They Drown Our Daughters

Meredith Strand leaves a bitter separation and drives back to Cape Disappointment, the crumbling seaside town where she grew up. Her daughter comes with her. Locals call the place haunted, though to Meredith it looks more worn down by regret than by anything malevolent.

The town feels different from how she remembers it. The waves are louder, and the stories her mother used to whisper are harder to wave off. Meredith senses that something is watching her. Her mother is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, and her daughter has begun to change in ways Meredith cannot explain.

As the pull of the ocean strengthens, Meredith is drawn into a haunting that has run through the women of her family for generations. Grandmother, mother and daughter are bound by blood and heartbreak, and if Meredith is careless, the sea will take each of them in turn.

This is a modern gothic horror novel built on coastal folklore. Queer identity, motherhood and inherited trauma sit at its center alongside the scares. The mood is atmospheric and eerie, with dread that gathers slowly around the cliffs and the water rather than arriving in sudden shocks.