Bitterthorn: A sapphic Gothic romance inspired by classic fairytales

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The story is filled with brilliant descriptions - I have a clear image of Mina, the witch, and the cold, stone castle in my mind. I finished Bitterthorn one winter night while the rain battered the windows, and by gods, what a book. The first woman to go with the Witch, on arriving at the castle, Mina feels “trapped in a prison of my own foolish making”. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. I’ve read poetry and novels and listened to music and viewed art all about love but it was like another language.

Talking about better; in the beginning of the book, I really hoped that the housekeeper whose name is Wolf will turn out to be a real wolf and that the servants turn into wild animals at night, but alas, there was actually a village.We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. How loneliness can fester away at you, a feeling I know well (and yet I have no Witch to love me, which doesn’t seem fair).

Both classic and novel, melancholy and tenderly wrought, Bitterthorn crackles with passion and warmth like a fire on a long winter night. Kat Dunn has written a deeply moving and bittersweet exploration of belonging and the importance of love, all wrapped up inside a deeply Gothic fairy tale. I should also probably note that this is more of a character driven story, so the pacing might not be for everyone.

She’s written about mental health for Mind and The Guardian, and worked as a translator for Japanese television. I loved the depressed golden retriever x black cat pairing, I loved how this mixed a lot of different fairy tales.

I know so many sapphic readers who have been aching for a book like this one, and thank goodness it exists. I don’t know whether I want to cry, laugh, re-read the entire book, or simply bask in the emotions that the wonderful writing of Kat and the world she has created embodied me with. The writing was lyrical and beautiful, the characters were flawed and captivating and the plot had me hooked from beginning to end.I wavered between 4 and 5 stars for this book but I will definitely re-read it at some point so I think that makes it worthy of 5. In time, though, she moves from fear and “the pain of self-inflicted isolation” to wanting to understand the Witch and the secrets of the curse.

With book based on figuring out something there is always the risk of drawing it for too long (or not drawing it out enough), so you end up with a protagonist that seems stupid. I absolutely loved Kat Dunn’s Battalion of the Dead series so this was one of my most anticipated releases. Think sweeping landscapes, logic defying magic, mysteries galore, complicated people trying their best, and some unnerving discoveries.Everything about this book was perfection, the writing, the characters, the suspense/mystery, the romance, the plot twists.