Leon Craig for The Decadence

'Lush, complex, and close to the bone, The Decadence filled me with horror in the best way' - Krystelle Bamford, author of Idle Grounds

A gripping queer haunted house novel from the author of Parallel Hells

At the height of lockdown, a group of flailing twenty-something friends makes an illicit break for freedom.

A grand country house stands empty. Once the home of Theo's great uncle, it seems like the perfect place to get high and hang out in the spring sunshine, as they eschew adult responsibilities.

Since meeting as teenagers, rifts have grown amongst the group. Even as they are determined to enjoy themselves, tensions cast shadows between them - politics, sex and lies. The house, too, has its own dark history and exudes a palpable sense of menace.

Where do the drugs end and the supernatural begin? Will anger and jealousy tear the friends apart, or will it be more ominous forces? Their stay at Holt House will change them all...

Leon Craig is a writer from North London. She studied English at UCL, Medieval Literature at Oxford and Creative Writing at Birkbeck. Her writing has been published by the White Review, the TLS, Another Gaze and the London Magazine, among others.