I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Reliquary by Hannah Whitten Published by Little Brown Book Group UK, Run For It on August 11, 2026
Genres: Horror
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads
A young woman is lured to her late fiancé's remote island estate—only to uncover eerie family secrets, a haunting past, and a monstrous hunger stirring beneath the sea in this deliciously atmospheric horror debut from New York Times bestselling author Hannah Whitten.
When Claire’s fiancé mysteriously dies of an unknown neurological illness, she’s prepared to sink back into the lonely life she lived before. Orphaned by a freak boating accident in her childhood, she never expected to find connection like she did with Elias, anyway. Their relationship wasn’t perfect—his coldness, his secrets, his strange aversion to the ocean—but what relationship is?
When Elias’s family reaches out—his incredibly wealthy family, from whom he was estranged—and invites Claire to a three-day wake at Harrow Point, their family home on a private island, Claire is given the chance to find family again. To belong to something, just like she’s always wanted. Just like Elias knew she was desperate to have.
Even if that family is a little strange. Even if their coastal home stirs up memories of the accident that killed her parents and sister. Even if Ash, Elias’s older brother, seems insistent on Claire leaving as soon as possible.
As she dives deeper into the world of Harrow Point, she will uncover the nature of her own traumatic connection to the ocean. There is something swimming in the bowels of Harrow Point, and it is hungry…
I may not have been a fan of For the Wolf but Whitten has knocked it out of the park with this horror debut! It’s a genuinely great read!
I’ve always found open bodies of water terrifying. It’s exactly why the premise of this novel scared me so much. There is something lurking in the ocean … and it is hungry. As much as I wanted to put the book down, it is so propulsive that I had to keep going. I wanted to understand the depth of the horror that Claire was facing. I wanted to know the secrets of this family, see them as their truest self. And the payoff is worth it. You get a crazy monster reveal – and a decent amount of gore, too.
My only problem with the story is Claire. I get that she is making bad decisions because of her past trauma but her personality irked me. The author did try to make her develop as the story neared its end, but it wasn’t executed well enough to be believable. This also affected my satisfaction with the ending.
Overall, this was a really good horror story. It kept me engaged and weirded out. I hope Whitten decides to stick to this genre, because I would definitely read more!
