Library Journal praises Catriona Silvey’s VERVAIN HOLLOW in starred review: “Sensitive yet poignant and speaks to the modern moment. [A] thoughtful and haunting novel”

★ Vervain Hollow by Catriona Silvey (starred review)
Published by Union Square and Co.
Release date: June 2026

“Silvey’s latest (after Love and Other Paradoxes) is a Midwestern gothic that explores identity and self-sacrifice in a rural cult. Friends Laura and Aliyah have just graduated college and aren’t sure what their next steps should be. They happen upon Vervain Hollow, a labyrinthine mansion that shifts and disorients. The Hollow is inhabited by the ethereal Vervain and his devotees, and the two young women are drawn in by the comfort of belonging. But the longer Laura and Aliyah stay, the more the inhabitants turn on each other in competition for Vervain’s gifts. The story is written from Laura’s perspective, switching between when she first found the Hollow and when she returns, two years after it burned down. The novel is an otherworldly portrayal of fanaticism and evangelism with an expansive moral lesson about the dangers that lie in sacrificing one’s identity to fit in.

VERDICT Silvey’s exploration of what drives people into cults is sensitive yet poignant and speaks to the modern moment. This thoughtful and haunting novel is an excellent addition to the growing number of regional gothics.”

—Reviewed by Cate Triola, March 27, 2026

Click here to read the review on the Library Journal website!