Kate’s Review: “Vanishing Daughters”

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Book: “Vanishing Daughters” by Cynthia Pelayo

Publishing Info: Thomas & Mercer, March 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publicist.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: A haunted woman stalked by a serial killer confronts the horrors of fairy tales and the nightmares of real life in a breathtaking novel of psychological suspense by a Bram Stoker Award–winning author.

It started the night journalist Briar Thorne’s mother died in their rambling old mansion on Chicago’s South Side.

The nightmares of a woman in white pleading to come home, music switched on in locked rooms, and the panicked fear of being swallowed by the dark…Bri has almost convinced herself that these stirrings of dread are simply manifestations of grief and not the beyond-world of ghostly impossibilities her mother believed in. And more tangible terrors still lurk outside the decaying Victorian greystone.

A serial killer has claimed the lives of fifty-one women in the Chicago area. When Bri starts researching the murders, she meets a stranger who tells her there’s more to her sleepless nights than bad dreams—they hold the key to putting ghosts to rest and stopping a killer. But the killer has caught on and is closing in, and if Bri doesn’t answer the call of the dead soon, she’ll be walking among them.

Review: Thank you to Kaye Publicity for sending me an ARC of this novel!

I have a very special place in my heart for the story of “Sleeping Beauty”. It was my favorite Disney movie as a toddler, and my parents say that I basically wore our VHS of the film out due to watching it over and over again. I also generally enjoy the fairy tale in so many of its forms, even if those forms can be pretty dark and disturbing (no surprise given fairy tales). With all of this in mind I was so, so very excited to read Cynthia Pelayo’s new horror/thriller book “Vanishing Daughters”, as she decided to approach the story of Sleeping Beauty through the lenses of local folklore, grief, the things that haunt a person and a community, and violent misogyny. Pelayo is one of my favorite authors and I was very curious to see what she was going to do with a fairy tale so near and dear to my heart.

Pelayo once again creates a dreamy and strange world that lives within Chicago, but treads into fantastical places while still feeling very much steeped in the Midwestern metropolis through history, folklore, urban legend, and real life terrors. We follow Briar Rose, a journalist who lives in her family home in the woods, located on the Southside of Chicago, who is mourning her mother’s recent death. Briar Rose has been dreaming strange and terrifying things, and the house she lives within feels haunted, both by something otherworldly, but also by the crushing grief of the loss of her mother. Meanwhile a serial killer has been murdering women in Chicago, leaving devastation behind but capturing their spirits to holding them within a trapped other world, and his connection to Briar Rose reflects a destiny that the journalist was unaware of, even though her free spirited mother was hinting at it in life. This dark fantasy retelling is so rich and layered, with creative analogs to the original fairy tale while also connecting folklore of Chicago and its darker histories that still linger in the minds of its citizens. I loved how ethereal and odd this felt, really bringing out the idea of sleep and dreaming and all the themes that come with a Sleeping Beauty story.

The horror and thriller elements of the serial killer mystery are also on point, not only tapping into very real themes like violent misogyny and victims memories being exploited, but also the tales of cruel fairies that curse bloodlines and steal people for their own devices. For our evil fairy analog we have someone/something that is part fantastical in how it functions in this story, but also just feels like a very real threat, as women in real life can go missing and be left without a voice or justice, becoming ideas and warnings instead of being seeing as living breathing humans. It’s both a critique of the way women victims are exploited by true crime narratives, but also an interesting exploration of how real life folk lore and cautionary tales are created from tragedies and how we forget that. I enjoyed the POV of the serial killer, as it was such a jolting distinction from Briar Rose’s chapters, and it made me uneasy and on edge. You throw in the dark past of Chicago and so many cultural references to this city and its history (another thing I love about Pelayo’s books: Chicago itself is a character, and given that I really enjoy Chicago it’s so fun to see how she represents it) and you have a strong time and place with a lot of well explored history lessons.

“Vanishing Daughters” is my favorite of Pelayo’s works. This book is compelling and beautiful and raw and emotional, and I highly recommend it. If you haven’t ready anything by Cynthia Pelayo, now is the time and this is the title.

Rating 9: Probably my favorite Pelayo story to date, “Vanishing Daughters” is strange and dreamlike, while also exploring themes of grief, folklore, and the very real people who turn into myth, for better or worse.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Vanishing Daughters” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror To Look Forward To in 2025”.