The Library at Hellebore

Reviews

“Khaw has the swagger of a motherfucking rockstar. I’m not being cute—this is the punk rock, eldritch god, carnage-fueled battle royale dark academia that makes partial decapitation look like an amateur sandbox. The Library at Hellebore is more metal than I’ll ever be and too cool for most of you. You’ve been warned.”
—Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six

“As rich and gruesome as a fresh-plucked heart, as sharp as a broken bone, The Library at Hellebore is a perfect horror novel by one of my favorite writers. It's a book that draws a line between the monsters and the monstrous, and reminds us who to root for—and what it costs.”
—Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author

“Wonderfully inventive and thoroughly engrossing. Khaw takes dark academia to a terrifying new level.”
—Kelley Armstrong, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“The Library at Hellebore is a kaleidoscopic spectacle of gothic surreality and absurdity. An infinite hallway of mirrors used to highlight our every flaw, showing us the monster the world turns us into—and the monster they try to make us for their own benefit. It is body horror in all its glory, exploring the numbing exhaustion of loss, along with the seductive pleasures of death.”
—Ai Jiang, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Linghun

"A joyfully gory spin on the magical school, The Library at Hellebore is populated by such deadly characters that you'll wonder how any of them have stayed alive long enough to matriculate. If you thought librarians who shushed were bad, just wait."
—Kendare Blake, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anna Dressed in Blood

“Libraries are a place for reference, so you could say this book is something like Battle Royale meets The Magicians with some Hateful Eight thrown in ... but the ghoulish delight, the luscious prose, and the batshit imagery are all unalloyed, singular Cassandra Khaw. The Library at Hellebore is devilishly entertaining, thrillingly structured, and full of unexpected blows to the heart. It's the most fun you'll ever have, rooting for Armageddon(s).”
—Nat Cassidy, author of Mary and When the Wolf Comes Home

"Pure, bloody darkness beautifully lit up with fury, sacrifice, and revenge. Khaw tears open the sins of our past and asks what we have made of them in this supposedly brighter future. It will not be a clean cut—it will be ragged and bloody, and it will hurt. If we cannot escape what we've done, if we cannot escape what we are, what else can we do with our power? We can take it into the Library at Hellebore and turn it loose."
—Premee Mohamed, Nebula Award-winning author of The Butcher of the Forest

“A succulent, gory, ambrosial fever dream of a tale with prose as luscious as an overripe peach and characters as hard and twisted yet hopeful as the juice-drenched pit torn out with greedy fingers.”
—Delilah S. Dawson, New York Times bestselling author

“Frighteningly good! The Library at Hellebore reminds us that revenge is a dish best served cold, alongside a pound of quivering flesh for good measure.”
—P. Djéli Clark, author of The Dead Cat Tail Assassins

“Putting the “dark” in “dark academia”, The Library at Hellebore is a story with teeth and claws, a thrilling cocktail of body horror, surreal humor and riveting mystery.”
—Genoveva Dimova, author of Foul Days

Praise for Cassandra Khaw:

The Salt Grows Heavy
A Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award finalist! • A Best Horror Book of 2023 (The New York Times, Library Journal) • A Best Book of 2023 (NPR) • An Indie Next Pick

“Khaw’s poetic prose and stylish approach to gore make it a blood-soaked, unforgettable gem.”
—The New York Times

“Devastatingly effective…a folklore-infused world that feels wholly unique. Expertly blending a gothic atmosphere with elements of splatterpunk, this brilliant novella is not to be missed.”
—Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

“With this brilliantly constructed tale that consciously takes on a well-known story and violently breaks it open to reveal a heartfelt core, Khaw cements their status as a must-read author.”
—Library Journal, STARRED review

“A feverishly gory, grotesquely beautiful and baroque fairy-tale-meets-love-sonnet. Cassandra Khaw’s imagination is limitless.”
—Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie

“The Salt Grows Heavy will hit you in your heart and in your gut at the same time, while never losing its grip on the gorgeous prose that makes Khaw’s work so spellbinding. It’s another riveting success from one of horror’s finest storytellers.”
—Paste Magazine

“The bones of a fairy tale sunk deep in a charnel house of descriptive prose, an elegant confection with a blood-soaked core.”
—T. Kingfisher, New York Times bestselling author of What Moves the Dead

“[B]eautiful in its darkness; much like the mermaids of lore — before they were transformed into manatee-sweet, soft-haired sirens — it has teeth. Readers in the mood to savor a silver-tongued little nightmare will sink happily into its depths.”
—NPR

“Khaw has cemented their status as horror royalty, once and for all, with The Salt Grows Heavy….a grotesquely perfect feast.”
—Locus

Nothing But Blackened Teeth
A USA TODAY BESTSELLER • A Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Award Finalist! • An Indie Next Pick!• A LibraryReads Pick

“Brutally delicious!”
—N.K. Jemisin, New York Times bestselling author of The City We Became

“It is beautiful and it is brutal and it is heartbroken. Absolutely recommended.”
—Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author of Every Heart a Doorway

“Sharp, playful, and nasty as hell.”
—Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie

“Khaw’s prose oozes dread.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Khaw's got a sterling premise, enduring lore, and the fresh talent to voice it.”
—Josh Malerman, New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box

“Reading Khaw is akin to watching a nightmare ballet, full of beauty and elegance, pain and fragility, and breathless terror.”
—Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Ararat and Red Hands

“It’s got a smile so wicked you might just have to grin along with it. I know I did.”
—Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of My Heart is a Chainsaw