Darling

This Southern Gothic cautionary tale captures the small-town suspense of Ashley Winstead's Midnight is the Darkest Hour and the frightening homecoming of T. Kingfisher's A House with Good Bones in a domestic thriller where magic surrealism meets haunted house, proving that some pasts are best left behind you.

Darling has its demons.

Cherry LaRouche escaped the claws of Darling, Louisiana at sixteen. When she returns after her mother's death, Cherry and her children are forced into a nightmare where evil spreads like infection and the house itself demands her bones.

While Cherry tries to separate fact from fantasy, the locals discover the bodies of several murdered children. When Cherry's own daughter goes missing, she's forced to face everything she had fled from and confront the true monsters of Darling.

From Mercedes M. Yardley, three-time Bram Stoker Award winner for Little Dead Red, Love is a Crematorium, and "Fracture," comes a stunning revised edition of Darling. This Southern Gothic tour de force is the first novel in the interconnected world of The Hunger Garden, where demons and delights both await you.

Author: Mercedes M. Yardley
Publisher: Ruadan Books
Published: 09/08/2026
Pages: 592
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.60lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 1.40d
ISBN13: 9781968143114
ISBN10: 1968143114
BISAC Categories:
- Fiction | Fantasy | Dark Fantasy
- Fiction | Horror | Occult & Supernatural
- Fiction | Gothic

About the Author

Mercedes M. Yardley is a whimsical dark fantasist who wears red lipstick and poisonous flowers in her hair. She is the author of numerous works, including Darling, the Stabby Award-winning Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love, Pretty Little Dead Girls, Detritus in Love, and Nameless. She is a three-time Bram Stoker Award winner for Little Dead Red, Love is a Crematorium, and "Fracture." Mercedes lives and works in Las Vegas. You can find her at mercedesmyardley.com.