Delilah S. Dawson is one of the most dependable, entertaining, and prolific storytellers across all genres. From fantasy, to near future SF, to media properties, to horror, her stories always manage to draw keep readers attention… myself included. She’s been publishing short novels / novellas with Titan Books the last few years, the latest (October 2026) of which is Monstera.
One of Dawson’s greatest strengths would have to be the characters she brings to life and summarily putting them through the wringer. Here a young lady (Lucy) is very much entering the wider world for the first time after living a sheltered existence, settling into a Victorian rental in Savannah, Geogia to get the story started. Because she has cash on hand, coupled with the previous tenant disappearing with unpaid rent, moving in was made fairly easy for Lucy. On the flip side, her landlord can be considered in the most generous of terms, a creepy lech. But she’s got her own space, something she never had, and Lucy finds herself drawn to her neighbor Saskia.
After some trepidation on Saskia’s part, they two begin connecting, building a friendship. Part of their common ground, unbeknownst at the outset, is a traumatic past. On surface level, people who suffered pain of any sort can often sense it in one another. The story is told from both of their points of view and it is interesting to see the trepidation they feel about opening up to each other. While the trauma in their past isn’t shared, their landlord is a shared pain. Think of the picture of the sleaziest, most hypocritical, unsavory landlord fiction real-life paints and you’ll get this guy.
Trepidation, wariness, friendship, romance… Dawson takes these Lucy and Saskia through those phases of the relationship in a very compelling manner. As I said, Delilah is really good with characters.
As for the horror elements… it is a little more subdued than what I’ve come to expect from Delilah Dawson, but present nonetheless. There’s a very chilling scene when Lucy is in her room alone at night (of course at night) which was very effective. As Lucy and Saskia learn more about each other the learn more about the haunting of this Victorian home (Savanah is known to be one of the more haunted cities in the United States). The plot converges quite nicely when the aforementioned trauma they both experienced coms to light as real-life horrors, horrors so chilling because they are so very plausible.
There was one element in the story; however, I felt was somewhat underplayed and unexplained. It seemed a fairly important plot point at the time and I found myself hoping for an explanation. If it was there, I missed it.
That point aside, another page-turning, character driven, thrilling, dark story from Delilah S. Dawson.
© 2026 Rob H. Bedford
Hardcover | 192 Pages
October 2026 | Titan Books
Excerpt: https://media.titanbooks.com/uploads/monstera.pdf
Review copy courtesy of the publisher
