Emily Cooper

I can’t believe this is a debut. The passion, nuance, and emotional clarity in Season of Fear are staggering—not just in the pacing and story arc, but in the language itself. Cooper’s prose is lyrical and haunting, and I have so many favorite quotes I’ve lost count.

This is a story of finding self and claiming love in all its many and beautiful guises. It’s a NA sapphic romance wrapped in gothic horror, but it’s also a tapestry of relationships: found sisters, mothers and show more daughters, grandmothers and grandchildren, mothers and sons, brothers and sisters, and the communities that form when we learn to accept the ones our loved ones choose to love—including ourselves.

Each relationship is rendered with such care and emotional texture that I couldn’t pick a favorite. Every one made me smile, chuckle, and tear up. Ilse’s journey—from being born without fear in a village that worships it, to risking everything to protect her sister—is a masterclass in character-driven horror. And the slow-burn sapphic romance? Absolutely everything.

This is YA/NA gothic LGBTQ+ horror at its finest. This reads like a true Grimm's Fairy Tale -- the kind that you will not find in a Disney Film. Atmospheric, emotionally resonant, and laced with nightmare fuel, Season of Fear is a story that sinks its claws into you and doesn’t let go. I’m asking Amazon and Goodreads to grant me a sixth star—just for one day—so I can gift it to Cooper for Ilse’s story.

🕯️ Dark forests, sacred fear, and love that defies monsters—Emily Cooper’s debut is a feminist fairytale stitched with horror and heart. For readers who crave lyrical prose, queer longing, and stories that bleed and heal, this one’s unforgettable #gothichorror #yadarkfantasy #NAFantasy #lgbtqfiction #queerfiction #darkfairy #foundfamily #bookstagram and is a #RedReviews4You and #SueShelfReads pick!

Thank You @coloredpagesbt #coloredpagesbooktours @ohdeeremily #emilycooper @thenovl #thenovl and @christyottavianobooks for the ARC of #seasonoffear that I read and having me on #seasonoffeartour This review reflect my own thoughts and is freely given. show less

A very mournful 2.5 stars. Season of Fear was absolutely an anticipated read of the year for me. That gorgeous cover! The concept! The Bavarian forest setting! And when I cracked it open, I found that I really liked Emily Cooper’s writing style. It reminded me of Ava Reid’s writing, with plenty of lush descriptions and cool imagery. But after the first 100 pages or so, Season of Fear drastically switched genres, from folk horror fantasy to straight up romantasy with the faintest tinge of show more horror, and things started to unravel considerably from there.

While the concept of Ilse, a protagonist who can’t feel fear, is really cool, she didn’t make for the best main character because the reader can’t feel fear if the main character can't either. First person narration makes this problem even worse than it would be in third person. Also, while I wanted to love the romance, it just felt like instalove; unearned and purely physical. Unfortunately, I found myself not feeling as attached to any of the characters as I should have, and the bizarre way Ilse kept going back and forth about whether or not her sister counted as being her actual sister or not took all of the wind out of the sails of her character’s motivation. The author needed to plan out the journey of her thought process; instead, it feels like a jumbled mess.

I also felt like the magic system itself was messy. It’s set up like a hard magic system with rules, but then it breaks the rules or changes them at many points throughout the story. It made me feel like I couldn’t trust anything, in a bad way.

Season of Fear did have some good twists that surprised me, but ultimately it had too much going on and couldn’t follow through on them all. In the end it goes out with a whimper rather than a bang. I’d only potentially recommend Season of Fear to readers who like Ava Reid’s style of writing, and also aren’t put off by the issues I mentioned.

For a debut novel that’s a similar fantasy romance with a little horror, I highly recommend A.B. Poranek’s Where the Dark Stands Still as an alternative. show less