cover image The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor

The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor

Shaenon K. Garrity, illus. by Christopher Baldwin. S&S/McElderry, $21.99 (224p) ISBN 978-1-5344-6087-4

Contemporary high schooler Haley, a Black teen who wears a choker and flowing skirts, is unbothered by her classmates’ open mockery but desperately resists her English teacher’s attempts to shut down yet another essay on Wuthering Heights—or any other gothic romance. After Haley spots a drowning man while standing “wistfully in the rain,” she attempts to save him, then washes ashore beneath remote Willowweep Manor, inhabited by handsome brothers Laurence, Cuthbert, and Montague and gruff housekeeper Wilhelmina, all white. Though Haley revels in the gothic setting of her dreams—complete with secret passages, a menacing forest, and a forlorn ghost—she learns that it’s actually an internally anachronistic pocket dimension meant to protect Earth from “an all-devouring sapient miasma.” As cracks form across Willowweep, Haley wields her extensive knowledge of gothic tropes to help the brothers regain control. If character development feels lacking, Baldwin’s expressive full-color art—reminiscent of Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant—and Garrity’s text both delight in their humor, conveying accentuated reactions, ranging from shocked to stoic, that lean into gleeful absurdity. A romp made especially enjoyable by Haley’s indulgent delight in Willowweep’s ability to make her literary dreams a reality. Ages 12–up. (July)