Their Monstrous Hearts

by Yigit Turhan

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Gothic dark fantasy starring an heir and a mysterious legacy, this unsettling story takes you into the halls of a creepy, crumbling estate and thrives in the unexpected.

The deluxe limited edition with designed sprayed edges is available only on the first printing! This special first edition hardcover will include a gorgeous, shimmering jacket with effects, beautifully illustrated endpapers and sprayed edges.

"A gothic, darkly alluring tale that will leave readers spellbound"—Dua Lipa, Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter

A haunting novel about the boundaries people will cross to keep their dreams alive.

A mysterious stranger shows up at Riccardo’s apartment with some news: his grandmother Perihan has died, and Riccardo has inherited her villa in Milan along with her famed butterfly collection.

The struggling writer is out of options. He’s hoping the change of scenery in Milan will inspire him, and maybe there will be some money to keep him afloat. But Perihan’s house isn’t as opulent as he remembers. The butterflies pinned in their glass cases seem more ominous than artful. Perihan’s group of mysterious old friends is constantly lurking. And there’s something wrong in the greenhouse.

As Riccardo explores the decrepit estate, he stumbles upon Perihan’s diary, which might hold the key to her mysterious death. Or at least give him the inspiration he needs to finish his manuscript.

But he might not survive long enough to write it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780778368274
Publisher:	MIRA Books
Publication date:	04/08/2025
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Yigit Turhan was born in Ankara, Turkey. A lifelong reader, he owes his love of horror to his grandmother and the films she shared with him. He has previously published a horror novel in Turkish. He lives in Milan, Italy, where he holds a C-suite role at a renowned fashion house. This is his English-language debut.

Editorial Reviews

02/03/2025

A classic scenario—the naive heir to a family estate is imperiled by its morbid secret legacy—is the foundation for Turhan’s uneven dark fantasy debut. Twenty-year-old Riccardo is a struggling writer living in Paris when he’s notified that he is the sole inheritor of his estranged grandmother Perihan’s fortune. After relocating to her villa in Milan, he chances upon a lengthy memoir left by Perihan that recounts her transformation over the decades from a poor Turkish immigrant to a popular Milanese socialite. This narrative quickly overtakes the frame story, detailing Perihan’s adoption of a fey foundling from another realm. The child’s magical tears—and his and Perihan’s propagation of butterflies that can miraculously facilitate the rebirth of the dead—are a clue to the terrifying fate Riccardo has been lured to. Turhan relates Perihan’s sprawling memoir in colorful fairy tale fashion, but it so dominates the text that the contemporary story in which it’s embedded seems underdeveloped by comparison. The bumpy narrative eventually culminates in a flashy B-movie ending. Only devoted fans of gothic melodrama need apply. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

This might be the first thing you have read from Yigit Turhan, but it won’t be the last. Yigit weaves a mesmerizing narrative in his debut gothic novel around the enchanting world of magical butterflies, creating a darkly alluring and evocative tale that will leave readers spellbound. He’s a captivating new voice in literature which is exactly where he belongs.” —Dua Lipa, Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter

“Their Monstrous Hearts is a beautiful, yet haunting, story of memories, generations, and sparkling mysteries. The beautiful prose poses important questions of connection throughout one’s life, and the ghosts that hover over us. And like the beating of delicate butterfly wings, one will be transfixed by the mystery that unravels masterfully. There is magic in Turhan’s words.” —Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award-winning author

“Distinct, unsettling, and thoughtful...an impressive debut from Yigit Turhan, a new terrifying voice in horror!”—Johnny Compton, author of THE SPITE HOUSE and DEVILS KILL DEVILS

"Yigit Turhan spreads his wings with this sizzling, intricate debut. His writing is kaleidoscopic, capturing - in vivid detail - the idiosyncrasies of characters and their experiences with family, creativity, and wealth (or the lack thereof). Yet, all-the-while, something dark and ominous simmers beneath the surface, with tension threatening to explode from its cocoon at any given moment. There were butterflies in my stomach as well as on the page."—Jack Edwards, BookTok Influencer

“Their Monstrous Hearts is a take-no-prisoners wild ride! Creepy, cool, and fearless in equal heaping measures! Highly recommended.” —Jonathan Maberry, NY Times bestselling author of NECROTEK and CAVE 13

"A book of enchanted secrets, waiting for you to discover them."—Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award winner, author of A LIGHT MOST HATEFUL

"A dazzling, dark book that rides the lines of fantasy into a blood-soaked horror spectacle. A beautiful story that captures how easily a blessing can turn into a curse. Nostalgic and harrowing, you will never see butterflies the same way again."—Donyae Coles, author of MIDNIGHT ROOMS

“Yigit Turhan is a young and necessary writer who brings beauty into gothic storytelling. His confident new novel unfurls as a dreamy realm, into a garden of secrets, magic, and angels as he invites readers to delve into the enigma of Perihan. While a dark presence lurks in these pages, the novel also resonates as a tribute to Turhan's mother and the women in his life, and the struggles behind surface glamour. It was a lovely privilege to read.”—Douglas Coupland, author of GENERATION X and BINGE

“Turhan has created a fable that is thrilling, beautiful, mysterious and terrifying. Every expectation is turned on its head, in the most imaginative ways possible...sure to keep readers up all night. A fantastic read by a fantastic writer!” —Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of LESS and LESS IS LOST

"I love how the mystery and the magic unfold gradually and unexpectedly, doled out to the reader in exciting scraps. The themes of inheritance and generational trauma are exquisitely-handled and feel bone-real. I was floored by the cinematic explosion of monarch butterflies overtaking the home."—Lisa Taddeo, NY Times bestselling author of THREE WOMEN, ANIMAL, and GHOST LOVER

"With prose as delicate as butterfly wings and a sumptuously gothic heart beating at its core, Yigit Turhan's haunting phantasmagoria drifts into your dreams and nests there." —Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters

From the Publisher

01/01/2025

DEBUT Time has run out for Riccardo, a 20-year-old orphan living off the advance for a book he is unable to even start, let alone deliver to his publisher. Then a stranger knocks on his door, alerting him that the Turkish immigrant grandmother he adored as a child has died rather suddenly and left her Italian villa and cherished butterfly collection to Riccardo. Riccardo goes to Milan, where he finds more questions than answers about his grandmother's life, death, life, and obsession with butterflies. When he stumbles upon a manuscript in her handwriting, labeled "To Riccardo," readers and Riccardo both begin to unravel the mystery. Told in the perspectives of Riccardo and his grandmother, what begins as a slow-burn gothic fable ventures out of its cocoon as a compelling, suspenseful, and lush grimdark fantasy, completing its metamorphosis with one final twist to emerge as an existentially terrifying tale that will put readers through the emotional wringer. VERDICT A solid debut to offer enthusiastically to fans of horror framed by dangerous family secrets, such as Midnight Rooms by Donyae Coles, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Now You're One of Us by Asa Nonami.

Library Journal