Praise & Reviews
What writers, reviewers, booksellers, and readers are saying about St. Ulphia’s Dead.
Advance Praise
“St. Ulphia’s Dead is as propulsive as it is exquisitely written, and unlike any other love story I’ve ever encountered. A wild, unexpected, and darkly comic ride, highly recommended to anybody with a beating heart.”
— Peter Orner, author of The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter“A sociomedical mystery and ontological adventure bristling with satiric energy, dramatic irony, and romance. Provocative to think about, and great fun to read.”
— Jennifer duBois, author of The Last Language“Begins as a mystery and turns into a provocation, asking us to question our most fundamental moral assumptions. Daring, inventive, and transgressive, it is also romantic—and deeply joyful.”
— Olga Zilberbourg, author of Like Water and Other Stories“Energetic, surprising and full, St. Ulphia’s Dead brims with humour and invention. A wonderful debut.”
— Oisín Fagan, author of Eden’s Shore“In this ingenious novel, nothing is as it appears, including the mere fact of existence. A delightful and wildly inventive debut!”
— Laurie Ann Doyle, author of World Gone Missing“Dark, satirical, and markedly original, St. Ulphia’s Dead shines a fiery light on the mysteries of human relationships and the politics of scientific research.”
— Aaron Tillman, author of Lucy Miles’ Photogenic Mind“Both a rollicking adventure and a subtle meditation on mental illness, St. Ulphia’s Dead is seriously hysterical.”
— Yance Wyatt, author of The WatersmithReviews & Recognition
Review by Christine Perkins,
Cascadia Daily News
“There is dark humor, a bit of mystery, an undercurrent of existential horror. Readers who revel in reading about absurd situations … will be rewarded with this ambitious, entertaining debut.”
Review by Christina Boyd
“Lambridis blends absurd humor with meditations on trauma, mortality, and human connection, creating a novel in which certainty dissolves beneath the reader’s feet.”
Review by Rochelle Robinson
“From page one, Lambridis paints a vivid community that modern science cannot touch.”
Recommended for Book Clubs
Selected as a recommended title by Reading Group Choices, with discussion questions exploring love and death, psychosis, cultural belief, ambiguity, observation, and whether the novel is ultimately a ghost story.
Interviews & Profiles
Author Interview
Scott discusses the culture-bound disorders that inspired the novel, the tension between scientific explanation and lived experience, and the deeper question beneath its horror elements: what could lead someone to believe the impossible?
Profile in the Cascadia Daily News
A profile of Scott’s project to read a book from every country, the ways that journey expanded his sense of storytelling, and the literary life that led to St. Ulphia’s Dead.
Author Interview with Regal House Publishing
Scott discusses writing beyond what he knows, how neurobiology shaped the novel’s questions about consciousness and belief, developing characters through contradiction, and fiction’s power to move and enchant.
From Readers
Readers are finding different paths into St. Ulphia’s Dead: its central relationship, its unresolved mystery, its dark comedy, its island atmosphere, and the questions it leaves behind.
“It feels like if Annihilation and Scooby-Doo got trapped in a philosophy department together and somehow developed real feelings.”
— Get Your Tinsel in a Tangle · Amazon“The sinister feeling of wrong doesn’t end when the book does, and it’s up to the reader to make sense of it.”
— Sonia Tudorache · Goodreads“The mystery was good, but the commentary on life, death, and freedom was what made me rate this so highly.”
— Cinnbun5 · Amazon“A sort of psycho-drama about two neurotic people struggling to find a way to breach the walls in their head to connect.”
— Reader in the UKRead or Leave a Review
Reviews help other readers decide whether St. Ulphia’s Dead might be a book for them.
Go Deeper
Watch author videos, experience the live reading, and explore book-club resources.