DEMON SONG
Kelsea’s second horror novella will be published by Titan Books on September 30, 2025! Learn more about the book, read the article on The Bookseller, or add it on Goodreads!
An eerie and unsettling gothic horror about the heady and hungry price of fame, drawing on Chinese mythology. Perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson and Cassandra Khaw.
Places like this have a history. Desires. And this one is famished.
Megan and her mom are on the run after narrowly escaping the clutches of an abusive man who dragged them from Portland to Beijing. With few options, Megan’s mom turns to an old friend who offers them room and board in Huihuang Opera Theater in exchange for cleaning the ancient building.
Between her rusty Mandarin and constant reminders that she’s an outsider, Megan struggles with loneliness—until she meets Kristy, the glamorous young lead in the operatic adaptation of “The Monkey King and the White Bone Demon”. Soon, Megan’s free time is split between reading a battered copy of the Chinese classic that inspired the opera and her budding new friendship; Kristy’s love of singing brings out Megan’s long-buried ambitions.
But the opera house has its secrets. There are passages within the walls that shouldn’t be there, and the more Megan delves into that old book, the more the myths begin to bleed into real life. As Megan finds it increasingly difficult to separate reality from folklore, she must uncover a decades-old mystery to discover the true, horrifying secret of the opera house before it casts its hungry eyes on her.
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MORE to come!
“Utterly addicting and an immediate new obsession. This is the kind of story that consumes you more and more with each page and I couldn’t get enough of this darkly gothic, sharp-edged tale of wicked bargains, alluring demons, and desperate longing.”
—CG Drews, NYT Bestselling author of Don’t Let The Forest In
“Demon Song is a fast-paced exploration of the power of performance and the cost of desire by the queen of thrilling murder mysteries, twisty red herrings, and complex mother-daughter relationships.”
—Ai Jiang, Ignyte, Bram Stoker, and Nebula Award-winning author of Linghun and A Palace Near the Wind
"Magical and forlorn. Yu deftly blends the fantastical imagery of a classic tale with a modern story of having to grow up too fast, joining elegant theater with familial cycles of pain. Demon Song makes your heart ache right to the end."
—Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth
"Demon Song reaches such a high note, a blissful blend of Chinese folklore and Shirley Jackson, reading like The Haunting of Hill's Opera House, where phantoms flit on pitches no living organism can continue to read sanely."
—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes
"An appetizingly dark Gothic served dripping in mood and laced with Chinese mythology. Yu's love of theatre sings throughout this musical nightmare."
—Eden Royce, Bram Stoker-nominated author of Hollow Tongue
“Demon Song spreads its lovely darkness through the eerie passageways of an aged Beijing opera house, the perfect setting for its many charms: The horror rises like an aria, the evil is enchanting behind its mask, and Kelsea Yu’s haunting prose moves like music to its skin-crawling conclusion. If House of Leaves absorbed the best of 1960s Asian horror films and classic weird fiction into its hallways, this poisonous novella could be the marrow of such a strange architecture.”
—Michael Wehunt, author of The October Film Haunt and Greener Pastures
“A Chinese theatre horror with themes of intergenerational trauma and marginalisation delivered in haunting, lyrical prose, Kelsea Yu’s Demon Song resounds with originality and flair. Featuring a historic tale which blends seamlessly into the contemporary narrative like a traditional zhiguai, Yu’s white bone spirit beguiles and terrifies. A startling new voice in Asian horror, Yu will undoubtedly feature on future award lists.”
—Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author and editor of Black Cranes and Tortured Willows
“Demon Song is a Phantom of the Opera for the decaying and mysterious Beijing Opera House, with Megan—displaced from her Portland home, and wary about her new living situation—caught in its glamorous web. Yu's uncanny debut deals concisely with friendship, domestic violence, and her protagonist's budding (demi)sexuality, without ever losing the unearthly touch of the ancient world behind the curtain.”
—Ally Wilkes, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of All the White Spaces
“Characters to sink into and a gorgeous setting, this modern Gothic fantasy touched on the soul of so many of my favourite classics, but stands unique through the mesmerizing use of folklore and excellent unfolding of mystery right up to the end.”
—Alex Woodroe, author of Whisperwood and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated Editor-in-Chief at Tenebrous Press
“A haunting story that’ll please fans of Black Swan and Suspiria, but with a distinctly Chinese folklore hue. It dances right up to phantasmagoric while still commanding a captive audience.”
—Matt Blairstone, Shirley Jackson Award-nominated Publisher at Tenebrous Press
STORMRAVEN
Kelsea’s debut adult novel, a modern gothic horror, will be published by Gallery Books / Simon & Schuster (US) & Titan Books (UK) on March 24, 2026! Learn more about the book or add it on Goodreads!
Mexican Gothic meets Get Out with this Rebecca-inspired gothic horror rooted in Chinese American history, as a gifted artist uncovers a haunted mansion’s chilling secrets that threaten to make her dream life a living nightmare.
Mixed media fine art photographer Lydia Chen dreams of gaining fame and fortune, even as she’s forced to do odd jobs to pay the bills—like running a gothic portrait photo booth for Seattle’s elite during a lavish charity event. But fate intervenes when she wins the event raffle for a once-in-a-lifetime retreat to Stormraven, a 19th-century estate owned by the Vandermeer family on a private island off Washington’s coast. There, she meets Henry Vandermeer, the enigmatic young scion of his clan. Charmed by Henry and drawn to his beautiful estate, Lydia joins his mysterious family and moves into Stormraven.
With her sudden change in fortune, Lydia leaves behind the daily grind to chase her artistic aspirations, settling into seemingly idyllic surroundings. But with each passing day, ominous nightmares come to the fore, as Lydia catches glimpses throughout the property of a ghostly woman who eerily resembles herself. The more she investigates the mansion’s chilling secrets, the more she feels her sanity slipping under the weight of its emerging terrors. For Lydia soon discovers she is not the first to be trapped in Stormraven’s hallowed halls—and if she fails to unearth its rotten truth, her new home may soon become her eternal prison….
TITAN BOOKS
More to come!
IT’S ONLY A GAME
Kelsea’s Children’s Book Council Award-winning debut novel, a young adult thriller published through Bloomsbury, is AVAILABLE NOW!! Learn more about the book here or see below for links to order the book and add it on Goodreads!
In this twisty, fast-paced YA thriller, a dangerous game becomes all too real when Marina and her friends are framed for murder.
When Marina Chan ran from her old life, she brought nothing with her-not even her real name. Now she lives in fear of her past being discovered. But when her online gaming team is offered a tour of their favorite game company, Marina can't resist accepting, even though she knows it might put her fake identity at risk.
Then the creator of the game is murdered during their tour. The killer plans to frame Marina and her friends for the murder unless they win four rounds of a dangerous game. A game that requires them to lie, trespass, and steal. A game that could destroy everything Marina's worked so hard to build…. A game that she might not survive.
This pulse-pounding YA thriller is perfect for fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and Slay.
Winner: Children’s Book Council 2025 Young Adult Favorites Award!
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"A twisty, heart-pounding story of betrayal, buried secrets and a hidden past unraveling as a high-stakes and deadly game seeps into reality. Kelsea Yu deftly weaves in the exploration of found family, love, and the Asian diaspora experience between layers of action, suspense, and revelations in this propulsive thriller.”
—Amélie Wen Zhao, New York Times bestselling author of the Song of the Last Kingdom duology
“Kelsea Yu's gripping debut combines pulse-pounding, life or death stakes with fully-realized characters, an immersive setting, and the sweet, life-sustaining bonds of found family. Not to be missed!”
—Kit Frick, author of I Killed Zoe Spanos and The Reunion
“Yu anchors this whirlwind debut with a smart, courageous, loyal, and caring heroine who easily earns the trust of friends and readers alike.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
“More than a by-the-numbers thriller, this layered debut has propulsive momentum with effective cliffhangers and twists threaded throughout.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Flashbacks from Marina's secluded past with her mother provide clues to the present situation, although any such clues are no match in complexity for Yu's plot twists and turns.”
—Booklist
“A page-turning thrill ride…Verdict: Unputdownable.”
—School Library Journal
BOUND FEET
Kelsea’s Shirley Jackson Award-Nominated novella is published as part of Sadie Hartmann’s My Dark Library series through Cemetery Gates Media. AVAILABLE NOW!! Learn more about the book here or or see below for links to order the book and add it on Goodreads!
On the night of the Hungry Ghost Moon, when spirits can briefly return to the living world, Jodi Wu and her best friend sneak into Portland’s Chinese Garden and Ghost Museum. Kneeling before the pond where Jodi’s toddler drowned one year before, they leave food offerings and burn joss paper—and Jodi prays that Ella’s ghost will return for the night.
To distract Jodi from her grief, the two friends tell each other ghost stories as they explore the museum. They stop at the main display, a centuries-old pair of lotus slippers belonging to a woman whose toes were broken and bound during childhood. While reading the woman’s story, Jodi hears her daughter’s voice.
As Jodi desperately searches the garden, it becomes apparent that Ella isn’t the only ghost they’ve awakened. Something ancient with a slow, shuffling step lurks in the shadows…
This haunting, modern gothic novella is perfect for fans of Nothing But Blackened Teeth and Crossroads.
Finalist: 2022 Shirley Jackson Award!
“Kelsea Yu’s Bound Feet about a mother’s fearlessness, where she reaches into darkness in hopes of grasping light, is a novella carefully plotted and executed without losing realism, heart, or voice of the story. Yu juxtaposes the ancient with the modern, an eerie and jarring inter-section of the past and present that makes everything more uncanny. Yu shows us how loss, grief, and the act of mourning might change you and drive you, taking your mind and body to places you would overwise refuse to enter. A beautiful piece about haunting ghosts who only want their stories told, rather than hidden away, un-finished, untruthful—of friendship, betrayal, lies, and a sisterhood between the living and the dead.”
—Ai Jiang, author of Linghun
“Utilizing graceful twists and turns, Bound Feet tackles grief and rage passed down through generations. Yu reminds us that the need for not only justice but truth outlives the body.”
—J.A.W. McCarthy, author of Sometimes We’re Cruel and Other Stories
“Haunted by the specters of unimaginable loss, Kelsea Yu’s Bound Feet unearths the ways in which past and present can be bound together by the hungry ghosts of violence and betrayal. A story that demands to be heard in more ways than one, the rich reversals and revelations will keep readers on their toes until the very end of this exciting debut.”
—Gordon B. White, author of As Summer’s Mask Slips and Rookfield
ABOUT KELSEA
Kelsea Yu is the author of Bound Feet, It’s Only a Game, Demon Song, and nearly two dozen short stories and essays. Full bio here or press kit below.
Photo ©Katy Weaver
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SHORT STORIES
Kelsea has short stories published or forthcoming in various anthologies and magazines.
NONFICTION
Kelsea has nonfiction pieces forthcoming or published in various magazines and newsletters.
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Feel free to reach out to Kelsea through the contact page.