The Cellar Below the Cellar
A Folk Horror Novella
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Mar 25, 2026
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- $12.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A playfully dark folk horror inspired by the fairy tale "Vasilisa the Beautiful" and the mythology around Frau Perchta, set under the blazing sky of endless auroras.
When a wild solar storm wipes out all electronics and traps Jane at her grandmother's house in the woods, she is forced to start a new life off-grid as part of a small, isolated community.
However, there is something very strange about her new neighbors, and the longer she lives under the eerie glow of the auroras, the more she feels her grandmother may be hiding unsettling secrets.
To have any hope in her new world, Jane must find the courage to step into her power and claim her identity, but that would mean facing whatever hides in the cellar below the cellar—a place that seems to be waiting for her.
Full of delightfully weird surprises and off-kilter characters, this adult coming-of-age story explores themes of female empowerment, spirituality, identity, and community. For fans of Kelly Link, Karen Russell, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Leonora Carrington.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The world ends in an eerie neon glow in this wonderfully weird fairy tale from Grimes (Glass Stories). An inexplicable solar storm wipes out the electric grid and strands narrator Jane at her grandmother's remote cabin in the woods under a series of blazing auroras. Girded by practical folk wisdom, Grandma is quick to adapt to this new world order, banding with her handful of far-flung neighbors (most of whom suspect her of witchcraft) to pool skills and resources, while Jane wallows in fear and confusion. Still, she reluctantly follows Grandma's instructions, however nonsensical they seem. The one thing she won't do is visit the cellar below the cellar, a mysterious subterranean space that, Jane assumes, contains horrors she dare not even imagine. Grandma insists that only through visiting this subcellar will Jane finally be ready to embrace her destiny. This central metaphor feels elastic and expansive even after the truth of the eponymous space is revealed. Grimes conjures a world that is simultaneously vast, mysterious, and fully lived in, replete with idiosyncratic folk horror elements including sentient dolls, a little girl with uncanny abilities, and a traveling pastor who captures demons in bottles. Meanwhile, Jane's fretful but matter-of-fact narration of increasingly enchanted circumstances adds humor. Kelly Link fans won't want to miss this.
