Ania Ahlborn is known for her ability to weave some of the most unsettling horror with deep human trauma. I mean, have you read Brother or Seed? The Unseen is perhaps her most innovative to date. With a premise of the unknown, The Unseen takes the reader on a ride where we are discovering what in the actual heck is going on right along with our characters. So, let’s talk about it.
In The Unseen, we meet Isla and Luke Hansen, parents to five children. Isla is still reeling from an emotionally crippling loss and is beside herself with grief, when a small child appears on the forested border of the Hansens’ isolated Colorado property. He is alone and no one else is in sight. The boy is, seemingly, non-verbal and they cannot get any information from him. The couple contact the appropriate authorities to try to find the boy’s parents or any other family but that search also turns up nothing. Isla pushes hard to foster him, despite the social worker’s, and her own husband’s, deep reservations. Luke is very hesitant to push back on the issue since this is the first time since Isla has shown any spark in awhile. Thus, he remains silent. She names him Rowan and the couple end up brining him home with them.
Rowan’s presence seems to breathe new life into Isla. But as he settles in, Luke and their children notice some … very strange things. Creepy and bizarre things that seem to defy reality itself. Things that only happen around Rowan. The tension ratchets up, slowly and bursting with dread as the Hansen family adjusts for their new family member. There is something very wrong with the new child in the house. And what ensues is the stuff of nightmares. What exactly is going on with this kid? Where did he come from? Why is no one looking for him? Ania answers all your questions and more, culminating in one of the most insane and bleak endings I have ever read. But if you have read any of her other novels, we both know it was never gonna be a nice neat finale.
The Unseen is imbued with seeping dread, pooling in the corners of your mind and lingering long after you have put the book down. This book pushes some boundaries. Ania delivers a story that is weird and unpredictable enough to keep the reader invested in what is unfolding on the page. The Unseen feels real, while steadily cranking up the tension, leaving us constantly asking “what is HAPPENING?”. Many of the scenes in this novel made me feel like I was losing my mind. It is uncomfortable. It is shocking. It is unexplainable by all logic. It is what Ania does best.
Another thing Ania also did best in The Unseen, is that she made me care about the characters. Isla, Luke, and each of the five children were so well developed. We see the events unfold from each family member’s point-of-view. I am brave enough to say, Isla was so incredibly frustrating. She had me so angry at her and her actions that I was rolling my eyes at her, often. I fully understand we aren’t supposed to love Isla, but more importantly, we come to understand why she is acting the way she is. If an author can get me to be angry or, alternately, loving a character, then they did their job to the fullest. Flawed and unlikeable characters can be a such huge part of any good book.
The deliberate pacing is where I believe this book shines. The Unseen is a patient novel, revealing information as one would slowly pull back a curtain. The atmosphere of the book is steeped in low-level unease, the type one might feel upon entering a room that is heavy with years of dust and memories. You can’t exactly put your finger on why it feels … wrong. The horror is in the shadows, leaving the reader to guess and ponder until Ania violently shoves us into the light and reveals what is really going on with the Hansen house.
Horror fans, you do not want to miss this one. I was so engrossed in this story, I binge read it in two days. It has stayed with me in shades since then. The ending is decidedly ambiguous, but I am the type of reader who loves that. Thank you so much to Sydney at Gallery Books for sending me a copy for review. You should definitely pick this up when it publishes August 19, 2025 wherever you buy your books!
Ania Ahlborn was born in Ciechanow Poland and has always been drawn to the darker, mysterious, and sometimes morbid sides of life. Her earliest childhood memory is of crawling through a hole in the chain link fence that separated her family home from the large wooded cemetery next door. She’d spend hours among the headstones, breaking up bouquets of silk flowers so that everyone had their equal share. Ania’s novels have been lauded by the likes of Publisher’s Weekly, The New York Daily News, and The New York Times.
Image courtesy of Gallery Books
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