The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts

A New York Times and Atla Journal Best Book of March

A Most Anticipated Book of 2026 from TIME, Book Riot, and Chicago Review of Books

"Home buying as horror story has become a beloved trope . . . Real hauntings, like real life, are never simple. Fu captures that with memorable elegance. Highbrow horror that's still a page-turner." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century comes The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts--an eerie, spellbinding novel of grief and guilt, with a razor-sharp eye for the absurdity and melancholy of the internet age.

In the aftermath of her mother's death, Eleanor is unmoored. For years, her mother orchestrated every detail of her life--from meals, to laundry, to finances--so that Eleanor could focus on her career as a therapist. Left to navigate the world on her own, Eleanor clings to her mother's final directive: use her inheritance to buy a house.

Desperate to obey her mother one last time, but finding few options she can afford, Eleanor impulsively buys a model home in a valley-turned-construction site, a picturesque development steeped in a shadowy history. It feels like a fresh start, until the rain comes--an endless, torrential downpour. As water seeps in through the house's cracks, the line between what is real and what is not begins to blur. Haunted by the stories of her clients, a stream of workmen and bureaucrats she can't trust, and visions of ghosts from her past and present, Eleanor's reality unravels, and she is forced to reckon with the secrets she's buried and the dark choices she's made.

Kim Fu is the author of two novels, a collection of poetry, and most recently, the story collection Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, winner of the Washington State Book Award, the Pacific Northwest Book Award, and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, as well as a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Ignyte Awards, and the Shirley Jackson Awards. Fu lives in Seattle, Washington.