The Decadence: An unnerving novel of summer debauchery
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'Lush, complex, and close to the bone, The Decadence filled me with horror in the best way'
Krystelle Bamford, author of Idle Grounds
'A triumph of the queer gothic'
Jane Flett, author of Freakslaw
'Lush, sinister and blackly funny'
Kate Collins, author of A Good House for Children
At the height of lockdown, six friends make an illicit break for freedom. They're determined to enjoy their summer at Holt House, even if that means ignoring the deep fractures in their group.
Jan is secretly sleeping with Nadya, whose boyfriend, Theo - ever the gracious host - just wants everyone to get high. Kara and Luke can't stop fighting, and Jan's ex-lover, Ursie, feels out of place among their excess and privilege.
As tempers flare and old wounds reopen, their friendship begins to strain - politics, racism, antisemitism, sex and lies. And with drugs and desires blurring in the shadows of the house, a more ominous force threatens to ruin their trip...
'The Decadence is both a deeply unnerving read and a sly commentary on the skeletons in Britain's closet'
Victoria Gosling, author of Bliss & Blunder
'Thought-provoking, terrifying and startlingly intelligent'
Alice Ash, author of Paradise Block
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Praise for The Decadence
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A clever, contemporary take on the classic "haunted house" story ... The Decadence is incredibly unsettling, yet undeniably seductive and surprising at every turn
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Thought-provoking, terrifying and startlingly intelligent, this is a novel of horrors that hide in the shadows and those that exist rawly in daylight for all to see
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An unflinching look at the destructive allure of belonging and the perils of abandoning oneself to achieve it. You may never find your way back
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Sequestered in a pressure cooker of hedonistic excess, the horror creeps in insidiously - from the first tendrils of unease to the final horrible denouement. This is a triumph of the queer gothic
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Lush, complex, and close to the bone, The Decadence filled me with horror in the best way - the horror of a classic haunted house tale, but also the horror of your twenties, with all its dead-ends, debauchery, self-doubt, and longing
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The Decadence's group of late twenty-somethings bicker, seethe and hard party their way through a genuinely creepy and evocative contemporary ghost story which weaves together queerness, lockdown flouting, and the malevolent inheritances of history with deftness and aplomb. Leon Craig has a keen eye for observation and a very dark and distinctive imagination and this novel intrigues and unsettles
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Layered, observant, and genre-bending, The Decadence is darkly funny and aware of the complexities of modern friendship in relation to class and politics and the present moment in our shared history
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Seeking a reprieve from the drudgery of the COVID pandemic, a group of twentysomethings sneak into an isolated medieval manor for a week of debauchery, only to find themselves very much not alone. As old wounds are reopened and friendships pushed to the breaking point, Holt House draws the revellers deeper into its hateful history, gradually exposing their darkest selves. A drug-fuelled cross between The Decameron and The Haunting of Hill House, The Decadence is Craig at her unsettling, gothic best
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