The Graceview Patient
Margaret Culpeper is desperate. She has a rare autoimmune disorder whose symptoms - especially the pain - and the impact they have on her make it hard to keep a job or relationships; even her family doesn’t understand, and she’s struggling to stay afloat. So when she gets an opportunity to join a highly experimental study at Graceview Memorial Hospital - which includes a stipend along with complete coverage of all treatment expense - that could cure her, she is quick to accept, in spite of an urgent warning she receives from Isabel, one of the nurses, who urges her to leave.
The Graceview Patient from Caitlin Starling is a tense, claustrophobic horror from the perspective of an unreliable narrator, as she herself acknowledges that she sees and hears things that can’t be true, sometimes drifts in and out of consciousness, and loses segments of time. But is it due to side effects from the treatment, or is something more sinister at play?
The entire novel takes place within the hospital, much of it from the same room, and all of it from behind Margaret’s eyes. She has no outside visitors, and the only thing keeping her grounded to the world is the whiteboard in her room with high-level notes for the day, such duty nurse and doctor, pain level, fall risk, and target release date - which becomes a lifeline for Margaret as time goes on.
Underlying the story the whole time is Margaret’s pain, something she had been living with before entering the trial and which is part of most conversations with the staff and which she also notices on the board.
Caitlin Starling masterfully makes us empathize and sympathize with Margaret, The Graceview Patient, by putting us behind her eyes, and this heightens the claustrophobic tension and makes the final pages that much more impactful.
Xe Sands narrated perfectly as usual, and I recommend the audiobook in addition to the e/paper book.
Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Dreamscape Media for the advance copies for my honest review. Pub. date 10/14/25
Support your favorite indie bookstore (and me) by using my link to order the audiobook from https://libro.fm/referral?rf_code=lfm60355 OR if you prefer using your eyes to read, support your favorite indie (and give us both 20% off if it’s your first purchase) by using my link at https://refer.bookshop.org/candidanorwood.
