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Title details for Midnight Rooms by Donyae Coles - Wait list

Midnight Rooms

A Novel

by Donyae Coles
Georgina Campbell
Audiobook
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"An immersive horror fairy tale marrying Crimson Peak to Pan's Labyrinth upon strange foundations. You're never really safe here, with Midnight Rooms wondrously defying expectation and refusing obedience. Donyae Coles leads us into a house of sinister magic, full of corners for peeking around, but careful—these walls have claws. A feverish, labyrinthine debut."—Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth

Set in a foreboding Gothic mansion and infused with the heightened paranoia and creeping horror of novels like Catherine House and Crimson Peak, a spine-chilling debut historical thriller from a fresh voice in the genre that will leave you questioning who, or what, you can trust . . . including your own sanity.

England, 1840. Orabella Mumthrope spies an unexpected visitor in her uncle's parlor. Scruffy in appearance yet claiming to be the scion of a fabulously wealthy family, Elias Blakersby declares a deep desire to make Orabella his wife. The orphaned daughter of a white man and a Black woman—an outsider with no fortune or connections—Orabella never expected to marry. But her uncle has many debts, and Orabella, curious about the seeming devotion Elias bestows upon her, agrees.

The new bride is quickly whisked away to Korringhill Manor, the Blakersby family estate, and far from everything she knows. Expecting splendor, Orabella is shocked to find decay, skittish servants, and curt elders. But her kind new husband's loving touch, promises of a happy life together, and his assurances she'll never want for anything soothe her concerns.

Yet there is a darkness deep within this house. Rooms are locked or hidden away, and the walls seem to thrum with secrets. Orabella can never venture outside unattended; she spends her days having tea with a catatonic sister-in-law and evenings at Elias's side, dutifully hosting lavish dinners. The darkness soon begins to engulf her, too. Becoming dizzy and drowsy after dinner, she falls into a fitful sleep filled with macabre dreams, and is awakened by blood-curdling screams in the night. In the morning she rises from her bed covered in mysterious bruises. Confused and terrified, she begins to question where her dreams end and reality begins. The longer Orabella stays in this place, the more she loses parts of herself . . . how long until she no longer exists?

Midnight Rooms is a sweeping saga with supernatural undertones set in Victorian England. Vibrating with tension, richly atmospheric—haunted by ghosts, guilt, and familial bonds—it is an electrifying story that will linger in your dreams.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 2, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780063228122
      • File size: 359159 KB
      • Duration: 12:28:14

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from May 13, 2024
      Coles astounds in her atmospheric gothic debut set in Victorian England. Orabella has never been expected to amount to much due to her lower-class background and biracial (half-Black, half-white) identity. When her white uncle, who took her in after her parents’ deaths, accrues a massive gambling debt, he barters Orabella as a wife to the mysterious Elias Blakersby to get out from under it. At 26, Orabella has never been with a man, making her nervous but determined to be a good wife. Fortunately, Elias is a kind man who spirits her away to his old but vast estate, Korringhill Manor, and dotes on her. Despite Elias’s apparent dedication to her happiness, life at Korringhill Manor grows increasingly nightmarish. Orabella’s creepy new servants refuse to leave her alone even for a moment, she has spells of dizziness and dissociation, and unexplained bruises show up on her thighs. As her perception of reality distorts, Orabella seeks to uncover the secrets of the Blakersby family before she is subsumed into the dreamlike manor. Coles’s prose is evocative and strange and pairs brilliantly with the gothic tropes she expertly deploys. This is a fever dream of a novel that readers won’t want to wake up from. Agent: Lane Heymont, Tobias Literary.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Georgina Campbell performs this gothic tale set in 1840s England. Orabella Mumthrope finds herself marrying a mysterious, wealthy stranger to help settle her uncle's debt. At her husband's historic home, she meets his family, all of whom seem to have far too many secrets. Campbell's performance capture's Orabella's frustration as she's given a strict routine and told never to stray from her wing of the house. The narration evokes the strange sinister feel of Orabella's new life in her husband's crumbling manor. As Orabella tries to figure out the key to her new family's strange behavior, Campbell's voice rises and falls with the twists and turns in the story, maintaining the listener's attention with every new revelation. K.D.W. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      January 1, 2025

      In 1840s England, Orabella Mumthrope, the child of a Black mother and a white father, never imagines she will marry. Her aunt and uncle, who disapproved of her parents' marriage, reluctantly took her in as a charity case when she was orphaned as a child. Now that she's grown, they are eager to get rid of her. Then, handsome and well-situated Elias Blakersby appears, claiming that he's had his eye on Orabella for over a year. He proposes marriage, and with no other prospects in sight, Orabella agrees. At Korringhill Manor, Elias's crumbling family estate, Orabella finds a place full of unused rooms, decay, and mystery. She is never left unattended, and she begins to wonder if Elias has ulterior motives for wanting her there. Meanwhile, she is haunted by unsettling visions and periods of lost time, which make her increasingly unable to distinguish reality from dreams. Narrator Georgina Campbell expertly voices Orabella's hope, confusion, and despair, drawing listeners in and creating an empathetic portrait of this curious yet vulnerable woman. VERDICT This gothic novel will have listeners on tenterhooks, wondering if Orabella is losing her grip on reality or if she really is trapped in a living nightmare.--Joanna M. Burkhardt

      Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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