Japanese Gothic pairs samurai-era terror with a modern murder mystery, and Polygon has a free excerpt

Kylie Lee Baker is back with another horror release, and this one looks built for readers who like their ghost stories with history, blood, and a strong mystery hook.

Polygon has shared a free sample of Japanese Gothic, Baker’s new novel that moves between two timelines set almost 150 years apart. The book arrives on April 14, and its big idea is simple but very juicy: two people living in the same house, in different eras, may be haunting each other.

That setup follows Baker’s breakout momentum after Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, her 2025 COVID-era serial killer ghost story, was named one of The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2025.

A haunted house across two eras

In Baker’s new novel, one timeline takes place in October 2026. A college student named Lee Turner runs to his father’s home in Japan after killing his roommate, except he cannot remember how it happened or why.

The second timeline is set in October 1877, shortly after the Satsuma Rebellion, the last major uprising of Japan’s samurai class against the Meiji government. In that version of the same house, a samurai named Sen is hiding from imperial soldiers who want her family dead.

Baker told Polygon that the book grew out of two ideas she wanted to combine: a dual-timeline horror story, inspired in part by Chuck Wendig’s The Book of Accidents, and what she called a “mutual haunting.” Instead of one character being haunted by the past, both timelines affect each other. Strange marks, missing objects, and shadowy disturbances are not just echoes, they are active collisions between two lives.

That is a strong hook for readers in Malaysia and across SEA, especially if you already enjoy stories that sit somewhere between J-horror, historical drama, and psychological mystery. There is an obvious crossover appeal here for fans of samurai fiction, anime-adjacent gothic storytelling, and even story-heavy games that love fractured timelines and unreliable memories.

Why 1877 matters

Baker said she chose 1877 because it gave Sen’s side of the story a tense emotional starting point. The samurai dream is already collapsing, and Sen’s family is left dealing with loss, pride, and desperation.

She considered placing the historical storyline before the Meiji Restoration, when samurai still held more power, but decided the aftermath was more interesting. In her version, Sen’s family is clinging to a fading identity, and that makes the conflict feel more personal than political.

That detail matters because it shifts the novel away from broad “samurai legend” territory and into something messier and more human. It is less about romanticising the entire class, and more about one family making dangerous choices while the world changes around them.

Research, female samurai, and a more grounded approach

Baker also told Polygon that she researched daily samurai life to understand how Sen would think, behave, and see herself. One early reference point was The Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, often treated as a guide to samurai ideals.

But her takeaway was that there is no single clean answer to how samurai lived. Even texts like Hagakure come with bias and were shaped by their own historical moment.

On the question of female samurai, Baker noted that onna-musha, women who fought alongside samurai, did exist. At the same time, by the 1860s, women generally were not expected to fight under the more patriarchal norms of the period, even if some still did. Sen is not written as a famous warrior figure in that mold. Instead, her combat role comes from her father bending his own beliefs because her brothers are too young.

That kind of nuance should land well with SEA readers who are increasingly picky about historical fiction that looks cool but also feels researched.

One for Shōgun and horror fans

Baker also shouted out the 2024 adaptation of Shōgun, praising its care and respect for Japanese culture. That alone gives a good clue about the lane Japanese Gothic is aiming for.

For egg.network readers, this looks like one to watch if your taste sits anywhere near Shōgun, modern gothic horror, haunted-house fiction, or Japanese period settings. And if you just want to sample the vibe first, Polygon’s free excerpt gives a proper taste of Lee’s side of the nightmare before you commit.

Source: Polygon