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HOUSE OF MONSTROUS WOMEN

Daphne Fama

A young woman is drawn into a dangerous game after being invited to the maze-like home of her childhood friend, a rumored witch, in this gothic horror set in 1986 Philippines.
Josephine del Rosario feels like a pariah in her town. Long orphaned after her father's political campaign ends in tragedy, she's all alone taking care of the family home while her older brother is off in Manila where a revolution brews. And it's starting to feel like he's abandoning her.

When she receives a letter from a cherished childhood friend, Hiraya, inviting her to play a game she jumps at the reason to leave town. Josephine will have whatever her heart desires if she wins. Maybe Josephine can change her life. It doesn't matter that dark rumors have always surrounded Hiraya.

Except Hiraya's house is strange... labyrinthine and huge and something seems to be following Josephine everywhere she turns. What's worse is there's something her old friend isn't telling her.

There's something insidious about this invitation, and if Josephine isn't careful, she'll find that change is sometimes bought with blood.

Daphne Fama was born in the American South, embedded in the tight-knit Filipino community. Like many of her peers, she became an attorney, but prefers fiction to contracts and forms. When she's not writing stories about monsters and broken women full of yearning, she's writing about video games. And when she's not writing, she's spending every minute adoring her partner and pup.
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Published 2025-08-12 by Berkley Books

Comments

Fama debuts with a deliciously eerie tale of friendship, familial duty, and the lengths one might go for love. In 1980s Philippines, Josephine del Rosario has dutifully remained in her family's old, deteriorating home ever since the political assassination of her parents when she was a child. Meanwhile her brother, Alejandro, has had the freedom to go off and pursue his ambitions. Now, however, Josephine is enticed to leave home by a letter from her childhood friend (and longtime secret love) Hiraya Ranoco, whose family is widely believed to be made up of witches. Hiraya invites Josephine to come to her secluded mansion in the jungle to play a game "like we used to" along with Alejandro and his girlfriend. But this game has high stakes: the winner will be granted their heart's desire. The losers, however, may not leave the mansion with their lives. In lush prose, Fama paints Ranoco House as labyrinthine and sinister and masterfully incorporates the backdrop of political upheaval and brewing revolution in Manila to add to the tension. The result is a wonderfully fresh take on gothic horror that should win the author a legion of fans.

Debut author Fama blends Filipino folklore, occult rituals, and political unrest in this unsettling gothic-horror novel set in 1986 against the backdrop of the People Power Revolution. Eleven years ago, Josephine del Rosario's family was murdered as a political statement. Now 26, her only surviving relative, brother Alejandro, is in Manila, where revolution brews, while she struggles to maintain their family's home in Carigara. Josephine is enticed by an invitation from beloved childhood friend Hiraya Ranoco, whose family is said to be witches, to visit their estate and play a familiar game, a family ritual Hiraya claims will ensure the winners the future they desire. Josephine joins Alejandro and their friend Gabriella at the dizzyingly decorated, confusingly labyrinthine Ranoco home, where their childhood game of tagu-tagu (hide and seek) takes on an ominous new intensity. Fama creates an oppressive atmosphere of simmering dread as Hiraya's secrets are slowly revealed, and the story explodes into a terrifying hunt through increasingly nightmarish environments. Themes of political oppression, intergenerational trauma, and feminine power reflect in both the real-world and supernatural horrors Josephine must survive. This is a sharp, scary read perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic (2020).

UK: Transworld