Eldritch
The Eating Woods • Book 2
by Keri Lake
Why You'll Love This
Dark fantasy rarely commits this hard to its own bleakness — flesh-eating woods, a spreading curse, and two characters whose survival feels genuinely uncertain.
- Great if you want: gothic horror-tinged fantasy with real emotional stakes and mythology
- The experience: dense and atmospheric — Lake builds dread slowly, then relentlessly
- The writing: Lake leans into lyrical darkness, with world-building that earns its page count
- Skip if: 766 pages of grim atmosphere without book one's setup will exhaust you
About This Book
Something ancient and hungry has awakened in the mortal world, and Foxglove Parish is barely recognizable beneath the cold, creeping darkness it leaves behind. In this sequel to Anathema, Maevyth and Zevander face a world stripped of safety, warmth, and mercy—flesh-eating monsters, a spreading curse, and a malevolent power with designs on both of them. The emotional weight here isn't just survival; it's what survival costs when the past refuses to stay buried and the path forward keeps narrowing.
Keri Lake writes dark fantasy with the kind of atmospheric density that makes 766 pages feel earned rather than excessive. Eldritch is immersive in the way a place can be—grim, textured, and genuinely unsettling in its world-building. Lake balances mythic scope with intimate character work, letting the relationship between Maevyth and Zevander carry real tension without overshadowing the larger horror at play. Readers who love prose that lingers, morally complex characters, and a fantasy world that feels like it could devour you whole will find this one difficult to put down.
