Review: The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw

cover of The Library at HelleboreThe Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw
Tor Nightfire (July 22, 2025)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)

I FREAKIN LOVE THIS BOOK! I can’t believe I’ve waited so long to read Cassandra Khaw. I have 3 other books of theirs on my shelves and I don’t know why I kept skipping over them.

Welcome to The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted — the “premiere academy for the dangerously Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.” DONE. SOLD. TAKE MY MONEY. Here we meet Aleesa — she’s been kidnapped and forced to go to Hellebore but is told this is a place where she will find acceptance and a “normal life” after graduation. However, on graduation day, the faculty decides to eat the class. One must be sacrificed every night or everyone will be killed. There can only be one survivor. Or can there?Continue Reading

Review: The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

cover of The Salt Grows HeavyThe Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
Tor Nightfire (May 2023)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Cassandra Khaw is known for their evocative prose, intensely dark and stunning worlds, masterful acts blending genres and lines of reality and fiction, and humans and monsters. In their fantasy-horror novella, The Salt Grows Heavy, a mermaid’s daughters unleash death upon the kingdom. Bodies line the streets, stacked in towering piles. They’ve gorged themselves on townspeople.Continue Reading

Review: Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

cover of Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra KhawNothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw
Tor Nightfire (October 19th, 2021)
128 pages; $19.99 hardback; $10.99 e-book
Reviewed by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann

It’s one of the most beloved horror tropes: A group of friends travels to an abandoned building rumored to be haunted. The friends are either going to film a documentary, or just see what happens when they attempt to spend the night.

Horror ensues.Continue Reading