Publishers Weekly
11/13/2023
Bakis returns almost three decades after Lives of the Monster Dogs with a tepid feminist gothic novel set in 1918 and based on the life of author and paranormal researcher Charles Fort (1874–1932), a self-described “crypto-scientist” interested in anomalies. The action begins when Charles receives a letter from mysterious benefactor Claude Arkel, who invites Charles and his wife, Anna, to his mansion in the Thousand Islands so Charles can write. The first night after the couple arrives from New York City, Anna, who narrates, is unnerved by the sight of ragged and disheveled people in the woods, one of whom she recognizes as a fellow maid from back when she used to work in Charles’s father’s house. Later, Anna finds a room full of life-size human dolls at Arkel’s mansion and is creeped out even further. Bakis has a good feel for her characters, and the setting is credibly eerie. Nevertheless, the effort to excavate the real-life Anna Fort from a male-dominated narrative is a bit heavy-handed (“Why was it anyway,” Anna wonders, “that wives were supposed to help husbands with their books and never got their name on the cover?”), and the denouement feels improbable. This one lacks nuance. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Feb.)
Reactor - Mahvesh Murad
"Bakis’ language throughout the novel is appropriately lush, moody and dark—perfectly gothic, endlessly readable... [T]hrilling with slow burn reveals . . . King Nyx is a complex fever dream of a gothic narrative, a little bit Jane Eyre, a little bit Bluebeard, a little bit feminist historical fiction, a little bit remote location murder mystery, even a little bit steampunk . . . timeless."
Victor LaValle
"A new novel from Kirsten Bakis is a reason to be wildly excited. King Nyx delivers all I could’ve hoped for from an author of such great gifts. A tale of gothic mystery and mounting dread with a narrator who is troubled, insightful, and quite funny at times. This is a novel of delicious disquiet. I sank into this book like it was a warm bed, or a warm grave. Some of its scenes even made their way into my dreams."
Shelf Awareness
"Bakis's gothic journey, rendered in mellifluous and dreamy prose, will keep readers turning pages long past midnight."
BookPage
"Bakis, author of Lives of the Monster Dogs, creates an atmosphere of gut-churning dread from the first chapter . . . Trouble happens quickly, and there are scenes so anxiety-producing that you might want to put the book down and check to see that your windows and doors are secure. King Nyx is a scary good book."
Lindsay Hunter
"Once I began reading King Nyx, I couldn’t stop. In Bakis’s hands, the real, previously unvoiced Anna Fort has a story she must tell, and the only way she can tell it is to travel to the eerie, atmospheric, murky realm of her memory. I was mystified and entranced to the very end, lost in Anna’s mind and the strange, frightening landscape she finds herself in. This is a bold feminist novel that I will return to again and again."
Bossy Bookworm
"I enjoyed the dark, gothic tale of King Nyx and each of its elements, including the caged-bird metaphors, as well as the denouement."
Esquire - Neil McRobert
"It’s all wonderfully bizarre... King Nyx is one of those thrillers that smuggle real substance into their scares without ever taking on a lecturing tone."
Ami McKay
"Enticing, shadowy, and wildly compelling, King Nyx transports the reader to a world where every ghost brings new revelations, and every secret, greater truth. A smoldering, feminist dream of a book."
Clare Beams
"A magnificently unnerving dream of a book. I loved devoted, clear-eyed Anna, and watching her navigate a world in which reality slips toward symbol—full of images that might be pulled from the most gorgeous and haunting nightmare—genuinely terrified me. King Nyx is a marvelous novel."
Amber Sparks
"I don’t generally believe in page-turners, but King Nyx actually is a page-turner, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it long after I turned the last page. Opulent, haunting, riveting, and centered around a great gothic mystery—it’s like a Wilkie Collins novel for modern feminists."
Kirkus Reviews
2023-11-04
At the home of an eccentric millionaire, a woman discovers out-of-the-ordinary events.
When her husband is invited to finish writing his book at the island home of a reclusive millionaire, Anna is relieved: If he sells it, they’ll be able to keep their Bronx apartment and she won’t have to go back to work at the laundry. It’s 1918, and Charles Fort—based on a real-life figure—is hard at work on a book about unexplained phenomena, such as objects falling from a clear sky: frogs, for example, or even bits of flesh, or blood. If Anna has doubts about the legitimacy of his research, she keeps them to herself. In any case, when the millionaire Claude Arkel offers the couple a place to stay for the winter, they eagerly accept. Almost immediately, though, things seem to be off. Arkel runs a school for wayward girls, and three students are missing. Meanwhile, there’s no sign of Arkel himself, and with the Spanish flu raging in the outside world, the Forts are stuck in quarantine. Bakis’ latest novel has the pacing and suspense of a smart literary thriller: It’s almost impossible to put down once you’ve started it. But Bakis can be heavy-handed in her treatment of the themes that undergird her story—in this case, women who support ambitious men. That’s not to say Bakis’ case doesn’t hold water, but she strikes the same note again and again in a way that is more repetitive than satisfying. So, for example, when the Forts first arrive on Arkel’s island, and Charles observes that the grand house is “modeled on the Château de Chambord in theVal de Loire” and Anna responds, “I know, I’m the one who showed you the article,” the mansplaining moment isn’t nearly as funny as it was apparently intended to be; it's just frustrating, in a teeth-grinding way.
A smart and engaging literary thriller that bears down too hard on its themes.
