I entered into Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey not quite knowing what to expect, as Gailey is one of those authors that surprises me every time and is not one to shy away from taking risks. That unknown turned out as part of the fun. Make Me Better to remind me why I’m always excited to see what Gailey does next.
Celia is so tired of being alone. All she wants is to have a family―to belong to someone. That’s why she’s going to Kindred Cove for the annual Salt Festival held by the secluded community that lives there. They promise that healing is possible. They promise that transformation is inevitable. There is no grief at Kindred Cove, because there is no suffering. Nothing is ever lost.
Celia knows that, at that mysterious island surrounded by that impossible, ever-growing reef — she will find herself. She’s ready to be healed. She’s ready to be transformed. She’s ready to believe.
I was first introduced to Gailey’s writing with Know Your Station, a comic book miniseries they wrote with artwork from Liana Kangas. There was something about Gailey’s writing that worked so well for me, so of course I would trying out their prose novels and damn did I like Spread Me and because of this I was excited to crack open Make Me Better.
What really made Make Me Better hit hard was how unsettlingly real Gailey makes the manipulation feel.
Now, I am not one to really have any clue what it really feels like to be drawn into a cult, but how Gailey does this is a close as I hopefully get. And it’s not through anything overly sinister, but with warmth and attention, as well as the promising of belonging. It’s the small hits throughout the story that makes us believe the community isn’t exactly what it claims to be and it’s those hits that kept me drawn into the story at hand. On their own, these moments might seem easy to brush off, but that is what makes them all the more dangerous.
It’s these psychological thrillers, or even horror stories, that deal with real world issues such as looking for a place to belong and for a sense of meaning, but in more extreme places. This real world similarities bring a nice emotional weight and makes the horrors even more horrifying.
Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey is a hauntingly immersive and atmospheric story. Gailey blends psychological tension with horror, giving off an unsettling feeling throughout.
Make Me Better hits bookstores everywhere on May 12, 2026 from Tor Books. The audiobook, narrated by Xe Sands, is available for preorder via Libro.fm!
