Publishing company Hodder & Stoughton has secured UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) to Japanese Gothic, a new standalone horror novel by Sunday Times bestselling author Kylie Lee Baker, book news company The Bookseller revealed on Wednesday.

Japanese Gothic is slated for release on 16 April 2026.

Assistant editor Kate Norman acquired the rights from Nora Rawn, rights manager at HarperCollins USA. Japanese Gothic follows the success of Baker's horror debut Bat Eater, published in January 2025, which received critical acclaim from figures including Grady Hendrix and Paul Tremblay, as well as praise from the Daily Mail and Financial Times.

Set across dual timelines in an old samurai house, Japanese Gothic blends haunted house horror with Japanese mythology and folklore. Baker described it as a psychological horror inspired by The Last House on Needless Street, calling it her "best work yet."

Norman praised the manuscript as "an intoxicating fever dream of ghosts and blood and psychosis," and expressed her enthusiasm for further building Baker's profile as a rising voice in horror.