Natalie Kikic The Haunting of Lavender House

Natalie Kikić 的《The Haunting of Lavender House》是一本把家族秘密、海岛哥特氛围和克罗地亚民间传说揉得很漂亮的 debut。故事在两条时间线之间交错：2026 年的 Petra 在母亲去世后得知，自己以为早已离世的祖母其实还活着，并独自住在克罗地亚 Tolba 岛上一座被薰衣草田包围的老宅里；而 1895 年的 Magdalena 则是一位被污名为“女巫”的 healer，她试图通过救治 Lavender House 的女主人来挽回名声，却意外爱上了仇家之子。两条线索最终都指向同一个问题：这座宅邸里流传的“mora”诅咒，究竟只是村民的流言，还是真的吞噬了这个家族几代人。

这本书最吸引人的地方在于它没有把哥特恐怖只当作装饰。薰衣草田、亚得里亚海、旧宅、禁忌之恋和家族污名共同构成了一种潮湿而压抑的氛围，而 mora 这一来自克罗地亚民间传说的血灵形象，又让整部小说多了一层文化厚度。它不像传统推理那样依靠复杂诡计取胜，而是靠秘密、记忆和代际创伤一点点推进悬念。Petra 的噩梦、祖母的沉默、Magdalena 被排斥的命运，都在追问同一件事：当一个女人被社会定义为“怪物”时，她还能否选择爱、归属和自我救赎。

书名：The Haunting of Lavender House

作者：Natalie Kikic

简介：A crumbling home surrounded by lavender fields. A decades-long curse. A nightmare from Croatian folklore with a thirst for blood. The Lost Apothecary meets The Hacienda in this multigenerational, haunting gothic saga set on the Adriatic Sea.

2026. All Petra has inherited are tales of loss. Which is why, after her mother’s passing, she is shocked to learn that her grandmother is not dead like she’s always believed, but alive and living on Tolba, a small island in Croatia. Desperate to find her last surviving family member, Petra ventures to her ancestral home, famed for its sprawling lavender fields. While she's happy to be reunited with her grandmother, rarely does a night go by that Petra doesn’t lose herself to vivid nightmares and the dizzying sense that something—or someone—is always watching in Lavender House.

1895. Whore. Sinner. Witch. No matter how many people Magdalena heals, the rumors persist. So, when she’s asked to help the matriarch of Lavender House, she seizes the opportunity to rehabilitate her reputation. As Magdalena races against time to heal the ailing woman, she finds herself unexpectedly falling for the son of her greatest enemy, the man responsible for her ostracization. But are true love and acceptance possible for a woman who has always lived on the margins?

Back in the present, Petra finds it increasingly difficult to ignore the rumors plaguing her family: that a mora, a spirit from Croatian folklore, haunts Lavender House for revenge. Her grandmother says it’s nothing more than gossip made up by jealous townsfolk. But as her nightmares turn darker, invading her waking hours and threatening her newfound romance, she suspects there’s something more sinister lurking beneath the island’s surface. As the sole heir to Lavender House, Petra must discover the truth of her inheritance—or else fall prey to the same curse that claimed her family.

Through the intersecting stories of Petra and Magdalena, Natalie Kikić’s gorgeous debut asks us to consider the lengths to which we go to belong, the cost of choosing love, and what it really means to be a monster.