Margaret lives with a rare autoimmune condition that has destroyed her life, leaving her isolated. It has no cure, but she’s making do as best she can—until she’s offered a fully paid-for spot in an experimental medical trial at Graceview Memorial.
The conditions are simple, if grueling: she will live at the hospital as a full-time patient, subjecting herself to the near-total destruction of her immune system and its subsequent regeneration. The trial will essentially kill most of, but not all of her. But as the treatment progresses and her body begins to fail, she stumbles upon something sinister living and spreading within the hospital.
Unsure of what's real and what is just medication-induced delusion, Margaret struggles to find a way out as her body and mind succumb further to the darkness lurking throughout Graceview's halls.
PUBLISHER: St. Martin's Press
YEAR: 2025
LENGTH: 320 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Horror
RECOMMENDED: Highly
Queer Rep Summary: No canon queer rep.
*I received a free review copy for an honest review of this book.
The Graceview Patient is a compelling narrative of medical institutionalization for an experimental treatment of the main character's chronic condition. Starling builds horror without ever quite straying from the bounds of plausibility, spun from the tension and vulnerability inherent to being a patient in a long-term hospital stay. Usually when a narrator is "unreliable", that term is used to indicate that they are not accurately or consistently relaying a perception of reality or history which other characters would agree with. The term "unreliable narrator" often has a negative connotation that the narrator is in some way deceptive -- possibly even outright lying. At best, they may be delusional and unaware of the gaps - While that term technically applies here it doesn't have the negative connotations which would usually attach. Part of what Meg is relaying, as faithfully and consistently as she can, are the gaps, discontinuities, and inconsistencies between how she is perceiving things in the moment and what any physical or circumstantial evidence afterwards would indicate. She's afraid of losing her sense of reality or being gaslit for her chronic illness by yet another medical institution, and is therefore keeping track of things that seem out of place. Meg narrates from some point slightly after everything started, noting for the reader when she only understood in retrospect how something was meaningful, but allowing us as much notice as possible when things start going sideways.
I devoured The Graceview Patient, finishing it in two sittings. This is the fourth book I've read by Starling, every one a different kind of horror that's enough different from reality to never happen, but not so far away as to let me feel comfortable while reading it. The "what" is firmly in the realm of fiction, but the "why" in this horror is formed from all too realistic interactions between Meg and the staff of Graceview Memorial.
If you like this you may like:
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (gaslighting in an unfamiliar location)
- The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling (more medical horror from this author)
- The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling (other horror from this author)
- Hammers On Bone by Cassandra Khaw (stylistic similarities, Lovecraftian setting)
Graphic/Explicit CW for gaslighting, gore, medical content, medical trauma, body horror, death
Moderate CW for vomit, self-harm, confinement, forced institutionalization (entered voluntarily, unable to leave).
Bookshop Affiliate Buy Link
Fantastic Fiction
-----
This content is CAN credentialed, which means you can report instances of harassment, abuse, or other harm on their hotline at (617) 249-4255, or on their website at creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org.
Comments
Post a Comment