The Decadence
On sale
25th September 2025
Price: £18.99
‘Lush, complex, and close to the bone, The Decadence filled me with horror in the best way’
Krystelle Bamford, author of Idle Grounds
‘A genuinely creepy and evocative contemporary ghost story . . . this novel intrigues and unsettles‘
Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti
‘An exquisitely claustrophobic exploration of the places we do and don’t belong . . . this is a triumph of the queer gothic’
Jane Flett, author of Freakslaw
At the height of lockdown, a group of flailing twenty-something friends makes an illicit break for freedom.
A grand country house stands empty. Once the home of Theo’s great uncle, it seems like the perfect place to get high and hang out in the spring sunshine, as they eschew adult responsibilities.
Since meeting as teenagers, rifts have grown amongst the group. Even as they are determined to enjoy themselves, tensions cast shadows between them – politics, sex and lies. The house, too, has its own dark history and exudes a palpable sense of menace.
Where do the drugs end and the supernatural begin? Will anger and jealousy tear the friends apart, or will it be more ominous forces? Their stay at Holt House will change them all . . .
‘The Decadence is both a deeply unnerving read and a sly commentary on the skeletons in Britain’s closet’
Victoria Gosling, author of Bliss & Blunder
‘Lush, sinister, and blackly funny … Rich, intelligent prose underpins delicate exploration of some of our most profound moral quandaries’
Kate Collins, author of A Good House for Children
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Reviews
The Decadence is an exquisitely claustrophobic exploration of the places we do and don't belong. Sequestered in a pressure cooker of hedonistic excess, the horror creeps in insidiously - from the first tendrils of unease to the final horrible denouement. This is a triumph of the queer gothic
Lush, complex, and close to the bone, The Decadence filled me with horror in the best way - the horror of a classic haunted house tale, but also the horror of your twenties, with all its dead-ends, debauchery, self-doubt, and longing
Not since The Haunting of Hill House have I read anything as simultaneously poised, claustrophobic and rank with evil as The Decadence. Bringing together an incestuous cohort of friends, buried secrets and unlimited intoxicants in a location of sentient malevolence, The Decadence is both a deeply unnerving read and a sly commentary on the skeletons in Britain's closet. If the idea of Iris Murdoch meeting Mariana Enriquez in a country house during lockdown appeals to you, I urge you to read The Decadence. It delivers on its promises in spades
Lush, sinister, and blackly funny, The Decadence sings with suffused spite and the specific horror of personal and physical inertia. Trapped in idyll, its protagonists suffer both their own worst proclivities and the inverted menace of their closest relationships. Rich, intelligent prose underpins delicate exploration of some of our most profound moral quandaries, while the expansive, decaying house smothers its occupants with the weight of its own gasping history, resulting in a finale as sadistic as it is satisfying.
The Decadence's group of late twenty-somethings bicker, seethe and hard party their way through a genuinely creepy and evocative contemporary ghost story which weaves together queerness, lockdown flouting, and the malevolent inheritances of history with deftness and aplomb. Leon Craig has a keen eye for observation and a very dark and distinctive imagination and this novel intrigues and unsettles
A gothic, lascivious tale about longing, lust and loneliness