Clara’s Verdict
Second volumes are where trilogies traditionally sag, mere connective tissue between a striking opening and a grand finale. Eldritch refuses the assignment. The sequel to Anathema, and the middle book of Keri Lake’s The Eating Woods trilogy, it is darker, stranger and more emotionally serious than what came before, a gothic dark fantasy that treats its 23 hours as room to deepen rather than an excuse to pad. The atmosphere is the star turn: a mortal world going cold and hungry, a curse moving like plague, and two leads bound together while the story conspires to pull them apart.
Fair warning before you commit. This is a long, unhurried, deliberately grim listen with mature content, and the publisher supplies a complete content list for good reason. It is also very much a middle book, one that assumes you know the first. Meet it on those terms and it rewards you handsomely; wander in cold and it will feel like the dark half of somebody else’s dream.
About the Audiobook
An eldritch magic has awakened, and the mortal world is turning darker, colder and famished. Flesh-eating monsters roam, a sinister curse spreads like a plague, and whatever last glimmer of humanity survived in Foxglove Parish has long since faded. For Maevyth and Zevander, the only chance of escape runs through The Eating Woods, but fate has woven a new web, and crossing the mystical boundary into Aethyria proves anything but simple.
Two clocks tick beneath the plot. As the bones of Maevyth’s past are unearthed and old truths unravel with unsettling clarity, the possibility that she may never leave Mortasia hardens towards certainty. Zevander’s predicament is crueller still: deprived of the vivicantem he needs, he is slipping towards madness, unless those chasing shadows belong to something real, a wretched evil closing in to drag him into the darkest corners of his own mind. This time, Maevyth may not have the power to save him. As the second act of The Eating Woods trilogy, the book widens the world while narrowing the stakes to these two, folding a distinctive magic system, a slow-burn romance and a genuine thread of horror into one plot-heavy, atmospheric whole.
The Narration
James Cassidy narrates the full 23 hours and 12 minutes, and stamina is only the first line of the job description. Gothic fantasy lives or dies on atmosphere, and Cassidy is willing to sit in the dark with this material, letting the dread gather rather than sprinting for the next revelation. The story asks him to hold two registers at once, the intimacy of a slow-burn romance and the creeping wrongness of a cursed world, and the performance keeps both threads taut across a very long runtime.
A listen on this scale demands pacing discipline above all, and the measured delivery here suits a plot that surrenders its secrets gradually. My advice is to treat it as a fortnight’s immersion rather than a weekend binge. The length is a gift for listeners who want to live inside a world for a while, and a fair warning for anyone after a quick fix.
What Readers Say
The average stands at 4.4 stars from 14 ratings, and the enthusiasm runs notably hot. One listener admitted going in wary after the planned duology stretched into a trilogy, and came away entirely reassured, describing a bold, assured follow-up with striking emotional precision, though they found Zevander’s backstory as uncomfortable as it was fascinating and firmly advise checking the trigger warnings before starting.
A four-star response found it darker and more emotionally intricate than its predecessor, and thought it the stronger for it: where the first book laid careful groundwork, this one rips that groundwork up and grows something pricklier and richer in its place, with Zevander’s gradually revealed history lifting the book well clear of generic dark fantasy. The most breathless comment came from a listener who declared themselves emotionally wrecked in the best possible way, rated it a contender for their book of the year, and confessed to dreading the wait for the third volume after that ending, melting entirely at Zevander claiming Maevyth as his ‘moon witch’. The pattern across the feedback is plain: the darkness is the point, and those who came for darkness left delighted.
Who Should Listen?
This one is for adult listeners who take their fantasy gothic, their romance slow-burning and their horror atmospheric rather than cheap. Anyone who finished Anathema should continue here, ideally before memories of the first book fade, because Eldritch builds directly on those foundations; newcomers should begin the trilogy at the start rather than at its centre. The mature content and heavy themes are structural rather than decorative, so consult the content guidance if you have sensitivities, and look elsewhere if you prefer your fantasy sunlit and swift. For everyone who relishes a long, consuming descent, these 23 hours are handsomely spent.
Ready to brave the woods again? Listen to Eldritch free with an Audible trial and follow Maevyth and Zevander into the dark.
