The Dark : A spinetingling seaside folk horror novel, set against the blackouts of the 1970s

Author: Amanda Mason

Thriller / suspense

Published on 8 October 2026 by Bonnier Books Ltd (Manilla Press) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 288 pages
216 x 135 | 0g

'Gripping and thoroughly eerie' LUCIE MCKNIGHT HARDY'Deliciously spinetingling' ANNA MAZZOLA'The perfect ghostly web of claustrophobia and grief' ESSIE FOXA SPINETINGLING SEASIDE FOLK HORROR NOVEL, SET AGAINST THE BLACKOUTS OF THE 1970sWhen the lights go outYou can lose sight of what is real . . .

It is the 1970s. A young woman, Rosie, moves to a small remote seaside village, readying to welcome her first child. But with her partner working away on an oil rig, the house isn't the sanctuary she'd hoped for - the situation made worse by the regular blackouts due to the ongoing miners' strikes. And the villagers seem friendly enough, but some of them are taking an uncomfortably close interest in her pregnancy.

Before long, Rosie notices strange noises and unexplained shadows in the corners of the cottage. As her birth date moves closer and the blackouts intensify, her isolation begins to consume her until she feels that she is losing her grip on reality.

But Rosie isn't the only one in the village who has cause to fear the dark . . . 'No one writes the supernatural quite like Amanda Mason. In The Dark the hauntings are visceral, underpinned by folklore, an evocative setting and a beautifully observed cast of characters' JESS KIDD, author of Little Spark and Things in Jars'Hugely atmospheric - I absolutely loved it' ALISON LITTLEWOOD, author of The Hidden People'I couldn't put it down' ALLY WILKES author of All the White Space