Praise for The Darkness Greeted Her:
The Darkness Greeted Her is a perfect Gothic horror, where trauma has a physical form and it's hunting girls. Rich with queer and mental health rep, Ferko's love letter to survivors is beautifully written from start to finish, and I can't recommend it enough! — Jamison Shea, author of Roar of the Lambs
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A metaphor for coping with mental health issues and trauma,
this book reads like a hair-raising horror film.
—KIRKUS
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Hand to fans of Courtney Gould's What the Woods Took. ...The Shadow Man works well as both a metaphor and an actual threat, trapping girls in surreal depictions of their own trauma...
—BOOKLIST
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A chilling premise and strong character work...The forest setting adds an atmospheric layer, delivering eerie, unsettling moments that linger.
—SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
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THE DARKNESS GREETED HER
Coming February 3, 2026
Available for preorder at:
Use promocode 'Midnight25' and get 25% off the preorder at B&N
Amazon
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*Preorder signed copies at my local indie bookstore Park Books!*
The Honeys meets Yellowjackets in this atmospheric sapphic horror debut about a group of troubled teens who find themselves stalked through the Appalachian wilderness by a creature that feeds on their deepest traumas.
​​​In this atmospheric sapphic horror, a troubled teen is sent to a remote therapy camp in the Appalachian wilderness, where she must unravel a mystery of deadly occurrences as she battles harmful visions of her abusive father, sinister motives, and a lurking monster.
Penny's abusive father is dead…but she still hears his voice in her head, encouraging her to hurt those around her. She can't go to school or be around her friends or even draw with a sharp pencil without her intrusive thoughts urging her toward violence. Desperate to get a handle on her OCD, she agrees to spend the summer at Camp Whitewood⎼an exclusive therapy retreat in the woods.
She feels optimistic when she arrives. The other girls all have their reasons for being there, which makes Penny feel a little less alone. But then she starts seeing things that can't possibly be there: the gold watch her father was buried with, his favorite whiskey spilled on her cabin floor...a terrifying figure she calls the Shadow Man looming at the foot of her bed. Penny thinks she is losing her mind, but when a girl goes missing, and is later found dead, it's clear that whatever is happening at Camp Whitewood isn't all in her head.
As the hallucinations become increasingly intense and more girls wind up dead, Penny must work with whoever is left standing to figure out what is real before the Shadow Man uses their traumas against them and claims their lives.
