A novel set within the Phillippines within the Eighties has an eerily resonant backdrop to in the present day in Daphne Fama’s emotionally charged horror debut, The Home of Monstrous Ladies. The novel facilities on a younger lady named Josephine, whose dad and mom died in the course of the Folks Energy Revolution. Her brother isn’t round so Josephine is holding down what stays of the household house. She is invited by an Hiraya, an outdated good friend to maneuver into Ranoco Home, Hiraya’s household house. That Hiraya’s household is rumored to apply witchcraft doesn’t actually dissuade Josephine as Josephine sees this chance as a remedy to her rising loneliness. Nevertheless, when Josephine’s brother Alejandro returns from his travels, he tries to imagine the facility of the household, tries to power Josephine into a wedding she doesn’t need. This solely pushes her additional into her determination to maneuver in with Hiraya.
A younger lady is drawn right into a harmful recreation after being invited to the mazelike house of her childhood good friend, a rumored witch, on this gothic horror set in 1986 Philippines.
On this recreation, there’s one rule: survive.
Orphaned after her father’s political marketing campaign resulted in tragedy, Josephine is alone taking good care of the household house whereas her older brother is off in Manila, the place revolution brews. However an sudden invitation from her childhood good friend Hiraya to her home gives an escape. . . .
Why don’t you come go to, and we are able to play video games like we used to?
If Josephine wins, she’ll get no matter her coronary heart needs. Her brother is invited, too, and it’s time that they had a chat. Josephine’s heard the darkish whispers: Hiraya is a witch and her household spits curses. However nonetheless, she’s simply determined sufficient to grab this opportunity to alter her future.
Besides the Ranoco home is unusual, labyrinthine, and dangerously near a treacherous sea. A sickly-sweet odor clings to the dimly lit partitions, and veiled eyes comply with Josephine by infinite connecting rooms. The air is tense with secrets and techniques, and because the recreation continues it’s clear Josephine doesn’t have the entire fact.
To avoid wasting herself, she should play to win. However on this home, victory is earned with blood.
A lush new voice in horror arises on this riveting gothic set in opposition to the upheaval of 1986 Philippines and the Folks Energy Revolution.
Hiraya’s house just isn’t your commonplace house, although. The house is close to the ocean and has many winding hallways and unusual rooms. It’s a mansion within the truest sense with character…moderately, a number of components of character all through. Some rooms are poorly lit, some give of particular scents. Some rooms could also be haunted with figures which might be there one second and gone the subsequent. Hiraya and her household encourage Josephine to take part of their recreation, very very like Conceal and Search however with very actual stakes that can grant the winner a want of their nice need.
Fama units the tone and establishes her characters very properly to get the inspiration of the story solidly constructed. Josephine is an empathetic character whose plight has nice emotional weight, coping with the tragedy of dropping her dad and mom coupled together with her controlling brother makes it straightforward to know why she’d wish to be in a spot that originally feels extra welcoming. The tone shifts to extra eeriness as Josephine turns into extra entranced with the Ranoco household house.
As I discussed, the Ranoco house is unquestionably a personality in and of itself and lends the novel a real gothic really feel. A big house with its personal distinctive geography with a haunted, supernatural and nature could be very inviting and evocative regardless of how sinister the mansion may very well be. That gothic really feel is a blanket over the household, too. Josephine and her brother are haunted earlier than they even join with the gothic manor.
I even have to notice how expertly Fama wove within the tense political scenario into the narrative. The characters expressed worry and doubt about the way forward for their nation with Marcos’s iron-clad grip on the nation. The characters undergo their interactions with one another, however information experiences within the background are ever current, lending an much more tense really feel to the story. Given the political local weather within the US, I discovered the parallels to Fama’s depiction of Marcos’s rule to in the present day fairly scary.
Fama’s prose is powerfully inviting, too. The novel is steeped in Filipino myths and folks, which I discovered equally inviting. In school, in my dorms and off-campus housing, I had some dorm and home mates who have been Filipino so I used to be maybe somewhat extra drawn to the narrative. A few of the boogeyman tales they shared got here again to me as I used to be studying the novel. However that inviting nature of the myths and folks grew darker because the Josephine spent extra time within the Ranoco house, with the creep issue getting … properly, creepier.
Maybe probably the most spectacular factor of The Home of Monstrous Ladies is that it’s certainly Fama’s debut novel. It’s remarkably achieved in prose and narrative construction and has some nice character work.
This can be a novel value studying, particularly as we get nearer to spooky season* and a author value noting and whose work is value maintaining a tally of sooner or later.
Beneficial
© 2025 Rob H. Bedford
Hardcover | August 2025 | Berkley Publishing
https://daphnefama.com/
Assessment copy courtesy of the writer, Berkley
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