Picking up a Christopher Golden book has become a no-brainer, almost second nature these days. I know what to expect in the form of the style of writing and that I will not be disappointed. So, Carry Me to My Grave was a must-read anyway, but what Golden gives us in his latest novel is a slow-burn, unsettling, and heartfelt horror story filled with dread and I was here for every moment.
Maggie Wise will take your eyes.
When Malcolm was growing up, the local kids made up that chant about his mother, claiming she was a witch. He and his siblings did their best to ignore it. Now, Maggie is dying, and those same siblings have left Malcolm and his sister-in-law Violet to hold a vigil at her bedside.
But they’re not as alone as they think they are. A dark figure waits and watches from beneath the willow tree across the street. Hundreds of miles away, an ancient evil stirs in its burrow under a farmer’s cornfield. Across the country, other buried things begin to dream in anticipation of Maggie’s demise. On her deathbed, the old woman elicits a promise from Malcolm, her youngest child―when she dies, he and Violet must return her body to her birthplace in Shediak, Maine.
From the moment she takes her last breath, before her remains are even loaded aboard the baggage car of the Imperial Limited, there are forces trying to stop Malcolm from fulfilling that promise. Violence erupts on the train, evil preys on its passengers, and once the sun goes down, those long-buried things are coming to make Maggie Wise pay for her past. God help anyone who stands in their way.
Carry Me to My Grave has such a creepy and unsettling opening few chapters when dealing with the passing of Malcom’s mother Maggie. Golden crafts the story in such as way that I vividly can see what is going on around these characters, especially this dark figure that lurks in the willow trees. It was almost as if I didn’t want to read this tale with the lights off, that’s how uneasy it made me feel, in such a good way.
This opening scene or two is something that stayed with me throughout the book, but also as the final page was turned. However, it’s the journey on the train to Maine (my home state) that things got even more uneasy and just as creepy. On this journey we follow many different characters in different situations that all felt extremely fleshed out and were full of a level of complexity I have come to expect from Golden. The confined space of a train in the 1950s that made these characters shine even more.
The story is also full of action and pushing itself forward as the train struts along. There is this evil force behind all of this and as we try and figure out what is behind it all, we are give monsters, and other evil to deal with along the way. This mix of characters and monsters give us a unsettling, violent, and at times complicated story that has you eagerly turning the page, either by shear desire to know what happens, or to run from the previous pages.
Carry Me to My Grave is a slow-burning, eerie, and emotional ride where Christopher Golden expertly balances unsettling atmosphere with brutal horror, and complex characters. A Haunting and deeply unsettling horror journey that stays with you long after the train reaches its destination.
Carry Me to My Grave hits bookstores everywhere on July 21, 2026 from St. Martin’s Press.
