Artist Nilda Ricci could use a stroke of luck. She seems to get it when she inherits a shadowy Victorian, built by an architect whose houses were said to influence the mind—supposedly, in beneficial ways. At first, Nilda’s new home delivers, with the help of its longtime housekeeper. And Nilda falls for a handsome neighbor, a chemist whose herbal tonics boost her creativity. But Nilda starts having strange experiences, making her wonder whether her house is haunted, or whether its architect’s intentions were less than benevolent. She also comes to suspect that her new love interest—and her housekeeper—aren’t quite what they seem.

Praise for The Inhabitants

“Take the classic Gothic element of a spooky old house, add a dash of modern #MeToo seasoning, and let everything simmer in the warmth of timeless maternal love, and you have Beth Castrodale’s deliciously clever new novel. The Inhabitants, dream-drenched and mysterious, tantalizes and satisfies to the final pages. A remarkable read.”

—Chauna Craig, author of The Widow’s Guide to Edible Mushrooms and Wings & Other Things

“Beth Castrodale’s wonderful new novel is an engaging read that incorporates art, architecture, herbal medicine, #MeToo, and the supernatural. After breaking up with her longtime partner, Nilda Ricci embarks on a new life when she and her daughter move into an architecturally significant house with its own history and secrets. There, Nilda, a painter, encounters an attractive, intriguing neighbor who might not be what he seems; unsolved issues from the past; the resurfaced traumas of a childhood friend; and mysterious apparitions. The result is a page turner of a novel about deciding what’s real or imagined, making sense of the past, and looking to the future. Richly grounded in physical details and keen psychological insights, this superbly crafted novel delivers on many levels.”

—Jan English Leary, author of Thicker Than Blood, Skating on the Vertical, and Town and Gown

“Beth Castrodale’s moody and atmospheric new novel, The Inhabitants, will have you looking twice at gifts from neighbors and considering locks for your closet doors. The protagonist and her daughter arrive at Farleigh House, the eccentric construction of a nineteenth-century architect, for a new beginning. Instead, they’re met by mysterious forces from the past—a fireplace that erupts in faces, an unseen weight at the foot of a bed, and a wave of rage on a feeding frenzy. The Inhabitants, a modern-Gothic novel, reminds us not only that there is a place for the past in the present but also that going back must often precede moving forward.”

—Cynthia Newberry Martin, author of The Art of Her Life, Love Like This, and Tidal Flats

“In her beautifully paced new novel, Beth Castrodale gives us a fresh take on the classic haunted-house tale. The Inhabitants guides Nilda Ricci, a newly single mother, and her daughter through the strange and disconcerting Farleigh House, into which the two of them have recently moved, and also through the corridors of the past—through fear, regret, and memory that sit in the quietly beating hearts of not only the house but also in sculptures and paintings and even lullabies. Eventually, all these passageways converge, with Nilda at the epicenter, in a way that is both inevitable and surprising. Ultimately, The Inhabitants asks which is more terrifying: the spirits and the strange house they haunt, or the monsters that walk among us every day? Masterfully told and beautifully balanced, The Inhabitants is a terrific read.”

—Jim Naremore, author of American Still Life and The Arts of Legerdemain as Taught by Ghosts

“From the idiosyncratic house the novel’s artist-mother heroine, Nilda, inherits, to the mysterious housekeeper she also inherits, to the eccentric neighbor who invents “creativity” tonics for Nilda, to the revelation that the man whose portrait Nilda is commissioned to paint poses a danger that must be stopped, dread and fascination permeate Beth Castrodale’s fiercely feminist modern-Gothic novel. But while The Inhabitants is heady and menacing, it’s also a tender story about the undying devotion of motherly love.”

—Michelle Ross, author of They Kept Running, Shapeshifting, and There’s So Much They Haven’t Told You

“The deceptively innocuous spell cast by The Inhabitants is like walking in a pleasant wood and encountering a coiled rattlesnake. This well-crafted book is highly recommended for those who love tales of the supernatural. The otherworldly elements are finely blended with life’s challenges, the lure of romance, magic potions, and the life-altering presence of evil.”

—Morgan Howell, author of The Moon Won’t Talk