Fleeing their troubled home in the dark of night, Riley and her brother Oliver head for Nowhere. Once the playground of a former movie star, the abandoned ranch called Nowhere serves as a haven for runaways.
The freedom they crave could be there.
But the mysterious clan there guard Nowhere’s dark secrets. The scorched ground holds in the ghosts of the past. While Riley and Oliver may have finally escaped the devil they knew, another darker evil lurks in the burnt shell of Nowhere.
Something which asks a terrible price for sanctuary …
Why we’re excited about this book:
A new horror novel from Catriona Ward is a great reason to celebrate the genre. The author of The Last House on Needless Street, The Girl from Rawblood, Sundial, Little Eve, and Looking Glass Sound, Ward’s short fiction has graced the pages of such publications Unsung Stories, Phantoms, and Dark and Stormy Nights among others. With her latest, Ward plunges siblings on the run from a terrible situation at home to a sanctuary that proves to be far more evil than they could have imagined. A.J. Finn (The Woman in the Window) says: “Catriona Ward’s instant classic Nowhere Burning is gorgeous, dangerous, mythic and horrific. Here the embers of long-ago fires still smolder, and a girl and her brother lead readers into an abandoned ranch unlike anyplace you’ve ever visited in a book. This unforgettable novel evokes Stephen King and fairy tales, but it’s very much an original―a story for anyone who likes to marvel at a remarkable storyteller in full flower.”, and Lauren Beukes (The Shining Girls) says: “Fiercely original, full of malice and wild empathy. Ward is so damn good and always, always surprising. Every sentence is a barbed and glittering thread weaving through pop culture obsessions; the glamorous movie star recluse, the feral kid cult, the wounded true crime documentary makers, to reveal the dread secrets that lie hidden in the mountains and human hearts.”
Forthcoming from Tor Nightfire 24 February 2026, Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA