Residents living in a secluded Japanese house in two different centuries are haunted by brutal family legacies in Kylie Lee Baker's horror knockout, Japanese Gothic. After the disastrous Satsuma Rebellion of 1877, Sen's samurai family lives in hiding. In 2026, white college student Lee fears he may have murdered his roommate, James, and flees to the same house to live with his father. Sen's and Lee's days are full of separate torment, but their lives take a supernatural turn when the two connect through their bedroom closet.
Short on students, Sen's father began training her as a samurai when she was young, and he continues to rule with cruelty masquerading as honor, even as his family slowly starves. Meanwhile, Lee can't remember where he put his roommate's body. As days pass and no one reports James's absence, Lee stops taking the cocktail of medications that have kept him in a mental fog since childhood. Soon his obsession with his mother's disappearance when he was 12 intertwines with his goal of finding out what happened to Sen in her time. Sen just wants her family to survive.
Baker (Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng) soaks the tatami mats with blood, blending samurai tradition with the fever-dream chaos of psychological collapse and suppressed trauma as Sen and Lee question their realities. Baker's excellent character development will have readers invested early and grounds the constantly twisting plot. Japanese Gothic is a ghostly, gory ride. --Suzanne Krohn, librarian