WE ARE FOR THE DARK: PUB DATE – 9/01/2026ISBN: 9780756400248⬥ Hardcover ⬥
What starts as a missing person investigation morphs into something much darker when an FBI-agent-turned-Catholic-priest and a junior constable arrive on a remote Newfoundland island. Because something evil lurks beneath the island—something ancient, eternal, hungry—and neither it nor the uncanny islanders have any intention of letting these newcomers leave.
Gretchen McNeil established herself as a powerful new voice in adult horror with her 2025 debut, They Fear Not Men in the Woods, a novel we described here at Ginger Nuts of Horror as a “relentless, creepy, and ultimately smart” journey into eco-horror that subverts tired tropes with a brilliantly feminist punch. Now, McNeil is trading the ancient, sentient forests of Washington State for the wind-battered, fog-shrouded cliffs of the North Atlantic. We are thrilled to exclusively reveal the cover for her highly anticipated sophomore effort, We Are For the Dark.
Scheduled for release on September 1st, 2026, via DAW, this new novel sees McNeil diving deeper into the rich folk horror genre she so clearly loves. Where her debut explored the “primal unease” of the wilderness, We Are For the Dark turns its gaze inward, examining the dark coexistence of Catholicism and ancient folklore, a theme the author notes is rooted in her Irish ancestry. The result is a story that feels like the perfect spiritual successor to the cult classic The Wicker Man, blending a missing person investigation with the chilling strangeness of being an outsider in a community that guards secrets older than the Church itself.
What starts as a missing person investigation morphs into something much darker when an FBI-agent-turned-Catholic-priest and a junior constable arrive on a remote Newfoundland island. Because something evil lurks beneath the island—something ancient, eternal, hungry—and neither it nor the uncanny islanders have any intention of letting these newcomers leave.
Gretchen McNeil (They Fear Not Men in the Woods) takes us to another haunting locale in her latest folk horror novel We Are For the Dark–releasing September 1st, 2026.
Combining religious horror with the chilling strangeness of being an outsider in a small town, We Are for the Dark is perfect for fans of The Possession of Alba Díaz and the cult-classic movie The Wicker Man.
When asked about her inspirations, the author writes “I come from an Irish family, an ancestry deeply rooted in both folklore and Catholicism. I’ve always been fascinated by how those two things coexist historically in Ireland, and one of my favorite themes to explore in both my adult and young adult writing is religion as folk horror, an undercurrent on full display in We Are for the Dark.
I also love a creepy, isolated island, a setting that recurs in several of my novels. InWe Are for the Dark, Bale Island represents the ultimate isolation—physically, emotionally, technologically. As the trappings of modern civilisation are stripped away, the line between myth and reality blurs, creating a liminal space where a priest and a police officer are forced to confront the darkness within. For me, this novel is about breaking down the entrenched beliefs of good and evil, and examining how far humans are willing to go to prove their faith.”
Descend into Ancient Evil: Cover Reveal for Gretchen McNeil’s WE ARE FOR THE DARK
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Gretchen McNeil has been a published young adult novelist since 2011 and her novels have been published internationally in over a dozen languages. Ten: Murder Island, the film adaptation of Ten starring China Anne McClain (Descendants 2, Black Lightning) premiered on Lifetime in 2017, and Get Even and Get Dirty have been adapted as the series Get Even and Rebel Cheer Squad: a Get Even series for BBC and Netflix. An adult horror short story she wrote for Assemble Media last year has already been optioned by a major studio. Her first adult novel was They Fear Not Men in the Woods, published by DAW in September 2025. She lives in Los Angeles, California.
Further Reading
A Review of They Fear Not Men in the Woods by Gretchen McNeil, Will You Go Into The Woods Today?
McNeil delivers a relentless, creepy, and ultimately smart novel that celebrates its bold choices. If you’re ready for a story that respects the classics while fiercely carving its own path, you need to step into these woods. Just be prepared for what you might find there. Trust me, there is no teddy bear picnic.
They Fear Not Men in the Woods by Gretchen McNeil’s Gateway to Folk Horror
Tip to tail, Wylding Hall is unsettling, eerie, and askew, leaving me with delicious ambiguities and shudder-inducing moments. I love the tone, the characters, the way the mystery is teased and unfolds, but mostly, I love the way the story is so grounded in the land, as if centuries of history have steeped into it then bubbled up into the present narrative. Suddenly, I began thinking of a story, also inspired by a poem—Kipling’s “The Way Through the Woods”—that would bring the ancient and the modern together with potentially deadly results. Wylding Hall inspired me to explore a new path in my writing, and for that I am eternally grateful.
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