Psychopomp & Circumstance

An NPR Books We Love Pick - A. Library Journal. Best Book of 2025 Pick -. A Locus Magazine. Books We Loved Pick. Shirley Jackson Award-winning author Eden Royce pens a Southern Gothic historical fantasy story of a contentious funeral. "A tale of loss and hope and how the present can give way to new futures. "-Kirkus Reviews. Phee St. Margaret is a daughter of the Reconstruction, born to a family of free Black business owners in New Charleston. Coddled to within an inch of her life by a mother who refuses to let her daughter live a life other than the one she dictates, Phee yearns to demonstrate she's capable of more than simply marrying well. When word arrives that her Aunt Cleo, long estranged from the family, has passed away, Phee risks her mother's wrath to step up and accept the role of pomp-the highly honored duty of planning the funeral service. Traveling alone to the town of Horizon and her aunt's unsettling home, Phee soon discovers that visions and shadows beckon from every reflective surface, and that some secrets transcend the borders of life and death.