⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Daughter of Rot
Rios de la Luz
Dedication:
“To the daughters who are cycle breakers. To the daughters who have faced their shadows. May your joy be boundless.”
—
I planned to include more quotes in this review, but my highlighted quotes are rather long and spoiler-y, so you will have to just believe me that the writing is deeply moving and emotional.
Daughter of Rot is a magical realism horror novella featuring a mother and daughter’s strained relationship, their sentient house and its dreamlike magic.
It is a story, first and foremost, about generational trauma and cycle breaking, but it is narrated in the most whimsically horrifying voice that will make you cling to every word.
de la Luz doesn’t shy away from the uncomfortable. Her brutal portrayal of postpartum and reluctant motherhood brought me to tears and Olivia’s keenly observant, yet sheltered, worldview was equal parts refreshing and horrifying.
Isela is deeply, uncomfortably human, garnering empathy and loathing simultaneously from the reader as they uncover her story.
The house is its own character, its motivations unclear, but it is a vastly important point of view as it watches family struggles and reaches out to mother and daughter alike, offering support through an enchanted room the characters can retreat into to learn more about themselves and escape their realities.
I do not have the words to express everything this book made me feel. Interweaving harsh reality with dreamlike forestscapes and nightmares, I never knew what I would discover next.
This book is brutal, experimental, and unusual. I highly recommend it.
Thank you to Rios de la Luz for the advance readers copy. All opinions are my own.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Daughter of Rot releases on September 8th, 2026. You can preorder a signed copy here.
The Midnight Review 