The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste

Whispers of the Story

One night a small community disappeared into darkness. All the people from the Velkwood neighbourhood vanished into a dark mist. No one can come out, if they are still alive, and nobody can go in. There are only three survivors: Talitha, her best friend Brett, and another friend Grace, who left for university the evening before the event.

For twenty years the dark mist is still there. Scientists, occultists, everyone and anyone had many theories but no one ever managed to enter. In all that time, only Grace went inside and managed to get out again.

One day Talitha is approached by a man. He has funds to do research and wants to pay her to enter the dark mist. Allured by a photograph, or maybe by the mist itself, Talitha goes in hoping to see her sister.

But once she enters, things change. The mist grows, she is reunited with friends, neighbours, and her sister. Brett and Grace join Talitha and together they discover how to put an end to it all.

Just a small spoiler: they were guilty, they paid too big of a price, and in the end they needed to redeem themselves.  

Review of The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste 

This is another hidden gem I found on Goodreads by complete accident. And honestly? It’s bloody brilliant. You have horror, intrigue, love, revenge, drama, loss, and a dark secret all wrapped up in less than 250 pages. The plot is built so cleverly that every page adds more intrigue. Whatever you think you know or suspect, Gwendolyn Kiste will twist it away and laugh whilst doing it.

The story is told from Talitha’s point of view and we only know as much as she knows. We discover information exactly when she does. One night a whole neighbourhood is swallowed by a dark mist. Everyone who stayed vanished. Nobody knows if they are dead or not. No one could go in or out, not even equipment like drones. Talitha, Brett, and Grace left for university the evening before, so they are the only survivors.

For twenty years, the three of them deal with survival guilt in very different ways. Talitha drifts through life, not making anything of herself. Brett refuses to let the loss bring her down. She builds a good career, gets married, lives in luxury, gets divorced, and does it all over again. Grace is the only one brave (or mad) enough to go back into the mist to see her family and her fiancé. She managed to get out, but since then she lives as a recluse. Nobody knows what the mist is. Scientists studied it for years, documentary after documentary was made, but it just stayed there. Waiting.

The Mystery Unfolds (And My Theories Fall Apart)

Talitha is haunted by the fact that she left her sister behind. As the story goes on, you start to feel there is more to it, that something happened between them that Talitha isn’t telling us. When she finally enters the mist, she sees the ghosts of her neighbours and her mother, all living in a time loop, repeating their last day over and over. Only her sister seems to recognise her, but she acts like Talitha just has come home from the university, and doesn’t see her as a mature woman. Why? I don’t know

Now I was thinking, definitely some Stephen King vibes. Some energy line that created an electromagnetic field or something scientific like that. I was convinced. Time flows differently inside the mist. Talitha is gone for weeks but for her it feels like half an hour. Every time she comes out, the mist is growing. See? Electromagnetic stuff. Obviously.

But then Talitha meets a childhood friend who was always different. She could bring dead animals back to life. Creepy, but useful. Then you find out that this friend technically died and Talitha and the others might have accidentally brought her back. But she is not exactly alive either, and she has done something. Now I’m thinking, forget the electromagnetic nonsense, this is plain classic supernatural horror. She is a witch, she created the whole situation, and the people inside are definitely dead.

Except then Talitha manages to get her sister out of the mist. I was gobsmacked. She is not a ghost? What on earth is happening?

Brett shows up but refuses to go inside. Until she does, of course. And that’s when I found out the big secret. Talitha and Brett were in love with each other. People in their tight knit community knew but frowned upon it. They were told to stay away from each other. Actually, people in the community noticed a lot of things but chose to stay silent about all of it.

Their not quite dead ghost friend tells them something is wrong. The people inside are getting restless, but she doesn’t know why. All she knows is that all three women need to come back together. Talitha and Brett go to find Grace, who has been haunted by a shadow ever since she escaped the mist. My new theory? The mist is from another dimension. I’m grasping at straws here, honestly.

Grace agrees to go back, not to save anyone, but because she wants to be home with her family and her fiancé. She never really lived without them, never really wanted to. So all three women enter the mist together. But there is one more thing we didn’t know. Brett was abused throughout her childhood, and everyone in that tight knit community pretended not to see. On the last night before the three girls left for university, they did the unthinkable. They stood up to Brett’s stepfather.

Now inside the mist, the girls have to relive those final moments before they ran. They have to face the monster, Brett’s stepfather, one more time. But this time the community doesn’t turn away. This time they fight back.

What Actually Happened? (Spoiler: I Still Don’t Fully Know)

So what happened? Their friend who was basically stuck between worlds created the mist to help the girls escape, whilst at the same time trapping the entire community out of revenge. Talitha might or might not have superpowers. The mist was something like a spell combined with an electromagnetic field, or a dimensional portal, or honestly whatever your imagination can conjure. The beauty of this book is that it never tells you exactly what it is.

I really didn’t mean to spoil almost the entire plot, but I wanted to show you how many times this book made me change my mind. Every time I thought I understood what was happening, there was another twist. Nothing is stated outright. You are just gently directed towards ideas, and sometimes it takes a while to click. Everything is suggested, nothing is confirmed. I still don’t know for sure if Talitha has special powers, what that mist actually was, or where everyone vanished to. And that ambiguity is absolutely brilliant.

The story has a happy ending. Talitha and Brett are finally together, Talitha doesn’t feel guilty anymore, Grace stays with her fiancé in that other world, and the people redeem themselves. Sure, some innocent children died in this revenge, and some adults were absolved from being complicit in abuse. It is messy and complicated and morally grey, just like real life.

Final Thoughts

I absolutely loved this story. The plot and the characters were so real that I read this novel in just a day. It has been some time since a book has surprised me so many times in less than 250 pages. Gwendolyn Kiste knows how to keep you guessing, how to twist expectations, and how to write characters that feel completely human even in the most supernatural circumstances.

If you love horror that makes you think, mysteries that keep you guessing until the very end, and stories about complicated women with dark secrets, this is your book. The haunting is not just the mist. It is the guilt, the secrets, and the things we cannot forgive ourselves for.

Rating: 10 out of 10. A perfectly crafted haunting that will stay with you long after you finish the last page.

Happy reading!