Angelina Yves spends her days serving coffee and taking care of an elderly woman in order to make ends meet in Los Angeles. She longs for her work as a singer/songwriter to take off, but in the meantime, she takes solace in the lyrics of the band she’s loved since high school: Black Idyll. Following a chance encounter at her coffee shop job, Angelina finds herself unemployed and two weeks away from homelessness, until a limo pulls up and offers to make all of her dreams come true. In the woods, Black Idyll’s reclusive lead singer, Jesper Idyll, has created a dream luxury compound for creatives. He promises there’s no catch: food, lodging, and all the time to create. How can Angelina turn it down? When her neighbor at the compound goes missing, it’s an easy excuse; she’s an artist and has found success. Angelina is swept up in becoming Jesper’s new favorite, and benefiting from all that entails. But there’s something lurking behind the promises, career help, and dance parties in the wood, and Angelina might just lose it all trying to find the truth.
Dellah S. Dawson has become one of those writers who now instantly moves to the top of my TBR pile every time. Her prose is as seductive as Jesper Idyll’s promises, but far more accessible. The pages of House of Idyll are haunted by a modern understanding of parasocial relationships and the anxiety of how easy it is for someone to access information on everything we do. As I read a ton of horror for fun, I could see where this one was going (for the most part, she still kept me guessing), but her writing is so rich and vivid that devouring the pages is a joy, not a struggle. This is a definite must read for the spooky season.
House of Idyll is available September 9, 2025.
