Japanese Gothic

In Japanese Gothic, Kylie Lee Baker masterfully weaves together the story of a Samurai girl from 1877, a college boy from 2026, the ghost and folk stories they hear, and the memories they hold into a haunting tale of loneliness, love, and grief wrapped in a supernatural mystery that is impossible to put down. 

In October 2026, Lee Turner flees his American college apartment to his father’s new home in Japan because he thinks (though his memory is muddled thanks to the mix of drugs that have kept him half asleep since his mother’s disappearance) he killed his roommate. 

While there, he discovers a doorway in his bedroom that acts as a bridge to 1877, where Iwasaki Sen is living with her family, being trained by her father to be a samurai. 

We follow their separate lives - lives where they are both lonely and both struggle to be seen by their fathers in different ways  - and the moments they have together, interspersed with segments of a beautiful folk tale about a sea turtle. 

Random Thoughts: 

• Kylie Lee Baker, I see you. The repetition of the line beginning with “as if red wine had splashed…” Literal chills. 

• Japanese Gothic is like The Lake House, but instead of a romance with two people living in the house 2 years apart exchanging letters, it’s an eerie gothic about people or ghosts or both 150 years apart so it’s not really like The Lake House, but isn’t it time Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock did another movie together?

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Hodder & Stoughton for the advance copy for my honest review.