Title: Marla
Author: Jonathan Janz
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Marla-Jonathan-Janz-ebook/dp/B0FSWGZ6J8/
Release Date: August 18th, 2026
Summary
From beloved horror author Jonathan Janz, Marla is a slow-burn, full-throttle horror novel about the families we inherit, the guilt we carry, and the terrible gravity of a gaze you can’t forget. Turn the page—if you dare.
In King’s Branch, Indiana, everyone knows the Gorman House. Everyone whispers about the girl in the upstairs window.
Detective Carl Lancaster is driving the same back road he’s driven a thousand times when he glances up—and meets a stare that freezes him to the bone. Minutes later, a body turns up. Coincidence, he tells himself. Then it happens again.
Annie Frost, a child–protection social worker with a crumbling home life, is used to walking into other people’s nightmares. But a tense visit with a volatile family ties her fate to the Gorman house—and to a secret she’s spent her entire life suppressing.
Dylan Ellison, twenty-one and drifting, comes home for the summer and finds himself drawn to the beautiful, enigmatic Marla Gorman. Curiosity becomes obsession; fascination becomes fear.
As strange deaths ripple through the county and rumors sharpen into patterns, Carl, Annie, and Dylan are pulled toward the same locked door: a creaking Victorian filled with moonlit hallways, a shadowed toy room, and a presence that smiles without kindness. In a town that wears its love of horror like a badge, suspicion is contagious, memory is dangerous, and some windows look back.
My Review
5/5 Stars
Every town has their local gossip and urban legends. For King’s Branch, there’s Marla. A reclusive woman who lives with her mother in a creepy old house. No one knows much about either of them until a string of strange murders overtakes the town. Marla is at the heart of it all, but no one can anticipate the truth.
This is my second year in a row reading an ARC by Jonathan Janz and the second year in a row that it ends up being in my top five reads of the year. This novel is a slow-burn horror masterpiece, dripping with dread and an atmosphere so intense it’s almost tangible. I’ve never experienced a book that made the tension feel this thick.
I had such a hard time putting it down because I had to find out what Marla was. She was such a unique villain. I can’t think of any story with a similar enemy. The twist at the end was so unexpected that I read it twice just to wrap my head around it.
This book flawlessly blends genres: murder mystery, horror, gothic, psychological thriller, and suspense. It releases this August, just in time for spooky season, and you won’t want to miss it!
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