The Island of the Lost by Daisy Stephens (Hodder & Stoughton)

Ghosts, Grief, and Italian Ruins

Let’s be honest: we all think we’re too smart to be haunted. We live in an age of data and doorbell cameras, yet we’re still obsessed with places like the Island of the Lost. Daisy Stephens takes us to a speck of land off the Italian coast that has transitioned from a plague quarantine station to a mental asylum to a deserted ruin. It’s a graveyard with a coastline. Liv, our protagonist, arrives with a notebook and a heavy dose of denial, pretending she’s there for a writing assignment while actually hunting for her missing twin sister. It’s atmospheric, damp, and smells of old fires.

The "so what" of this story isn't the jump scares; it's the examination of how loss makes us irrational. Stephens writes with a cynical, intellectual sharpness that I found refreshing. Liv isn't a "scream and run" heroine; she’s a "stare at the abyss until it blinks" type. The pacing is tight, moving with a clinical efficiency that mirrors Liv’s own attempt to stay objective while her reality unzips at the seams. Sam, the colleague, provides a decent foil, though he’s occasionally a bit too much of the "voice of reason" trope. I wanted him to crack a little sooner.

The prose is unvarnished and direct. It avoids the flowery nonsense usually found in "haunted" fiction. There’s a specific kind of grit here that feels earned. It’s the feeling of cold mud on your boots and the realization that the silence is actually a sound.

"Memory is just a ghost that hasn't realized it's dead yet."

If you’re looking for a cozy mystery or a blood-soaked slasher, keep moving. This is for the readers who like their horror served with a side of psychological collapse and a bleak, philosophical chaser. It’s a book for people who understand that the scariest thing about an abandoned asylum isn't the ghosts; it's the fact that someone actually built it.

Verdict: Read it if you prefer your thrillers with high IQs and low survival rates. Skip it if you need a protagonist who makes "sensible" life choices.

4/5

If you liked this, check these out:

• The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson