Gothic Poetry, Dark Fantasy Books & Accessories

The Midnight Codex is a spellbinding Young Adult gothic fantasy novel that pulls readers into the fog-wrapped world of Veylthorne, where gods barter in silence, ancient myths breathe, and a reclusive scribe named Abigail Avenmore stumbles upon a relic that was never meant to be found. When a fragment of the legendary Midnight Codex surfaces in her desk drawer, Abigail is thrust into a web of divine intrigue, shadowy watchers, and visions she cannot explain — and the line between myth and reality begins to dissolve. Rich with atmospheric prose, layered characters, and a Lynchian sense of creeping unease, E.J. Moon's debut novel is perfect for fans of dark academia, mythic fantasy, and stories where beauty and dread are inseparable. The Midnight Codex lingers long after the final page — haunting, gorgeous, and impossible to put down.

The Phoenix is the latest poetry collection from Emma Steel, a Devon-born writer whose distinctive voice blends the lyrical and the unflinching. Drawing on memory, mythology, the natural world, and the sharp edges of modern life, these poems move fluidly between tenderness and darkness — from the fragile beauty of frost flowers and winter light to unflinching meditations on war, loss, shame, and survival. Steel's range is striking: one poem lingers over the quiet devotion of a sleeping cat, the next confronts the moral failures of a world that has turned conflict into entertainment.

What unites this eclectic collection is Steel's gift for imagery that feels both intimate and universal. Her poems speak to anyone who has loved imperfectly, grieved quietly, or searched for goodness in uncertain times. With a voice at once wry and compassionate, The Phoenix confirms Steel as a poet unafraid to sit with difficult truths — and equally unafraid to find beauty there.

In her debut short story collection, Myths & Monsters, Emma Steel takes the familiar scaffolding of fairy tales, folklore, and myth and dismantles it from the inside out. From a darkly reimagined Pinocchio haunting the Black Forest to a tooth fairy whose ambition curdles into something grotesque, Steel's stories inhabit the space where the whimsical and the deeply unsettling collide. Divided into two sections, Myths and Monsters, the collection asks a pointed question: what separates the legendary from the monstrous, the story we tell ourselves from the truth lurking beneath it?

Steel's prose is precise and atmospheric, conjuring worlds that feel at once ancient and utterly contemporary. Her characters, whether mythological creatures navigating workplace politics or gods adrift in a modern world, are driven by achingly human desires: the hunger for recognition, the weight of legacy, the cost of ambition unchecked. Myths & Monsters marks the arrival of a bold and original storytelling voice, one that finds new darkness in old stories and new meaning in the shadows we've always been afraid to examine too closely.