Solace House
'The Secret History meets The Haunting of Hill House'
Published on 7. May 2026
Book
Hardback
512 pages
978-1-80546-458-7 (ISBN)
Description
THE WILDEST TRIP YOU'LL TAKE THIS SUMMER...
'Whoa. I think I just read my favourite book of the year. Maybe ever'
'Utterly brilliant, a genre-defying masterpiece'
'A future classic...it's mind-blowing'
IN THE SUMMER OF 1993, broke student Alex Lane joins a team clearing out Solace House, a Victorian mansion bequeathed to the university by a reclusive hoarder called Flayne. The other students are a mixed bunch, but Alex quickly falls into a close friendship with the lively, redheaded Ella.
When the crew begins sorting through piles of junk, they stumble upon Flayne's journals, in which he details his obsession with his missing mother, his discovery of a place called Bewise, and - most mysteriously - his belief in another realm lying parallel to ours, along with coded instructions as to how it might be reached.
As the students delve deeper into the house's secrets, one of them becomes obsessed with deciphering Flayne's strange opus and its promise of another world... and they may be willing to sacrifice everything, and everyone, to get there.
'Whoa. I think I just read my favourite book of the year. Maybe ever'
'Utterly brilliant, a genre-defying masterpiece'
'A future classic...it's mind-blowing'
IN THE SUMMER OF 1993, broke student Alex Lane joins a team clearing out Solace House, a Victorian mansion bequeathed to the university by a reclusive hoarder called Flayne. The other students are a mixed bunch, but Alex quickly falls into a close friendship with the lively, redheaded Ella.
When the crew begins sorting through piles of junk, they stumble upon Flayne's journals, in which he details his obsession with his missing mother, his discovery of a place called Bewise, and - most mysteriously - his belief in another realm lying parallel to ours, along with coded instructions as to how it might be reached.
As the students delve deeper into the house's secrets, one of them becomes obsessed with deciphering Flayne's strange opus and its promise of another world... and they may be willing to sacrifice everything, and everyone, to get there.
Reviews / Votes
An immensely fun brew of magic, mystery and mushrooms... If this stuff is your jam, you'll love it * Guardian * A heady collision of gothic horror and campus novel... Unsettling, cerebral and deeply addictive. * The i Paper * I adored it. The Secret History meets The Haunting of Hill House... A beautifully crafted book - rich, thoughtful, terrifying. I can't wait for people to read it * Nicholas Binge, author of Dissolution * Precise, masterful and electric, Solace House sets the gold standard for contemporary speculative fiction... A triumphant mystery that will keep you gripped right to the very last page * Rebecca Ferrier, author of the Salt Bind * Solace House is a sprawling, mind-bending, immersive mansion of a novel... This is a definite must read... and must re-read * Cailean Steed, author of Home * An instant classic... It's the most gripping book I've read for months * Alison Rumfitt, author of Brainwyms * There are moments of intense revelation in Solace House so vivid that I can still see them. This strange, surprising house is a hallucinatory delight * Aliya Whiteley, author of Skyward Inn * Intensely eerie, characters you care about all the way through, twists and turns that take it into thriller territory until it turns into full-on cosmic horror... It kept me guessing until the very end * James Alistair Henry, author of Pagans * Delightfully sinister... The best part is that you'll not realize you are lost until it's far too late to escape * Hiron Ennes, author of The Works of Vermin * A delight... A wonderful sense of creeping dread, but the characters twinkle and pop off the page * Adam S. Leslie, author of Lost in the Garden * There is something inhabited about Maclean's books - a total commitment to the horror and the humour, the beauty and the beastliness. Solace House is a haunted house story as full of hope as it is terror. It's as if David Nicholls' Sweet Sorrow and David Mitchell's Slade House had a grotesque offspring that's perpetually off its face on magic mushrooms. * Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of Almost Life *More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Laminated cover
Dimensions
Height: 238 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
738 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80546-458-7 (9781805464587)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
05/2026
Atlantic Books
€13.99
Available for download
Person
Will Maclean is a screenwriter who has worked worked with people as varied as Alexander Armstrong, Miranda Hart, Al Murray and Tracey Ullman. His first novel, The Apparition Phase, was shortlisted for The McKitterick Prize. He lives in London with his wife and young daughter.