Temple Fall - by R L Boyle (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A macabre and chilling supernatural gothic horror about a group of teenagers cursed to die on their 18th birthday from the Stoker Award shortlisted author of The Book of the Baku. Perfect for fans of Clay McLeod Chapman, The September House by Carissa Orlando and The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes.

Flynn and her friends plan to spend the night in Temple Fall, a mysterious house up on the moors with a strange history, but their planned night of drinking and teenage debauchery twists into a surreal nightmare. Suddenly forced into strange choices and places, the tight-knit group starts to fall apart. And then Jackson falls to his death.

In the days that come after, Flynn finds herself trapped, as if she never left the house. Consumed by the lost secrets of her family past, and haunted by the spectre of a Victorian woman, she finds herself losing time and seeing things that aren't there.

Reeling from the tragedy, Flynn must rebuild her group of friends, and bring them all together to grieve - and try to survive - on their own. Because while they escaped Temple Fall, the house didn't let them go...

Review Quotes

The parched halls of Temple Fall feed off the reader like the best modern haunted houses out there, making this black-as-pitch book a worthy addition to your bookshelves alongside the likes of David Mitchel's Slade House and Marcus Kliewer's We Used to Live Here.
--Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

A clever, mind-bending, frankly terrifying haunted house mystery, Temple Fall will delight fans of Mike Flanagan's TV infestations ... It serves up delicious scares and sinister, hallucinatory set pieces, but it's the emotional truth at the center of it that's going to haunt readers the longest: there's nothing in life perhaps more frightening than those fleeting, burning years when you stop being a child but you are not an adult yet, and the future feels like a black maw ready to eat you up.
--Andrea Morstabilini, author of A Blood as Bright as the Moon

Like any great haunted house, Temple Fall is mysterious and labyrinthine, offering fresh surprises and terrors at every turn. The perfect read for a stormy night in a strange place.
--Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters

Dark, persistent and unnerving, Temple Fall is an entrancing ghost story that gets under the skin with creeping dread. The reader is taken on a spectacularly twisted journey where generational trauma, disturbing histories and emotional scars have all left deep and terrible wounds. This is Picnic at Hanging Rock meets The Haunting of Hill House. I was absolutely bewitched!
-- Heather Davey, author of The Ghosts of Merry Hall

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK OF THE BAKU

Eerie, tense and relentlessly inventive, The Book of the Baku haunts and delights in equal measure.
- J. S. Barnes, author of Dracula's Child and The City of Dr Moreau

The Book of the Baku quickly hooks the reader with its compelling protagonist: a boy without a voice, caught in a web of dark mysteries stretching into his past and future. R.L. Boyle paints a convincing portrait of a teenager growing up special in an indifferent world full of flawed adults, and also reminds us of the importance of the stories we tell, not just to others, but to ourselves. A dark tale with a big heart, and a masterful debut.
- Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters

An unsettling blend of dark social realism and surreal nightmarish images, RL Boyle's YA supernatural fantasy calls to mind Issa López's 2019 film Tigers Are Not Afraid. And the Baku - a dark dream deity, drawing from a deep well of botanical and body horror as it manifests its way into the waking world - is such an impressively scary creation!
- Ally Wilkes, author of All the White Spaces

An engrossing read about a mythical creature that devours nightmares . . . but they sometimes come back to haunt you. An inventive use of Japanese lore with a few surprises in store for the reader.
- A. J. Elwood, author of The Cottingley Cuckoo

The Book of the Baku is one of my favourite books from 2021. It's a tense horror, combining fantasy with reality, exploring the impact of grief and guilt on men and women of all ages.
- British Fantasy Society

Rich characterisation and a deeply woven plot make The Book of the Baku frighteningly original whilst feeling oddly familiar. One of the brightest debuts of 2021.
- Bloody Flicks

One of the YA novels of the year ... The Book of the Baku was one of the bravest and most impressive YA horror novels I have read in a good while. RL Boyle should now be on the radar of anybody with an interest in YA horror.
- Gingernuts of Horror

This is horror at its finest..Clever, moving, and deftly told, I would highly recommend this book. I can't wait to see what R.L. Boyle does next. -- Fantasy Hive

This book has the brilliance of The Babadook with the charm of Stranger Things. I highly recommend it.
- Grimdark Magazine

One of the most emotionally affecting books I've ever read. I've seen the book being compared to A Monster Calls, and that's an incredibly apt comparison. I can see the people who loved that book loving this one, and it deserves to be as loved, recognised, and awarded as it was. The Book of Baku is not only the best book I've read this year, but perhaps one of the best I've ever read, and it needs to be read by everyone.
- Trans-Scribe

"An absolute triumph in the world of horror stories ... Readers of any genre will enjoy this absolutely splendid story. Packed full of heartfelt family love and deeply ingrained horror." -- Emerald Archer

Definitely a must-read for any fans of horror.
- Little Bird Book Blog

This book has a loud and resonant heart in the shape of Sean, the bravest boy I have yet to encounter in the pages of a book...A simply stunning novel, and I cannot say anymore than that as my throat is sore with tears and my words are just not elegant enough to explain.
- Rachel Read It

I devoured this book in just over a day. The Book of the Baku dragged me in and didn't spit me out until it was done with me.
- FanfiAddict Review

RL Boyle has done a superb job of writing a book which is both rooted in mythology and the supernatural but at the same time creating characters with believable human emotions and issues. The imagery used is brilliant... I would highly recommend this to any fans of horror/ thriller books and look forward to reading the authors future material.
-Yorkshire Book Lover

The author has brought [the Baku] to life in an imaginative way, imbuing it with a whole new level of creepy.
- Schizanthus

Chilling ... It is Sean's personality that kept me reading, as grief has followed him and yet even in a place of such horror, he has so much empathy and even extends that empathy to what might be evil. At times I wanted to cry for him and I admired him greatly.
- Coffee Cups and Books

About the Author

R. L. Boyle studied Classical Civilisation at the University of Leeds, after which she worked in a variety of jobs - none of which had anything to do with her degree. Her debut, The Book of The Baku, was shortlisted for a Bram Stoker in 2021, followed by Temple Fall in February 2026.