Book Review by Christine Bode

Publishing Information

Title: The Observances: A Human – Infernal Cultural Exchange Initiative Novel
Author: Luna Asli Kolcu
Publisher: Self-Published
Released: September 8, 2026
Pages: 269
ASIN: B0HCRGS2XB
Stars: 4.0

“Hospitality — the one verb in the whole week that had stayed entirely hers.”

The Observances: A Human – Infernal Cultural Exchange Initiative Novel by Luna Asli Kolcu is a slow-burn psychological horror that will squeeze the breath out of you. I was provided with an ARC copy of The Observances by Luna Asli Kolcu in exchange for my honest review. This book will be published on September 8, 2026.

Seven Days That Change Everything

The Observances is the tale of a family in financial hardship. Sophia (44) applies—without telling anyone—to host two representatives of an unknown institution, known as The Human – Infernal Cultural Exchange Initiative. This puts her and her family—husband Rick (45), daughter Charlotte (15) and son Mason (9)—under contract for seven days.

What follows are seven days of questions, observation, and increasingly unsettling uncertainty. A payment arrives before the terms do, and the terms contain the rules of the placement.

From the first line, “Something tightened at the base of her sternum before she had touched it,” we feel a sense of foreboding. When Sophia receives the letter she was expecting, she is already afraid of what it will mean.

Rick lost his job five months ago, and the $12,000 stipend would provide Sophia’s family with much-needed financial relief. But Rick and Charlotte resent Sophia’s decision to apply without discussing it with Rick first.

Before the representatives—the Mediators—arrive, Mason draws a picture of them standing on their porch, and when Sophia asks him how he knows what they look like, he says he can hear them coming, just as he had the night before.

By the time the family reads the rules of their engagement, we know they’re in for so much more than they bargained for. “What is being measured is her attention, and it has been accumulating for a very long time.”

The Quiet Terror of The Observances

The author is brilliant at creating tension and a creeping sense of terror, as well as slight changes in perception. I sense she is an excellent listener. While reading, I can’t help but wait for the jump-scare that ultimately never comes.

However, this story observes how our fears about what might happen can spiral, making a situation far worse than it might otherwise have been. It also observes how even a family unit never really knows each other or what’s in their hearts and minds. And all it takes is one angry, frightened family member to turn everything upside down.

A Fascinating Study of Family and Perception

This fascinating study explores how stressful situations can alter family dynamics. There’s a delicate nuance in the short conversations between the Mediators and Sophia and her family. The story draws our attention to the subtle sounds we hear every day and how familiarity leads us to expect them. It reminds us of what we know about our own home and our own families without ever naming that knowledge, and how we immediately know when something alien is present. It’s also interesting to note where our attention lands as a reader, and how in tune we can be with our senses when we focus on the silence contained between thoughts.

This beautifully written book demands our full attention before we can fully absorb and understand it.

Where the Story Gave Me Pause

There was only one thing about it that kept niggling at me. I’m not a parent, but I am an aunt of five, and a great aunt of three. Mason seems like a very young nine-year-old the way he drags a stuffed brontosaurus with him everywhere and clings to his mother. That’s unusual for a child his age. Perhaps it’s because Sophia treats him like a baby, as she addresses him as “baby.” And yet he’s the old soul of the family and has extrasensory perception that the others don’t possess. He looks at the situation they’re in in a different way than the others.

Additionally, I noticed that there were times when the author did not use the name of a character for many pages, and it sometimes made me have to reread portions of the text to figure out who was saying what. This is a story that requires intense concentration to process fully. Still, it is rewarding, and I highly recommend it, as well as The Hospitality by Luna Asli Kolcu, which I read and reviewed earlier this year. Luna is a tremendously gifted writer, and I look forward to reading more of her work, starting with The Rootbound Bride trilogy.