Wylding Hall

This Shirley Jackson Award–winning novel is “a true surreal phantasmagoria . . . [a] gothic supernatural” horror story set in the decadent world of British rock (Chelsea Quinn Yarbro).

When the young members of a British acid-folk band are compelled by their manager to record their unique music, they hole up at Wylding Hall, an ancient country house with dark secrets. There they create the album that will make their reputation, but at a terrifying cost: Julian Blake, the group’s lead singer, disappears within the mansion and is never seen or heard from again.

Now, years later, the surviving musicians, along with their friends and lovers—including a psychic, a photographer, and the band���s manager—meet with a young documentary filmmaker to tell their own versions of what happened that summer. But whose story is true? And what really happened to Julian Blake?


Genre: Horror

"Somewhere up in rock ’n’ roll heaven, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Nick Drake and Sandy Denny are all tossing back their drinks, passing a spliff, and recounting how much they enjoyed reading Elizabeth Hand’s shimmering new supernatural novel, Wylding Hall. . . . By turns melancholic and joyous, dark and incandescent, this always-surprising tale is full of heart, music and wonder." - Paul Di Filippo

"By turns comic, elegiac, sexy, romantic, melancholy, and downright chilling, Wylding Hall sweeps us along from swinging London to the terrifying gates of Faerie and into the present—where all spells must be paid for." - Ellen Kushner

"Wylding Hall is a true surreal phantasmagoria, with music and all the accoutrements of the world of rock-and-roll set off by a wonderful admixture of the gothic supernatural. Treat it like the most exciting getaway in a truly enchanting setting." - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro