The Cellar Below the Cellar by Ivy Grimes is a new novella from Violet Lichen, an imprint of Apex Books with a focus on the literary, the weird, and ecological fiction. It was released March 25, 2026, and the publishers were kind enough to send me a copy for review. There may be minor spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution!
The novella draws inspiration from the Russian fairy tale, Vasilisa the Beautiful, and brings in elements of horror and near-future climate fiction. While Jane is back home, visiting the grandmother who raised her, a powerful solar storm fries the grid and brings on a kind of quiet apocalypse. Jane, her grandmother, and their neighbors are stranded in their remote community, surrounded by the woods and cut off from the rest of the world. Jane’s grandmother assumes a leadership role, sharing her knowledge of purifying water and suggesting a pooling of resources. Their neighbors seem to simultaneously fear and respect her, a sentiment Jane shares as she knows there are things her grandmother isn’t telling her, specifically concerning the cellar below the cellar, a place under the house that Jane has never visited, which her grandmother insists she needs to experience for herself in order to understand.
As the small group settles into a routine of sharing food, chores, and adapting to a new reality, Jane uncovers more and more strange goings-on. Her grandmother gifts her a doll left to her by her mother that displays uncanny abilities and she learns that the one of her least favorite neighbors’ sons may have murdered his brother when they were children. It’s increasingly clear to her that her grandmother is keeping secrets from her, leaving her with the sense that everyone around her, including the young girl named Mary who her grandmother takes in, knows more than she does.
There are some lovely, evocative descriptions, especially in the opening when the solar storm first hits, and the story is nicely grounded by the day to day activities the neighbors undertake in order to survive, along with way the community members interact with each other.
One could make the argument that The Cellar Below the Cellar falls into the realm of cozy horror. While there are dark happenings and some creepy moments, the primary focus is on the community rebuilding and on Jane coming to terms with her family heritage, gaining confidence in herself, and better understanding her place in the world. On a similar note, the theme of healing, and finding peace and balance, echo across the novella – both in terms of a character finding her own inner peace, and in the larger sense as the community heals after the solar storms and finds a new balance and a way forward.
