjoyed this one even more. I had one nitpick that I will talk about in spoilers. If you want a recommendation before I get into light spoilers about the novel then yes, Read Vanishing Daughters if the elements I described interest you.
Now let's talk about a few parts that highlight why it works for me.
“My mother didn't really tell me what her favorite Chicago hauntings were, but it was easy to guess. In the library, she had an entire shelf dedicated to Archer Ave. There were Manila folders full of documents in pictures. When I asked her why she was so fascinated with a single road.”
Much like Stephen Graham Jones needed story reasons for his narrator to be a gifted writer Bri in this story had to be an investigator, she is a journalist and her mother is her access to all the history and lore. Pelayo is working with several recurring themes but the houses and the ‘thin places’ around her beloved Chicago operate in her novels like a power cord does in a Ramones song.
“Archer Ave. is an energy center. A thin place. Just like this house…”
I love the concept of a thin place. This novel gives us the feeling that the two characters at the center exist in this thin place. I don’t know if Archer Ave, of if it is a real place but I get the sense now that I am two novels into this author that she likes to start from these real places and history. I could google but I want to preserve that Mystery.
“What's also scary is sometimes when you're trying to wake up from a nightmare, you just can't. You open your eyes and you're just there in your bed, feeling trapped and paralyzed.”
Vanishing Daughters is not exactly an instant nightmare like some novels, but for the reader who connects with Bri we understand her fears. She is a defined character enough; with motivations we can understand. I did have the question marks with her that I did with Anna in CP’s Forgotten Sister. I cared enough about Bri that I cringed internally wondering how she might survive and thrive.
There is some commentary on haunting, grieving, and death that might come off as old hat to some horror readers but again I enjoy those moments when they are well done. A horror story is a part of a long tradition. Moments like this…
“We speak of haunted houses as if they are grim and gruesome things, but what makes a house haunted?
People.
A person dies.
A soul is restless, and I do not know if I believe in souls or spirits or ghosts but what I do believe is that I'm slowly losing parts of myself.”
There are parts of Vanishing Daughters that feel familiar, as a horror novel and thematically like a Cynthia Pelayo novel. This is a feature, not a bug. At the same time, several things make this novel stand alone. I love a novel that is the product of a singular voice. No one else could write this novel. It is not just the setting, the killer that makes it unique my Dickheads will enjoy a slightly Matheson or PKD-inspired sci-fi touch to the afterlife
“He points at me. “brilliant. Exactly. According to the CIA, if the frequency of human consciousness drops from ten to the power of thirty centimeters per second but remains above the state of total rest, it can transcend space-time.”
I think this will pass right by some readers as world-building details but I loved it.
“Think of a radio example. Imagine a human consciousness is a radio playing a certain music station. Well, if you move that dial and start searching for another station and just land on nothing on that fuzzy place we call snow, that is total rest. That is where you transcend space and time.”
“We’re radios, in a way, tune to a song? Sometimes there are people who can connect to the station we're playing, and they linger here with us for a while during this life. Sometimes the song they want to listen to changes, but sometimes they turn off altogether.”
I am looking forward to talking on the podcast with Cina, she told me parts of this novel were inspired by PKD’s UBIK and yeah…
“is it possible to have consciousness that's so expanded, so far-reaching beyond space and time and dreams, that you could communicate not just with the living, but with the dead, or the murderer, and ask them… what happened to you?”
I don’t want to give away the ending but I love the final backstory behind that connects to one of the most infamous of Chicago killers.
“It was Father who told me I could not die. I asked him how he knew this. He said he tried to poison me many times, and not once did the poison affect me because of that father said we believed I wasn't human he said he read about fairies who looked like humans and believed, then, that I was a fairy.”
This is a twist hidden in the open for those of us familiar with the historical events Pelayo ties into the novel.
As great as it is, and it is 200% a recommendation I have only one minor issue. Pelayo appears as committed to writing in the first person as she is setting her novels in Chicago. I have never been shy about expressing my feelings about how limiting the first person can be. Because the narrative switches POV there is no indication in some chapters who is I writing to us. I was confused the first time we switched POV. A few of the chapters I was lost for a page or two until a specific detail told me – this is the killer or Bri. Ultimately, it was a minor issue.
98% of this novel I was delightfully lost in the narrative and most readers probably will not notice. Vanishing Daughters is a fantastic novel that I very much enjoyed. The Midwest setting, the history, The light Sci-fi, and the horror elements were perfect alchemy. Now that I have read two novels, Pelayo officially has a locked in reader.
Despite being marketed on the cover as a thriller, Cina’s Wheelhouse is a horror novel about haunted Chicago. That would be cool enough, Chicago is a city I have enjoyed visiting but Pelayo’s Chicago is haunted not just by ghosts but by the long specter of this strange history that has swirled around the Windy City. In the hands of a less talented storyteller this history would roll out in fake newspaper articles or prologues, but the characters in her novels are haunted by history and the information as much as the ghosts. Part of the vibe is the modern fairy tale, and as such Pelayo is building a reliable catalog. No surprise as she has Bram Stoker and Latino book awards on her shelf.
Vanishing Daughters has all the elements that she is known for while adding some subtle but meaningful Sci-fi elements. It is the story of Bri, a journalist whose mother died recently in her massive southside childhood home. Her mother had passed on obsessions with what she calls “thin” places, haunted places including their home, and one that will become important, Archer Avenue. The thin place nature of their home always affected her with nightmares just around the surface.
Those nightmares included visions of a serial killer, very similar to the deaths of fifty-one women around Chicago, Bri feels the killer behind her. As a horror fan who is also an archive nerd, I love how Pelayo’s vibe almost always includes musty old books and a story that depends on someone cracking those spines to get answers.
Two plots interweave as the killer is obsessed with the idea that he is putting his victims to sleep, so you can guess which fairy tale Pelayo is playing with her. He has his eyes set on Bri, and she gets closer to the truth of origin, tied directly to the real-life history of the city. Chicago is a city I find interesting, and this novel is horror, Chicago history all pulled together with a light sprinkle of sci-fi worked for me. As much as I liked Forgotten Sisters, I enjoyed this one even more. I had one nitpick that I will talk about in spoilers. If you want a recommendation before I get into light spoilers about the novel then yes, Read Vanishing Daughters if the elements I described interest you.
Now let's talk about a few parts that highlight why it works for me.
“My mother didn't really tell me what her favorite Chicago hauntings were, but it was easy to guess. In the library, she had an entire shelf dedicated to Archer Ave. There were Manila folders full of documents in pictures. When I asked her why she was so fascinated with a single road.”
Much like Stephen Graham Jones needed story reasons for his narrator to be a gifted writer Bri in this story had to be an investigator, she is a journalist and her mother is her access to all the history and lore. Pelayo is working with several recurring themes but the houses and the ‘thin places’ around her beloved Chicago operate in her novels like a power cord does in a Ramones song.
“Archer Ave. is an energy center. A thin place. Just like this house…”
I love the concept of a thin place. This novel gives us the feeling that the two characters at the center exist in this thin place. I don’t know if Archer Ave, of if it is a real place but I get the sense now that I am two novels into this author that she likes to start from these real places and history. I could google but I want to preserve that Mystery.
“What's also scary is sometimes when you're trying to wake up from a nightmare, you just can't. You open your eyes and you're just there in your bed, feeling trapped and paralyzed.”
Vanishing Daughters is not exactly an instant nightmare like some novels, but for the reader who connects with Bri we understand her fears. She is a defined character enough; with motivations we can understand. I did have the question marks with her that I did with Anna in CP’s Forgotten Sister. I cared enough about Bri that I cringed internally wondering how she might survive and thrive.
There is some commentary on haunting, grieving, and death that might come off as old hat to some horror readers but again I enjoy those moments when they are well done. A horror story is a part of a long tradition. Moments like this…
“We speak of haunted houses as if they are grim and gruesome things, but what makes a house haunted?
People.
A person dies.
A soul is restless, and I do not know if I believe in souls or spirits or ghosts but what I do believe is that I'm slowly losing parts of myself.”
There are parts of Vanishing Daughters that feel familiar, as a horror novel and thematically like a Cynthia Pelayo novel. This is a feature, not a bug. At the same time, several things make this novel stand alone. I love a novel that is the product of a singular voice. No one else could write this novel. It is not just the setting, the killer that makes it unique my Dickheads will enjoy a slightly Matheson or PKD-inspired sci-fi touch to the afterlife
“He points at me. “brilliant. Exactly. According to the CIA, if the frequency of human consciousness drops from ten to the power of thirty centimeters per second but remains above the state of total rest, it can transcend space-time.”
I think this will pass right by some readers as world-building details but I loved it.
“Think of a radio example. Imagine a human consciousness is a radio playing a certain music station. Well, if you move that dial and start searching for another station and just land on nothing on that fuzzy place we call snow, that is total rest. That is where you transcend space and time.”
“We’re radios, in a way, tune to a song? Sometimes there are people who can connect to the station we're playing, and they linger here with us for a while during this life. Sometimes the song they want to listen to changes, but sometimes they turn off altogether.”
I am looking forward to talking on the podcast with Cina, she told me parts of this novel were inspired by PKD’s UBIK and yeah…
“is it possible to have consciousness that's so expanded, so far-reaching beyond space and time and dreams, that you could communicate not just with the living, but with the dead, or the murderer, and ask them… what happened to you?”
I don’t want to give away the ending but I love the final backstory behind that connects to one of the most infamous of Chicago killers.
“It was Father who told me I could not die. I asked him how he knew this. He said he tried to poison me many times, and not once did the poison affect me because of that father said we believed I wasn't human he said he read about fairies who looked like humans and believed, then, that I was a fairy.”
This is a twist hidden in the open for those of us familiar with the historical events Pelayo ties into the novel.
As great as it is, and it is 200% a recommendation I have only one minor issue. Pelayo appears as committed to writing in the first person as she is setting her novels in Chicago. I have never been shy about expressing my feelings about how limiting the first person can be. Because the narrative switches POV there is no indication in some chapters who is I writing to us. I was confused the first time we switched POV. A few of the chapters I was lost for a page or two until a specific detail told me – this is the killer or Bri. Ultimately, it was a minor issue.
98% of this novel I was delightfully lost in the narrative and most readers probably will not notice. Vanishing Daughters is a fantastic novel that I very much enjoyed. The Midwest setting, the history, The light Sci-fi, and the horror elements were perfect alchemy. Now that I have read two novels, Pelayo officially has a locked in reader.
March 17, 2025
unique and new
This was a fun concept using fairytales, supernatural and serial killer loved it. I would saw the ending could have been better but it was a fun adventure and I love the writing
This was a fun concept using fairytales, supernatural and serial killer loved it. I would saw the ending could have been better but it was a fun adventure and I love the writing
March 13, 2025
Missing your dead mother is not a personality trait. Nor do I want to hear about it on every page.
February 14, 2025
This was just not for me. There was just way too much going on; fairy tales, urban legends, serial killers, grief, something about the Manhattan Project it was just too much. It also genuinely feels like the MC is just sleep deprived to the point that she should have been hospitalized, and while I think this was supposed to show just how awful it is to lose someone it just becomes too extreme. And maybe that's all this was; some sort of fever dream the MC is having while dealing with the loss of her mother and conquering the serial killer is her conquering her depression brought on by grief but even if that was the case the attempt to tie a serial killer, to a fairy tale (several versions of the same one), to grief was never fully realized. It felt incomplete and disjointed. There are some shining comments on grief and loss, but not enough, and somehow, too many.
Overall, I genuinely can't recommend this, which rarely happens.
As always, thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the eArc.
Overall, I genuinely can't recommend this, which rarely happens.
As always, thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the eArc.
January 10, 2025
Special thank you to #NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this eARC.
Vanishing Daughters is a supernatural suspense of a serial killer zeroing in on one Briar Rose in Chicago. Briar herself is struggling against many internal issues, the least of which is her house, Rose House, which sends signals in different shapes and forms while she deals with insomnia and grief, two weeks fresh into the passing of her mother.
The story is a clever, contemporary twist on Sleeping Beauty, continuing what I like to call to the Pelayo-verse: a present-day Chicago, teeming with fairy tales and the supernatural, with detectives trying to get to the bottom of the facts, this time in particular before a serial killer does.
In Vanishing Daughters though, the detectives are more in the background, a pleasant Easter egg to any who have read Pelayo’s Forgotten Sisters, as the detective’s POV is replaced with that of the serial killer, a mystery himself within as he contains some seemingly supernatural mystique in his murderous plots. Let’s just say this book contains a city full of screaming. Lots and lots of screaming…
Briar herself is an interesting case, a journalist with more knowledge of Chicago that she can churn out faster and heavier than you can fact-check on your phone. Her on-the-spot know-how, mixed with the struggles of figuring out why the random radios inherited from her great-great-grandparents go on and off, to roses and gifted spindles appearing at inopportune times, create a kind of Poet-pedia that is becoming emblematic of the author’s style. The whimsical just stops itself of becoming full twee.
There comes to a point though where the safety of Briar becomes an ‘enough is enough’ point, and one scene in particular, where a serious self-check is met with denial and enabling behaviour from her peers, kind of draws that line in the sand as to when is the serial killer just going to show up for the reader. The cover says ‘A Thriller,’ but you are going to have to skip to the final ten pages before that.
Vanishing Daughters is best seen as a suspense, and a loving showcase for Chicago, as Cynthia Pelayo continues to give her readers an in-depth, fantasy/supernatural look at the wonder and lore of the city she loves, one that I believe is growingly reciprocated.
Vanishing Daughters is a supernatural suspense of a serial killer zeroing in on one Briar Rose in Chicago. Briar herself is struggling against many internal issues, the least of which is her house, Rose House, which sends signals in different shapes and forms while she deals with insomnia and grief, two weeks fresh into the passing of her mother.
The story is a clever, contemporary twist on Sleeping Beauty, continuing what I like to call to the Pelayo-verse: a present-day Chicago, teeming with fairy tales and the supernatural, with detectives trying to get to the bottom of the facts, this time in particular before a serial killer does.
In Vanishing Daughters though, the detectives are more in the background, a pleasant Easter egg to any who have read Pelayo’s Forgotten Sisters, as the detective’s POV is replaced with that of the serial killer, a mystery himself within as he contains some seemingly supernatural mystique in his murderous plots. Let’s just say this book contains a city full of screaming. Lots and lots of screaming…
Briar herself is an interesting case, a journalist with more knowledge of Chicago that she can churn out faster and heavier than you can fact-check on your phone. Her on-the-spot know-how, mixed with the struggles of figuring out why the random radios inherited from her great-great-grandparents go on and off, to roses and gifted spindles appearing at inopportune times, create a kind of Poet-pedia that is becoming emblematic of the author’s style. The whimsical just stops itself of becoming full twee.
There comes to a point though where the safety of Briar becomes an ‘enough is enough’ point, and one scene in particular, where a serious self-check is met with denial and enabling behaviour from her peers, kind of draws that line in the sand as to when is the serial killer just going to show up for the reader. The cover says ‘A Thriller,’ but you are going to have to skip to the final ten pages before that.
Vanishing Daughters is best seen as a suspense, and a loving showcase for Chicago, as Cynthia Pelayo continues to give her readers an in-depth, fantasy/supernatural look at the wonder and lore of the city she loves, one that I believe is growingly reciprocated.
Read
April 5, 2025DNF
This was a depressing read for me. The MC is in grief after losing her mother but it was just too dark, and sad for me. Not my cup of tea.
Special thanks to Kaye Publicity for the gifted copy.
This was a depressing read for me. The MC is in grief after losing her mother but it was just too dark, and sad for me. Not my cup of tea.
Special thanks to Kaye Publicity for the gifted copy.
March 24, 2025
Like always, Cynthia Pelayo comes in with her magical prose that puts me in such a calm state, it’s truly cathartic for me and I love that about it! Vanishing Daughters was everything I have come to love and expect from Pelayo. This dark, fairytale retelling turned serial killer/ghost story is haunting and so atmospheric. Pure perfection.
I love that her work is centered around Chicago, and she sets the scene so beautifully that it feels like I’m revisiting the city each time I read her work, but with a different vantage point this time. The grief packed in these pages was heavy and if you know me, you know I’m here for that.
If you enjoy fairytale retellings, be sure to give this one and Forgotten Sisters a try. Thanks to Thomas and Mercer and Kaye Publicity for my copy! Vanishing Daughters is available now.
I love that her work is centered around Chicago, and she sets the scene so beautifully that it feels like I’m revisiting the city each time I read her work, but with a different vantage point this time. The grief packed in these pages was heavy and if you know me, you know I’m here for that.
If you enjoy fairytale retellings, be sure to give this one and Forgotten Sisters a try. Thanks to Thomas and Mercer and Kaye Publicity for my copy! Vanishing Daughters is available now.
March 20, 2025
In her latest novel "Vanishing Daughters," Bram Stoker Award-winning author Cynthia Pelayo weaves a mesmerizing tale that blurs the boundaries between fairy tales, urban legends, and real-world horrors. Following the success of her Chicago-set novels "Children of Chicago" and "Forgotten Sisters," Pelayo returns to the Windy City's haunted landscape with a story that feels both timeless and urgently contemporary.
The novel follows Briar Rose Thorne, a science journalist whose rational worldview begins to crumble after her mother's death. As she grieves in her family's aging Victorian mansion, Briar experiences increasing supernatural phenomena—phantom music, strange visions, and dreams of a young woman in white begging to be brought home. Meanwhile, a serial killer known as the Chicago Strangler has claimed the lives of fifty-one women, and Briar soon discovers unsettling connections between these murders, her family history, and Chicago's most famous ghost story.
Masterful Blending of Myth and Reality
Pelayo's greatest strength lies in her ability to seamlessly intertwine multiple narrative elements:
1. Chicago's Rich Folklore - The author demonstrates impressive knowledge of local ghost stories, particularly the legend of Resurrection Mary, which serves as the novel's supernatural backbone
2. Fairy Tale Foundations - The book cleverly repurposes "Sleeping Beauty" elements, from the spinning spindle to the concept of enchanted sleep
3. True Crime - Pelayo incorporates real details about Chicago's dark history, including references to H.H. Holmes and historical crime statistics
4. Personal Grief - Briar's mourning process forms an emotional core that grounds the supernatural elements
The way these threads intertwine creates a tapestry that feels both mythical and authentic. When Briar visits places like Bachelor's Grove Cemetery or Red Gate Woods (site of a buried nuclear reactor), Pelayo's descriptions bring these real Chicago locations to vivid, unsettling life.
Atmosphere That Lingers Like Morning Fog
The novel's atmosphere deserves special mention. Pelayo creates a dreamlike quality through her prose that mirrors Briar's increasingly untethered experience:
"There's a delicate scent of rose lingering in the air. Very often with these aging historic homes, there's a familiar smell that hangs in the air."
This attention to sensory detail—the smell of roses, the sound of old radios switching on, the chill of Chicago winter—creates an immersive reading experience. The haunted house itself becomes a character, with its mysterious radios, rose gardens, and hidden histories. The distinction between waking life and dreams gradually dissolves, pulling readers into the same disorienting experience as the protagonist.
Strengths and Shortcomings
What Works Brilliantly
- Local Color - Pelayo's Chicago is rendered with the intimate knowledge of a lifelong resident. From the Midway Plaisance to specific cemeteries along Archer Avenue, the setting feels authentic and richly realized.
- Feminine Horror - The book explores the vulnerability of women in public spaces through both supernatural and all-too-real threats. The Chicago Strangler represents the genuine dangers women face, while the supernatural elements provide a metaphorical framework.
- Family Legacy - The generational aspects of the story, with curses and protections passing through maternal lines, creates a compelling mythology.
- Meditation on Grief - Briar's processing of her mother's death provides emotional depth beyond typical horror fare.
Where It Falls Short
- Pacing Issues - The middle section sometimes meanders, with repetitive dream sequences and internal monologues that could have been tightened.
- Character Development - While Briar is well-drawn, secondary characters like Emily and Daniel remain somewhat underdeveloped, primarily serving as sounding boards for the protagonist.
- Plot Complexity - The multiple storylines (serial killer, family curse, ghost legend, meditation techniques) occasionally create confusion rather than complexity, especially in the final act.
- Dialogue - Some conversations, particularly the philosophical discussions about consciousness, can feel somewhat didactic rather than natural.
Thematic Resonance: More Than Just Scares
What elevates "Vanishing Daughters" above standard horror fare is its thoughtful engagement with substantive themes:
- The persistence of trauma, both personal and collective, echoes throughout the narrative. Just as Briar's grief distorts her perception, Chicago's violent history continues to haunt its present.
- The power of stories becomes a central motif. Urban legends aren't merely entertainment but serve as warnings and vessels for truth. As Briar reflects:
"Why do we fear the ghosts of women who were murdered? Why don't we fear the thing that made them what they are?"
This question resonates beyond the supernatural context, asking readers to consider how we mythologize female victims while forgetting the systems that endangered them.
- The thin places between worlds—consciousness states, the living and dead, past and present—provide a fascinating framework for the novel's exploration of reality itself.
Technical Craft: Style and Structure
Pelayo employs a shifting narrative structure that contributes to the dreamlike quality. While primarily focused on Briar's perspective, we occasionally glimpse the killer's disturbing viewpoint. These sections are particularly chilling, written with clinical detachment that makes the horror more pronounced:
"I am looking for those mythmakers. I am looking for those beautiful women who sleep, who drift, who dream, and they will be mine forever."
The prose style shifts effectively between lyrical description, psychological introspection, and more straightforward narrative. This variability mirrors Briar's unstable mental state, though occasionally the shifts can feel abrupt.
Final Assessment
"Vanishing Daughters" is an ambitious novel that largely succeeds in its goals. Pelayo has crafted a story that functions simultaneously as a ghost story, serial killer thriller, fairy tale retelling, and meditation on grief. While some elements could be more tightly executed, the overall impact is powerful and lingering.
The novel's exploration of how we process trauma—both personal and cultural—resonates well beyond its supernatural elements. By connecting Chicago's ghost stories to contemporary violence against women, Pelayo creates a narrative that feels urgent despite its folkloric foundations.
For readers seeking atmospheric horror with intellectual and emotional depth, "Vanishing Daughters" delivers a compelling experience that will have you thinking twice when driving down Archer Avenue after dark—and perhaps looking more closely at the women who walk alone on city streets, both living and spectral.
The novel follows Briar Rose Thorne, a science journalist whose rational worldview begins to crumble after her mother's death. As she grieves in her family's aging Victorian mansion, Briar experiences increasing supernatural phenomena—phantom music, strange visions, and dreams of a young woman in white begging to be brought home. Meanwhile, a serial killer known as the Chicago Strangler has claimed the lives of fifty-one women, and Briar soon discovers unsettling connections between these murders, her family history, and Chicago's most famous ghost story.
Masterful Blending of Myth and Reality
Pelayo's greatest strength lies in her ability to seamlessly intertwine multiple narrative elements:
1. Chicago's Rich Folklore - The author demonstrates impressive knowledge of local ghost stories, particularly the legend of Resurrection Mary, which serves as the novel's supernatural backbone
2. Fairy Tale Foundations - The book cleverly repurposes "Sleeping Beauty" elements, from the spinning spindle to the concept of enchanted sleep
3. True Crime - Pelayo incorporates real details about Chicago's dark history, including references to H.H. Holmes and historical crime statistics
4. Personal Grief - Briar's mourning process forms an emotional core that grounds the supernatural elements
The way these threads intertwine creates a tapestry that feels both mythical and authentic. When Briar visits places like Bachelor's Grove Cemetery or Red Gate Woods (site of a buried nuclear reactor), Pelayo's descriptions bring these real Chicago locations to vivid, unsettling life.
Atmosphere That Lingers Like Morning Fog
The novel's atmosphere deserves special mention. Pelayo creates a dreamlike quality through her prose that mirrors Briar's increasingly untethered experience:
"There's a delicate scent of rose lingering in the air. Very often with these aging historic homes, there's a familiar smell that hangs in the air."
This attention to sensory detail—the smell of roses, the sound of old radios switching on, the chill of Chicago winter—creates an immersive reading experience. The haunted house itself becomes a character, with its mysterious radios, rose gardens, and hidden histories. The distinction between waking life and dreams gradually dissolves, pulling readers into the same disorienting experience as the protagonist.
Strengths and Shortcomings
What Works Brilliantly
- Local Color - Pelayo's Chicago is rendered with the intimate knowledge of a lifelong resident. From the Midway Plaisance to specific cemeteries along Archer Avenue, the setting feels authentic and richly realized.
- Feminine Horror - The book explores the vulnerability of women in public spaces through both supernatural and all-too-real threats. The Chicago Strangler represents the genuine dangers women face, while the supernatural elements provide a metaphorical framework.
- Family Legacy - The generational aspects of the story, with curses and protections passing through maternal lines, creates a compelling mythology.
- Meditation on Grief - Briar's processing of her mother's death provides emotional depth beyond typical horror fare.
Where It Falls Short
- Pacing Issues - The middle section sometimes meanders, with repetitive dream sequences and internal monologues that could have been tightened.
- Character Development - While Briar is well-drawn, secondary characters like Emily and Daniel remain somewhat underdeveloped, primarily serving as sounding boards for the protagonist.
- Plot Complexity - The multiple storylines (serial killer, family curse, ghost legend, meditation techniques) occasionally create confusion rather than complexity, especially in the final act.
- Dialogue - Some conversations, particularly the philosophical discussions about consciousness, can feel somewhat didactic rather than natural.
Thematic Resonance: More Than Just Scares
What elevates "Vanishing Daughters" above standard horror fare is its thoughtful engagement with substantive themes:
- The persistence of trauma, both personal and collective, echoes throughout the narrative. Just as Briar's grief distorts her perception, Chicago's violent history continues to haunt its present.
- The power of stories becomes a central motif. Urban legends aren't merely entertainment but serve as warnings and vessels for truth. As Briar reflects:
"Why do we fear the ghosts of women who were murdered? Why don't we fear the thing that made them what they are?"
This question resonates beyond the supernatural context, asking readers to consider how we mythologize female victims while forgetting the systems that endangered them.
- The thin places between worlds—consciousness states, the living and dead, past and present—provide a fascinating framework for the novel's exploration of reality itself.
Technical Craft: Style and Structure
Pelayo employs a shifting narrative structure that contributes to the dreamlike quality. While primarily focused on Briar's perspective, we occasionally glimpse the killer's disturbing viewpoint. These sections are particularly chilling, written with clinical detachment that makes the horror more pronounced:
"I am looking for those mythmakers. I am looking for those beautiful women who sleep, who drift, who dream, and they will be mine forever."
The prose style shifts effectively between lyrical description, psychological introspection, and more straightforward narrative. This variability mirrors Briar's unstable mental state, though occasionally the shifts can feel abrupt.
Final Assessment
"Vanishing Daughters" is an ambitious novel that largely succeeds in its goals. Pelayo has crafted a story that functions simultaneously as a ghost story, serial killer thriller, fairy tale retelling, and meditation on grief. While some elements could be more tightly executed, the overall impact is powerful and lingering.
The novel's exploration of how we process trauma—both personal and cultural—resonates well beyond its supernatural elements. By connecting Chicago's ghost stories to contemporary violence against women, Pelayo creates a narrative that feels urgent despite its folkloric foundations.
For readers seeking atmospheric horror with intellectual and emotional depth, "Vanishing Daughters" delivers a compelling experience that will have you thinking twice when driving down Archer Avenue after dark—and perhaps looking more closely at the women who walk alone on city streets, both living and spectral.
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September 30, 2024A big, big thank you to the author for sending along an ARC! Below is my blurb:
VANISHING DAUGHTERS plunges us into the nightmare that is grief from which it feels impossible to wake. Pelayo constructs an elegant yet haunting house of memories, dream-like vignettes quilted, and interweaves violence, true crime, injustice with dark fairytales through part-poetry-part-prose. In this multi-layered exploration of sleeping women awakened, VANISHING DAUGHTERS illuminates how our lives are inseparable from folklore, from our ancestors, even if unfair.
VANISHING DAUGHTERS plunges us into the nightmare that is grief from which it feels impossible to wake. Pelayo constructs an elegant yet haunting house of memories, dream-like vignettes quilted, and interweaves violence, true crime, injustice with dark fairytales through part-poetry-part-prose. In this multi-layered exploration of sleeping women awakened, VANISHING DAUGHTERS illuminates how our lives are inseparable from folklore, from our ancestors, even if unfair.
March 30, 2025
Cynthia Pelayo has written a short story called Snow White’s Shattered Coffin which is inspired by the famous fairy-tale and urban legends surrounding the statue of Inez Clarke, a funeral monument in Graceland Cemetery, Chicago. And I thought it was fantastic. it was essentially what drove me to request this novel.
Bare bones: Briar Rose,a freelance journalist, just moved to her old house, following the death of her loving, eccentric mother Aurora. Her grief is immense and she has troubles sleeping and functioning without her mother. And maybe it's the grief that makes her see a young girl on a side of her eye, cries and worlds in the wind and sensation of house talking to her? Or maybe the ghosts of tragically vanished girls are trying to send her a message. A message about the man who's hunting them...
There are certain elements you can expect from Pelayo novel:
- Chicago. Her books are essentially a love letter to the city of Chicago. There is a certain whimsical and gothic undertone to her descriptions of the city monuments and architecture, the dark mythology of the city that give it its personality. It's more than just the place where the story is happening or the atmosphere, it's a character on its own and I guess it's even more effective if read by locals. The haunted Archer Avenue, Alsip and Holy Sepulchre Cemetery are just some of the few mentioned in this novel. Chicago seems to be ever an inspiration for Cynthia Pelayo.
-Fairy-tales. The magical, paranormal vibes of her stories is emphasized by integrating traditional fairy tales into the story, and often calling on their original horror forms. In Children of Chicago it was the Pied Piper, in Forgotten Sisters it was The Little Mermaid and in this one it's The Sleeping Beauty. While I think that it was done really well in Children of Chicago series or the aforementioned shorter story, here it would sometimes come off as a bit on the nose, especially when tying in was done referencing the mainstream versions of it which are Disney's animation and Maleficent duology. Hence, our main character is called Briar Rose, her mother is Aurora and the villain is Mal. And just in case you weren't aware, the killer keep calling his victims " his sleeping beauties."
-Lyrical prose. Poetic storytelling and atmospheric writing which Pelayo uses as her vehicle to contemplate on different topics and in this particular novel it's about grief, violence and womanhood. Bri's loss of her beloved mother is not something that kicks the plot going, it is present through the entirety of the novel as something she is dealing with. This is what makes the story slow to get going with the whole "killer who vanishes daughters". A lot of dreams that are clearly a vision, but Bri would doubt it as a part of her imagination or she would just ...not investigating when overcome with grief. So, if you expect a fast-paced thriller about catching the serial killer, this is not it. For me her writing clicks and I knew what to expect and still I feel like we took too long to get the story really going. There was a whole magic explanation about thin-spaces, time travel and astral projection and trance and honestly, I didn't enjoy those because they were infodumpy and delivered through character who seems invented purely for that purpose.
Vanishing Girls was enjoyable, but nor really the best I've read from her, especially when it comes to characterization. The writing and the vibes are still there, but as much as I love Pelayo's style, I do wonder if it's time for her to try something new. Which each new book, the excitement and wonder was less than it was when I picked up Children of Chicago. The plot about serial killer and vanishing girls had something to say from the feminist point of view and violence against women, but 1) the intention reminded me of The Shining Girls where it was done better and 2) I feel the purposeful tying with The Sleeping Beauty fairy tale constricted the point, especially because the idea of generational serial murder was interesting. Taking in consideration how long the build up was, the culmination was a bit flat.
Recommend if you like a slow-cooker of a ghost novel with some pretty writing. :)
I would like to thank Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer and Cynthia Pelayo for an advanced copy of Vanishing Daughters. All opinions are my own.
Bare bones: Briar Rose,a freelance journalist, just moved to her old house, following the death of her loving, eccentric mother Aurora. Her grief is immense and she has troubles sleeping and functioning without her mother. And maybe it's the grief that makes her see a young girl on a side of her eye, cries and worlds in the wind and sensation of house talking to her? Or maybe the ghosts of tragically vanished girls are trying to send her a message. A message about the man who's hunting them...
There are certain elements you can expect from Pelayo novel:
- Chicago. Her books are essentially a love letter to the city of Chicago. There is a certain whimsical and gothic undertone to her descriptions of the city monuments and architecture, the dark mythology of the city that give it its personality. It's more than just the place where the story is happening or the atmosphere, it's a character on its own and I guess it's even more effective if read by locals. The haunted Archer Avenue, Alsip and Holy Sepulchre Cemetery are just some of the few mentioned in this novel. Chicago seems to be ever an inspiration for Cynthia Pelayo.
-Fairy-tales. The magical, paranormal vibes of her stories is emphasized by integrating traditional fairy tales into the story, and often calling on their original horror forms. In Children of Chicago it was the Pied Piper, in Forgotten Sisters it was The Little Mermaid and in this one it's The Sleeping Beauty. While I think that it was done really well in Children of Chicago series or the aforementioned shorter story, here it would sometimes come off as a bit on the nose, especially when tying in was done referencing the mainstream versions of it which are Disney's animation and Maleficent duology. Hence, our main character is called Briar Rose, her mother is Aurora and the villain is Mal. And just in case you weren't aware, the killer keep calling his victims " his sleeping beauties."
-Lyrical prose. Poetic storytelling and atmospheric writing which Pelayo uses as her vehicle to contemplate on different topics and in this particular novel it's about grief, violence and womanhood. Bri's loss of her beloved mother is not something that kicks the plot going, it is present through the entirety of the novel as something she is dealing with. This is what makes the story slow to get going with the whole "killer who vanishes daughters". A lot of dreams that are clearly a vision, but Bri would doubt it as a part of her imagination or she would just ...not investigating when overcome with grief. So, if you expect a fast-paced thriller about catching the serial killer, this is not it. For me her writing clicks and I knew what to expect and still I feel like we took too long to get the story really going. There was a whole magic explanation about thin-spaces, time travel and astral projection and trance and honestly, I didn't enjoy those because they were infodumpy and delivered through character who seems invented purely for that purpose.
Vanishing Girls was enjoyable, but nor really the best I've read from her, especially when it comes to characterization. The writing and the vibes are still there, but as much as I love Pelayo's style, I do wonder if it's time for her to try something new. Which each new book, the excitement and wonder was less than it was when I picked up Children of Chicago. The plot about serial killer and vanishing girls had something to say from the feminist point of view and violence against women, but 1) the intention reminded me of The Shining Girls where it was done better and 2) I feel the purposeful tying with The Sleeping Beauty fairy tale constricted the point, especially because the idea of generational serial murder was interesting. Taking in consideration how long the build up was, the culmination was a bit flat.
Recommend if you like a slow-cooker of a ghost novel with some pretty writing. :)
I would like to thank Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer and Cynthia Pelayo for an advanced copy of Vanishing Daughters. All opinions are my own.
November 14, 2024
*4.5 stars*
Vanishing Daughters is entirely genre-defying. It is dark magical realism. It is an intense portrayal of grief. It is a love letter to Chicago. It is a rebuke of the way our society obsesses over and is entertained by true crime, in a way that can be validating of the murderers and dehumanizing of the victims. It is a dreamlike, rambling modern fairy tale. It is a mystery. It is all of these things at once, and I have never read a book quite like this before.
Briar Thorne is grieving the death of her mother in her magical inherited home as a serial killer stalks the streets of Chicago. She is haunted by dark dreams and visions: her mother, and the house, need her to do something. But she doesn’t know what. Processing her grief while trying to get to the bottom of her families peculiar legacy, she starts to realize that the killer in her city might be closer than she realizes.
Vanishing Daughters weaves together a modern day psychological thriller with our oldest fairytales and legends, and the result is utterly unique. I really enjoyed this book, but I think it is one that won’t work for every reader. The writing style is dreamlike and rambling; in some chapters, it’s almost a flow of consciousness from our main character Briar. And as I mentioned in the first part of the review, this book covers a lot of themes and topics; and while they’re all handled incredibly well, it can come across as slightly overwhelming at times. But if you are a reader who loves dark modern magical realism, and you don’t mind an atmospheric rather than fast-paced story, I think you will really enjoy Vanishing Daughters. The closest book comp I can think of is not perfect, as they are very different books; but if you enjoyed The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, I think you should give this one a try.
I would say there is a big TW for this book in its intense portrayal of grief over losing a loved one. It is handled extremely well and carries the story, but it is a deep-dive into a very intimate and raw exploration of human grief; and if you as a reader have recently lost a loved one, I would recommend proceeding with caution. It has been several years since I have lost a family member, but this book did move me to tears a few times. This is not a negative; the book is incredibly powerful and moving, and Briar’s journey through grief is inspiring. But just be aware going into the book that it doesn’t pull punches in this area.
Overall, I really enjoyed this darkly beautiful book. I know the story will stay with me a long time, and has actually changed the way I think about some things. It’s rare to find an entirely unique story, and this book is one. I would recommend Vanishing Daughters to readers who enjoy magical realism, stories influenced by fairy tales and myths, and unique reading experiences.
Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the arc in exchange for a review!
Vanishing Daughters is entirely genre-defying. It is dark magical realism. It is an intense portrayal of grief. It is a love letter to Chicago. It is a rebuke of the way our society obsesses over and is entertained by true crime, in a way that can be validating of the murderers and dehumanizing of the victims. It is a dreamlike, rambling modern fairy tale. It is a mystery. It is all of these things at once, and I have never read a book quite like this before.
Briar Thorne is grieving the death of her mother in her magical inherited home as a serial killer stalks the streets of Chicago. She is haunted by dark dreams and visions: her mother, and the house, need her to do something. But she doesn’t know what. Processing her grief while trying to get to the bottom of her families peculiar legacy, she starts to realize that the killer in her city might be closer than she realizes.
Vanishing Daughters weaves together a modern day psychological thriller with our oldest fairytales and legends, and the result is utterly unique. I really enjoyed this book, but I think it is one that won’t work for every reader. The writing style is dreamlike and rambling; in some chapters, it’s almost a flow of consciousness from our main character Briar. And as I mentioned in the first part of the review, this book covers a lot of themes and topics; and while they’re all handled incredibly well, it can come across as slightly overwhelming at times. But if you are a reader who loves dark modern magical realism, and you don’t mind an atmospheric rather than fast-paced story, I think you will really enjoy Vanishing Daughters. The closest book comp I can think of is not perfect, as they are very different books; but if you enjoyed The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, I think you should give this one a try.
I would say there is a big TW for this book in its intense portrayal of grief over losing a loved one. It is handled extremely well and carries the story, but it is a deep-dive into a very intimate and raw exploration of human grief; and if you as a reader have recently lost a loved one, I would recommend proceeding with caution. It has been several years since I have lost a family member, but this book did move me to tears a few times. This is not a negative; the book is incredibly powerful and moving, and Briar’s journey through grief is inspiring. But just be aware going into the book that it doesn’t pull punches in this area.
Overall, I really enjoyed this darkly beautiful book. I know the story will stay with me a long time, and has actually changed the way I think about some things. It’s rare to find an entirely unique story, and this book is one. I would recommend Vanishing Daughters to readers who enjoy magical realism, stories influenced by fairy tales and myths, and unique reading experiences.
Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the arc in exchange for a review!
November 20, 2024
Thank you Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
“Vanishing Daughters” by Cynthia Pelayo is a haunting, genre-blending novel that combines dark magical realism, psychological horror, and a deep critique of true crime culture. Set in Chicago, the story follows Briar Rose Thorne, who, after the death of her mother, inherits a family home steeped in mystery and magic. As Briar navigates her grief, she becomes entwined in a chilling tale of urban legends, eerie visions, and an active serial killer terrorizing Chicago.
The book is as much an exploration of grief as it is a psychological thriller. Briar’s journey is rooted in her struggle to reconcile the memories of her mother and the supernatural history she’s inherited. Pelayo portrays Briar’s grief with raw intensity, weaving it through Briar’s sleepless nights and hazy, surreal visions of a ghostly woman desperately seeking a way home. The book does not shy away from the painful depths of loss, and the portrayal of mourning sometimes blurs the line between reality and dream.
Pelayo’s Chicago setting becomes a character in its own right, painted as a gritty yet captivating place with a rich history of urban legends and haunted spaces. The presence of Archer Avenue—a well-known Chicago road believed to hold paranormal energy—adds a layer of folklore that brings out the city’s mysterious, dark side. Pelayo’s evident love for Chicago permeates every page, rooting the story in the city’s unique culture and mythology.
Briar’s inherited house mirrors her emotional state, acting almost as a sentient being, echoing her grief and amplifying her fear. This enchanted, menacing home becomes the focal point where Briar confronts the family’s secrets and the spectral figures that haunt her. With echoes of fairytales, particularly Sleeping Beauty, Pelayo’s book reimagines the “sleeping beauty” as a trapped soul, turning the innocent tale into a darker cautionary story.
While “Vanishing Daughters” is a character-driven story, its slow-burn pace may be challenging for anyone expecting a conventional thriller. The tension unfolds gradually as Briar’s mental state unravels, leaving her in a dreamlike limbo between reality and hallucination. The climax was a bit subdued, but the story’s rich themes and evocative prose create a memorable experience that transcends a simple plot-driven thriller.
Overall, “Vanishing Daughters” is as enigmatic as it is unsettling. Fans of Pelayo’s previous work or lovers of psychological horror and magical realism will find a unique and thought-provoking experience here. Pelayo’s blending of supernatural elements with the raw realities of grief ensures that “Vanishing Daughters” lingers long after the final page is turned.
“Vanishing Daughters” by Cynthia Pelayo is a haunting, genre-blending novel that combines dark magical realism, psychological horror, and a deep critique of true crime culture. Set in Chicago, the story follows Briar Rose Thorne, who, after the death of her mother, inherits a family home steeped in mystery and magic. As Briar navigates her grief, she becomes entwined in a chilling tale of urban legends, eerie visions, and an active serial killer terrorizing Chicago.
The book is as much an exploration of grief as it is a psychological thriller. Briar’s journey is rooted in her struggle to reconcile the memories of her mother and the supernatural history she’s inherited. Pelayo portrays Briar’s grief with raw intensity, weaving it through Briar’s sleepless nights and hazy, surreal visions of a ghostly woman desperately seeking a way home. The book does not shy away from the painful depths of loss, and the portrayal of mourning sometimes blurs the line between reality and dream.
Pelayo’s Chicago setting becomes a character in its own right, painted as a gritty yet captivating place with a rich history of urban legends and haunted spaces. The presence of Archer Avenue—a well-known Chicago road believed to hold paranormal energy—adds a layer of folklore that brings out the city’s mysterious, dark side. Pelayo’s evident love for Chicago permeates every page, rooting the story in the city’s unique culture and mythology.
Briar’s inherited house mirrors her emotional state, acting almost as a sentient being, echoing her grief and amplifying her fear. This enchanted, menacing home becomes the focal point where Briar confronts the family’s secrets and the spectral figures that haunt her. With echoes of fairytales, particularly Sleeping Beauty, Pelayo’s book reimagines the “sleeping beauty” as a trapped soul, turning the innocent tale into a darker cautionary story.
While “Vanishing Daughters” is a character-driven story, its slow-burn pace may be challenging for anyone expecting a conventional thriller. The tension unfolds gradually as Briar’s mental state unravels, leaving her in a dreamlike limbo between reality and hallucination. The climax was a bit subdued, but the story’s rich themes and evocative prose create a memorable experience that transcends a simple plot-driven thriller.
Overall, “Vanishing Daughters” is as enigmatic as it is unsettling. Fans of Pelayo’s previous work or lovers of psychological horror and magical realism will find a unique and thought-provoking experience here. Pelayo’s blending of supernatural elements with the raw realities of grief ensures that “Vanishing Daughters” lingers long after the final page is turned.
March 7, 2025
A Chicago based thriller that ends up being part, fairytale and part psychological mind bender.
Disclaimer: I did read this as an e-book through NetGalley. Thank you to Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for the free e-book copy. This is my honest and voluntary review.
(3.75 rounded up) Oh gosh, how I wanted to love this. And overall, I did enjoy the novel for the most part. However.....
First, the things I enjoyed. I always enjoy Pelayo's ability to blend Chicago history with the dark and mythical. In this novel, our main character is sorting through Chicago history, as well as living through a psychological thriller/fairytale type storyline. Dealing with the grief of her recently deceased mother Briar is caught in a web of insomnia, heartbreak, and what seems to be paranormal instances. All simultaneously well being stalked by a very prominent serial killer. Needless to say, the premise while super involved and complicated. It seems was a really interesting, dark and yet still fresh. The blend of psychological thriller and fairytale Law was something completely new to me and I have to admit it was very interesting and I did enjoy that aspect of the novel.
Now the however. It got extremely rambling towards the middle of the book. I felt like all of the action completely slowed to a halt, and we just got a lot of repetitive internal monologue from the main character. I could never quite tell if she was hallucinating or lucid. Which isn't necessarily a problem, but the periods of lucidity and hallucination were so incoherent at times that it really lost me. While everyone grieves differently, and I respect this portrayal of grief, it really felt over the top to me, and I just had a hard time relating to that particular aspect. I really wish there had been more development in the way of the relationships between the main character and her roommate and boyfriend. Well, they were a pretty significant part of the book. I felt like nothing really deep or motivating happened within those relationships.
The ending was definitely thrilling and left on a high note. And that is honestly what saved a lot of this book for me. But it did feel a little rushed and it happened extremely late within the book. Overall, I do recommend as something that is fun to read if you're into a psychological thriller, and wanna add a little bit of fairytale lore to that thriller. But it was a middle of the road book for me.
Disclaimer: I did read this as an e-book through NetGalley. Thank you to Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for the free e-book copy. This is my honest and voluntary review.
(3.75 rounded up) Oh gosh, how I wanted to love this. And overall, I did enjoy the novel for the most part. However.....
First, the things I enjoyed. I always enjoy Pelayo's ability to blend Chicago history with the dark and mythical. In this novel, our main character is sorting through Chicago history, as well as living through a psychological thriller/fairytale type storyline. Dealing with the grief of her recently deceased mother Briar is caught in a web of insomnia, heartbreak, and what seems to be paranormal instances. All simultaneously well being stalked by a very prominent serial killer. Needless to say, the premise while super involved and complicated. It seems was a really interesting, dark and yet still fresh. The blend of psychological thriller and fairytale Law was something completely new to me and I have to admit it was very interesting and I did enjoy that aspect of the novel.
Now the however. It got extremely rambling towards the middle of the book. I felt like all of the action completely slowed to a halt, and we just got a lot of repetitive internal monologue from the main character. I could never quite tell if she was hallucinating or lucid. Which isn't necessarily a problem, but the periods of lucidity and hallucination were so incoherent at times that it really lost me. While everyone grieves differently, and I respect this portrayal of grief, it really felt over the top to me, and I just had a hard time relating to that particular aspect. I really wish there had been more development in the way of the relationships between the main character and her roommate and boyfriend. Well, they were a pretty significant part of the book. I felt like nothing really deep or motivating happened within those relationships.
The ending was definitely thrilling and left on a high note. And that is honestly what saved a lot of this book for me. But it did feel a little rushed and it happened extremely late within the book. Overall, I do recommend as something that is fun to read if you're into a psychological thriller, and wanna add a little bit of fairytale lore to that thriller. But it was a middle of the road book for me.
March 15, 2025
Vanishing Daughters is a lot of things in one story. It's part murder mystery, part paranormal ghost story, part psycho-babble musing, part mind-numbingly boring repetition about grief and part inner reflection of our main character, Briar. Sadly, it simply does none of these things well enough to pull any of them off.
The pacing is all over the shop. The first 30-40% of the story moves at glacial pace and rehashes grief and what dreams might mean over and over and over again. It was face-meltingly boring. I was so close to giving up on the book. The only saving grace was the chapters from the killer's POV. Those were interesting and offered the incentive to keep reading.
The middle part of the book was reasonable and kept me reading, but then the ending felt so rushed and glossed over you never really get much resolution. The last couple of chapters are so fast, if you blink you'll miss them.
Sadly, there was just too much internal reflection and new-aged meditation guff crammed into this story with fairytales and folklore, witches, fairies and ghosts it grew unwieldly and the story meandered around interesting central ideas but with little-to-no substance actually appearing.
The murder mystery theme promised a lot, and I feel that there is definitely some great content that could easily be explored in that realm, but it wasn't to be part of this story. Hints of ties to long-standing and infamous killers could have easily been explored and offered to the reader on a platter and I, for one, would have lapped that up. I longed for some new insight into the serial killers that had been mentioned, some fantastical and paranormal ties to the true life crimes. It would have been glorious!
My dislike of the pacing, content and lack of anything really new to worn out tropes aside, Cynthia can write and put together a great scene. The characters had some interesting bones and I was particularly taken with little Prairie, Briar's dog.
Overall, this book promised a lot, but didn't deliver. I would, however, be very interested to read something else Cynthia has written to see if another story idea would fare better in terms of execution.
**Note: I was provided an electronic copy of this book via NetGalley**
The pacing is all over the shop. The first 30-40% of the story moves at glacial pace and rehashes grief and what dreams might mean over and over and over again. It was face-meltingly boring. I was so close to giving up on the book. The only saving grace was the chapters from the killer's POV. Those were interesting and offered the incentive to keep reading.
The middle part of the book was reasonable and kept me reading, but then the ending felt so rushed and glossed over you never really get much resolution. The last couple of chapters are so fast, if you blink you'll miss them.
Sadly, there was just too much internal reflection and new-aged meditation guff crammed into this story with fairytales and folklore, witches, fairies and ghosts it grew unwieldly and the story meandered around interesting central ideas but with little-to-no substance actually appearing.
The murder mystery theme promised a lot, and I feel that there is definitely some great content that could easily be explored in that realm, but it wasn't to be part of this story. Hints of ties to long-standing and infamous killers could have easily been explored and offered to the reader on a platter and I, for one, would have lapped that up. I longed for some new insight into the serial killers that had been mentioned, some fantastical and paranormal ties to the true life crimes. It would have been glorious!
My dislike of the pacing, content and lack of anything really new to worn out tropes aside, Cynthia can write and put together a great scene. The characters had some interesting bones and I was particularly taken with little Prairie, Briar's dog.
Overall, this book promised a lot, but didn't deliver. I would, however, be very interested to read something else Cynthia has written to see if another story idea would fare better in terms of execution.
**Note: I was provided an electronic copy of this book via NetGalley**
October 1, 2024
All things have their time.
Cynthia Pelayo once again enriches horror fiction with her signature genre-fusing approach. Spinning together grief, the underlying anguish of a beloved fairytale, dark Chicago history, and the unchecked peril of a serial killer, she draws us into the waking nightmare of a young woman marked for death and eternal captivity.
In fairytales and urban legends, beautiful victims become specters of enduring cautionary tales. These figures spark fear in us that rightfully belongs to their tormentors, and this misplaced focus perpetuates misogynistic archetypes. There’s no shortage of beauties sleeping in eternal thrall to opportunistic forces. In Pelayo’s taut tale featuring Archer Avenue, a Chicago road renowned for its paranormal energy, a ghostly female forever seeks her way home. She—not her killer—becomes the omen for other women who dare to let down their guard.
Emotionally and physically drained by her mother’s death, Briar Rose Thorne exists in her own thin space between the mortal realm and whatever follows death; between sanity and sleep deprivation psychosis; between living her life and losing her agency as a smart, strong, fully functioning human being. Acutely aware of energy and plagued by snippets of visions she must decipher, Bri fights becoming part of a deadly mystery’s recurring pattern.
In the charged atmosphere of the old house she inherited, she grapples with clues her mother left her about a family curse. Home should be a sanctuary, the ultimate destination, the anchor of happiness and belonging. Bri’s home is a keening entity that reflects what’s inside it, playing back its memories and mourning the soul who longs to return to it. As the house and the killer both close in, Bri in her broken state nears peak vulnerability as the fated prize.
Traversing literary realms with informed grace, Pelayo pulls together threads of horror, fairytale, and crime, intensely attentive to the psychological impacts of each. Her love affair with Chicago is steeped in experience, research, and a passion for reaching into this beautiful, brawny city’s shiver-inducing recesses. Don’t miss this well crafted, stirringly written chiller.
Thanks to Cynthia Pelayo and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. This review was voluntary.
Cynthia Pelayo once again enriches horror fiction with her signature genre-fusing approach. Spinning together grief, the underlying anguish of a beloved fairytale, dark Chicago history, and the unchecked peril of a serial killer, she draws us into the waking nightmare of a young woman marked for death and eternal captivity.
In fairytales and urban legends, beautiful victims become specters of enduring cautionary tales. These figures spark fear in us that rightfully belongs to their tormentors, and this misplaced focus perpetuates misogynistic archetypes. There’s no shortage of beauties sleeping in eternal thrall to opportunistic forces. In Pelayo’s taut tale featuring Archer Avenue, a Chicago road renowned for its paranormal energy, a ghostly female forever seeks her way home. She—not her killer—becomes the omen for other women who dare to let down their guard.
Emotionally and physically drained by her mother’s death, Briar Rose Thorne exists in her own thin space between the mortal realm and whatever follows death; between sanity and sleep deprivation psychosis; between living her life and losing her agency as a smart, strong, fully functioning human being. Acutely aware of energy and plagued by snippets of visions she must decipher, Bri fights becoming part of a deadly mystery’s recurring pattern.
In the charged atmosphere of the old house she inherited, she grapples with clues her mother left her about a family curse. Home should be a sanctuary, the ultimate destination, the anchor of happiness and belonging. Bri’s home is a keening entity that reflects what’s inside it, playing back its memories and mourning the soul who longs to return to it. As the house and the killer both close in, Bri in her broken state nears peak vulnerability as the fated prize.
Traversing literary realms with informed grace, Pelayo pulls together threads of horror, fairytale, and crime, intensely attentive to the psychological impacts of each. Her love affair with Chicago is steeped in experience, research, and a passion for reaching into this beautiful, brawny city’s shiver-inducing recesses. Don’t miss this well crafted, stirringly written chiller.
Thanks to Cynthia Pelayo and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. This review was voluntary.
December 11, 2024
Briar Rose is devastated by her mother’s death. She can’t seem to focus on her work, nor can she sleep. The first few chapters are a slow fever dream of insomnia perpetuated by grief. But once we meet the serial killer and his intentions to capture and kill Briar so that he can add her to his collection of “beauties” the book really shifts to a faster gear.
I loved the intertwining of Chicago history with the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty. The prose was very dreamy-like and evocative, creating clear images in your mind, but also allowing you to feel Briar’s frequent dream sequences that interweave with the past and present. I really liked Isaac, a man she befriends on one of her walks that helps her use her dreams as a way to find out the truth about the past that can also help with the present, and help find out who the killer is. This isn’t your typical plot-driven thriller, but more a psychological supernatural character driven one. Pelayo masterfully weaves horror, fairytale, and true crime into this novel in ways that couldn’t be pulled off by a less skilled author.
The reader is quickly sucked into the mystery of trying to figure out who the killer is, why Briar has been seeing an older gentleman passing by her home for many years, and who exactly is Mary – the famous ghost known was the Vanishing Hitchhiker of Archer Avenue. There are moments when walking with Briar along the most haunted places in Chicago that the reader can’t help but feel more terror for the characters encountering live people on their trail than any ghosts – as Pelayo likes to remind us that very often it’s people who are the real monsters, and not the supernatural.
This is a must-read for those who love fairytale retellings with a modern, true-crime twist to it. If you have enjoyed Pelayo’s previous books, then you will love this one a lot, as she has truly mastered her literary brand of intertwining magical realism with the grittiness of true crime. Read this for a haunted, and unforgettable experience.
*Thank you so much to NetGalley & Thomas & Mercer for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
I loved the intertwining of Chicago history with the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty. The prose was very dreamy-like and evocative, creating clear images in your mind, but also allowing you to feel Briar’s frequent dream sequences that interweave with the past and present. I really liked Isaac, a man she befriends on one of her walks that helps her use her dreams as a way to find out the truth about the past that can also help with the present, and help find out who the killer is. This isn’t your typical plot-driven thriller, but more a psychological supernatural character driven one. Pelayo masterfully weaves horror, fairytale, and true crime into this novel in ways that couldn’t be pulled off by a less skilled author.
The reader is quickly sucked into the mystery of trying to figure out who the killer is, why Briar has been seeing an older gentleman passing by her home for many years, and who exactly is Mary – the famous ghost known was the Vanishing Hitchhiker of Archer Avenue. There are moments when walking with Briar along the most haunted places in Chicago that the reader can’t help but feel more terror for the characters encountering live people on their trail than any ghosts – as Pelayo likes to remind us that very often it’s people who are the real monsters, and not the supernatural.
This is a must-read for those who love fairytale retellings with a modern, true-crime twist to it. If you have enjoyed Pelayo’s previous books, then you will love this one a lot, as she has truly mastered her literary brand of intertwining magical realism with the grittiness of true crime. Read this for a haunted, and unforgettable experience.
*Thank you so much to NetGalley & Thomas & Mercer for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
January 18, 2025
Chicagoland meets Ghostland meets Serial Killerland.
Like tumbleweeds being tossed across the Midwestern prairies, Vanishing Daughters is picking up elements of dark mossy things that grow unchecked in the corners of the mind. Cynthia Pelayo knows how to rip out a good yarn. Check out her previous novel Forgotten Sisters (2024).
Pelayo knows her stompin' grounds of the Chicago area with all of its highlights and lowlights. She will thread Vanishing Daughters with the footwork of deep research. Pelayo emphasizes the "thin place" where logic leaves its hat on a peg and the supernatural and the unexplainable step through the door. Chicago is rich with ancient lore and tales of things that go bump in the night. And the shoulders of this great old city are hunched over and quite amused.
Briar Rose Thorne lives in a worn-down mansion on the south side of Chicago near Jackson Park. The home has been in the family for eons. Usually Briar is in the midst of research for her science based columns as a journalist. But Briar is bogged down with the weight of extreme grief. Her mother has passed away recently and Briar can't seem to place one foot in front of the other. In fact, she suffers from extreme sleep deprivation. It has affected her relationships with Emily, her best friend, and with Daniel, her boyfriend. And in the midst of all this, the mansion is speaking to her of its own grief.
Cynthia Pelayo writes with deep commitment. She parallels regional lore with fanciful fairy tales in this one. Her prose is magnificent especially in regard to grief in general. But she can labor a point which may turn away some of the more rigid readers. Pelayo injects a very curious thread of the Chicago Strangler who has murdered 51 women. Just how all these jagged pieces come together is worth a looky-look. Pack your parka. Gonna get cold to the bones in this one.
I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Thomas & Mercer and to Cynthia Pelayo for the opportunity.
Like tumbleweeds being tossed across the Midwestern prairies, Vanishing Daughters is picking up elements of dark mossy things that grow unchecked in the corners of the mind. Cynthia Pelayo knows how to rip out a good yarn. Check out her previous novel Forgotten Sisters (2024).
Pelayo knows her stompin' grounds of the Chicago area with all of its highlights and lowlights. She will thread Vanishing Daughters with the footwork of deep research. Pelayo emphasizes the "thin place" where logic leaves its hat on a peg and the supernatural and the unexplainable step through the door. Chicago is rich with ancient lore and tales of things that go bump in the night. And the shoulders of this great old city are hunched over and quite amused.
Briar Rose Thorne lives in a worn-down mansion on the south side of Chicago near Jackson Park. The home has been in the family for eons. Usually Briar is in the midst of research for her science based columns as a journalist. But Briar is bogged down with the weight of extreme grief. Her mother has passed away recently and Briar can't seem to place one foot in front of the other. In fact, she suffers from extreme sleep deprivation. It has affected her relationships with Emily, her best friend, and with Daniel, her boyfriend. And in the midst of all this, the mansion is speaking to her of its own grief.
Cynthia Pelayo writes with deep commitment. She parallels regional lore with fanciful fairy tales in this one. Her prose is magnificent especially in regard to grief in general. But she can labor a point which may turn away some of the more rigid readers. Pelayo injects a very curious thread of the Chicago Strangler who has murdered 51 women. Just how all these jagged pieces come together is worth a looky-look. Pack your parka. Gonna get cold to the bones in this one.
I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Thomas & Mercer and to Cynthia Pelayo for the opportunity.
September 11, 2024
Vanishing Daughters is a psychological thriller about a woman who has recently lost her mother. She inherits a house that has been in her family for generations, located in a specific place where the boundary between the world of the living and the dead is thin. On top of that, there’s a serial killer in the neighborhood.
First of all, the title is very captivating, and the cover is impeccable. In terms of genre, I would emphasize the word "psychological" and place "thriller" in the background. Bri, the main character, is dealing with grief. She repeatedly thinks about her mother, recalls her childhood, and overanalyzes the meaning of death. This was interesting at first, as we learned a lot about her as a person, but with the constant repetition, it becomes boring toward the end. Like really boring. Like please-stop-repeating-yourself-or-I-throw-my-tablet-away-and-then-I-will-not-know-the-ending boring.
As Bri grieves, she also has trouble sleeping. Her sleep is disturbed by nightmares. These were confusing to me at times, as she loses touch with reality during these moments, but I guess this was done on purpose. So, good job on that.
Through her inner monologue, we also learn about some of Chicago’s urban legends and haunted places. I had to google these places because I was fascinated by their history, and seeing the photos only added to the dark, misty, cold atmosphere. Bonus points go to the interweaving of different versions of Sleeping Beauty into the story.
I felt strong, resentful feelings toward the killer. His/her (no spoilers) thoughts were absolutely disturbing, and I became allergic to his/her catchphrase “my beauties.” Again, good job there.
On the negative side, I didn’t feel any growing suspense. The story was more character-driven than plot-driven; the climax came too late and was too short, so I didn’t care much about the ending.
To summarize, I did enjoy the book. It was a quick, easy read, good for passing dark winter afternoons. However, I prefer thrillers with more plot and action.
Thank you so much to NetGalley for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review.
First of all, the title is very captivating, and the cover is impeccable. In terms of genre, I would emphasize the word "psychological" and place "thriller" in the background. Bri, the main character, is dealing with grief. She repeatedly thinks about her mother, recalls her childhood, and overanalyzes the meaning of death. This was interesting at first, as we learned a lot about her as a person, but with the constant repetition, it becomes boring toward the end. Like really boring. Like please-stop-repeating-yourself-or-I-throw-my-tablet-away-and-then-I-will-not-know-the-ending boring.
As Bri grieves, she also has trouble sleeping. Her sleep is disturbed by nightmares. These were confusing to me at times, as she loses touch with reality during these moments, but I guess this was done on purpose. So, good job on that.
Through her inner monologue, we also learn about some of Chicago’s urban legends and haunted places. I had to google these places because I was fascinated by their history, and seeing the photos only added to the dark, misty, cold atmosphere. Bonus points go to the interweaving of different versions of Sleeping Beauty into the story.
I felt strong, resentful feelings toward the killer. His/her (no spoilers) thoughts were absolutely disturbing, and I became allergic to his/her catchphrase “my beauties.” Again, good job there.
On the negative side, I didn’t feel any growing suspense. The story was more character-driven than plot-driven; the climax came too late and was too short, so I didn’t care much about the ending.
To summarize, I did enjoy the book. It was a quick, easy read, good for passing dark winter afternoons. However, I prefer thrillers with more plot and action.
Thank you so much to NetGalley for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review.
March 13, 2025
Vanishing Daughters by Cynthia Pelayo was a book that I could not put down once I started to read it. I am glad the book cover caught my eye especially as I did not read what this book was about. Now, this book was a weird read but in a good way, as it had me interested from the very first few pages and I wanted to find out what happens next.
I found it, a great read for a cold stormy night outside whilst you are snuggled in your bed, this made the atmosphere perfect whilst reading it!
OMX now my lights have started to flicker!!!!!! and I live in the country side!
This is a very spooky read!
It started on the night journalist Briar Thorne’s mother died in their rambling old mansion on Chicago’s South Side.
The nightmares of a woman in white pleading to come home, when music switched on in locked rooms, and the panicked fear of being swallowed by the dark. . . . . . . . Bri has almost convinced herself that these stirrings of dread are simply manifestations of grief and not the beyond-world of ghostly impossibilities her mother believed in, and more tangible terrors still lurk outside the decaying Victorian grey-stone.
Now, a serial killer has claimed the lives of fifty-one women in the Chicago area. and when Bri starts researching the murders, she meets a stranger who tells her there’s more to her sleepless nights than bad dreams. they hold the key to putting ghosts to rest and stopping a killer.
But the killer has caught on and is closing in, and if Bri doesn’t answer the call of the dead soon,. . . . . . . . . .
She’ll be walking among them.
WoW. . . . . . . . . I loved this book and I ended up reading it all night till the very end!!!!
I highly recommend this book! Superb read,
Big Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for my ARC.
I found it, a great read for a cold stormy night outside whilst you are snuggled in your bed, this made the atmosphere perfect whilst reading it!
OMX now my lights have started to flicker!!!!!! and I live in the country side!
This is a very spooky read!
It started on the night journalist Briar Thorne’s mother died in their rambling old mansion on Chicago’s South Side.
The nightmares of a woman in white pleading to come home, when music switched on in locked rooms, and the panicked fear of being swallowed by the dark. . . . . . . . Bri has almost convinced herself that these stirrings of dread are simply manifestations of grief and not the beyond-world of ghostly impossibilities her mother believed in, and more tangible terrors still lurk outside the decaying Victorian grey-stone.
Now, a serial killer has claimed the lives of fifty-one women in the Chicago area. and when Bri starts researching the murders, she meets a stranger who tells her there’s more to her sleepless nights than bad dreams. they hold the key to putting ghosts to rest and stopping a killer.
But the killer has caught on and is closing in, and if Bri doesn’t answer the call of the dead soon,. . . . . . . . . .
She’ll be walking among them.
WoW. . . . . . . . . I loved this book and I ended up reading it all night till the very end!!!!
I highly recommend this book! Superb read,
Big Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for my ARC.
September 17, 2024
Briar Rose Thorne’s childhood home is cold and empty since her mother’s death. It serves as a time warp, bringing her back to her childhood memories of her mother. Sleep brings only confusion and terrors, with a vision of a beautiful woman desperate to get home. Music is heard throughout the home for no apparent reason. Death has torn the veil between the sleeping and waking worlds. Briar and the reader fall into a world of a living dream where reality is distorted. Meanwhile, Chicago has a serial killer who has killed 51 women. Briar is drawn into the mystery and begins to research the murders, her family’s history, and how any of them fit together. The killer is focused on Briar who must determine what the mysterious woman wants before she becomes a victim.
Pelayo takes her readers into a dreamlike state, transported into the fairytale world of the house and Briar’s memories. However, it’s not the sanitized version of fairy tales but the more traditional, terrifying and unsettling ones. The book explores what is a fairy tale – whether they are Briar’s science reporting, true crime stories, memories, urban legends or dreams. The mysterious murderer of the book does what they do because their father was a killer. Briar is trying to make her mother’s house a home. They are living parallel lives of a sort and are both haunted by their family’s histories.
Grief has distorted Briar’s entire reality and has moved her through the looking glass. She’s been transported away from her world of order, science, structure and rules. One of Pelayo’s questions is whether grief and loss can keep one trapped in the past. Does part of you die when someone you love dies? Part of Briar seems to have become a ghost herself and her grief has spread to the house itself.
In alignment with some of Pelayo’s other work, the book also serves as a critique of true crime. The murderers become myths, and their stories become more important than victims. She always presents a thoughtful, victim centered view of violent crime.
This book lives in the intersection of memory, grief, and dreams. The book begins with intensity, asking questions, there are mysteries upon mysteries. It’s a wonderful continuation of Pelayo’s stories of Chicago and fairy tales. Recommended for fans of Pelayo’s body of work including her award-winning true crime poetry collections as well as her fiction. It will also appeal to fans of books where there are questions about the nature of a house haunting like Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay.
Pelayo takes her readers into a dreamlike state, transported into the fairytale world of the house and Briar’s memories. However, it’s not the sanitized version of fairy tales but the more traditional, terrifying and unsettling ones. The book explores what is a fairy tale – whether they are Briar’s science reporting, true crime stories, memories, urban legends or dreams. The mysterious murderer of the book does what they do because their father was a killer. Briar is trying to make her mother’s house a home. They are living parallel lives of a sort and are both haunted by their family’s histories.
Grief has distorted Briar’s entire reality and has moved her through the looking glass. She’s been transported away from her world of order, science, structure and rules. One of Pelayo’s questions is whether grief and loss can keep one trapped in the past. Does part of you die when someone you love dies? Part of Briar seems to have become a ghost herself and her grief has spread to the house itself.
In alignment with some of Pelayo’s other work, the book also serves as a critique of true crime. The murderers become myths, and their stories become more important than victims. She always presents a thoughtful, victim centered view of violent crime.
This book lives in the intersection of memory, grief, and dreams. The book begins with intensity, asking questions, there are mysteries upon mysteries. It’s a wonderful continuation of Pelayo’s stories of Chicago and fairy tales. Recommended for fans of Pelayo’s body of work including her award-winning true crime poetry collections as well as her fiction. It will also appeal to fans of books where there are questions about the nature of a house haunting like Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay.
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