Book review: The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox

Published on 14 June 2026

book cover murder your employer

Genre: Horror

Reviewer: Titian

Why I chose this book: It’s about a woman who inherits a mysterious library.

Quick Summary: One day Ivy Radcliffe gets the letter of idle daydreams. She is, in fact, the descendant of an ancient bloodline, and the death of a distant relative has made her Lady Radcliffe, inheritor of a gothic pile in the countryside, complete with a library all of her own.

When she arrives, she finds that all is not what it seems, and the library is rapacious for stories, including those still being lived.

What I thought: A creepy, slightly sentient library that makes nightmares come true and steals the life force of its owner is such a great setting for a horror novel and, as Ivy’s sanity starts to come unglued, the sense that she is being gaslit by everyone around her grows.

Atmospheric and menacing, this is a library you can lose yourself in.

Read-Alikes:

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