Thornchapel Books in Order

Thornchapel is Sierra Simone’s queer, kinky, gothic saga about six friends whose lives are bound to an old English estate and the rituals that have taken place there for centuries. If New Camelot is her political fairy tale, Thornchapel is her dark academia myth, full of foggy moors, ruined chapels, and questions about fate, consent, and chosen family.

The series begins with A Lesson in Thorns, where librarian Proserpina “Poe” Markham returns to Thornchapel twelve years after her mother disappeared there. She expects to sort a dusty private library and avoid the estate’s damaged owner, Auden Guest. Instead she is pulled back into a knot of old friends and lovers, including brooding St. Sebastian, sunshine-bright Delphine, devout Becket, and steady Rebecca. Their shared childhood secrets, once half-forgotten, begin to surface alongside a magnetic, taboo web of attraction.

Feast of Sparks shifts into St. Sebastian’s point of view as he struggles with his self-destructive streak, his long-standing guilt toward Auden, and his rekindled obsession with Poe. The trio try to imagine a way they can belong to each other without destroying everything else in their lives, even as Thornchapel itself keeps pushing them toward older, darker patterns. Beltane rituals, graveyard discoveries, and the sense that the land wants something from them all raise the pressure.

In Harvest of Sighs, the focus widens again. Genius Becket and “sunshine girl” Delphine are forced to confront how their childhood rivalry and adult kinks fit into the larger circle’s story. The book deepens the sense that every relationship in this group is both a comfort and a liability, that love here is as much about negotiating guilt and jealousy as it is about pleasure.

Finally, Door of Bruises brings the quartet to its Samhain climax, both literally and metaphorically. The fate of Thornchapel, the villagers around it, and the friends themselves rests on choices that blur the line between ritual sacrifice and adult responsibility. Simone threads together plots about inheritance, trauma, religious upbringing, and kink in a way that feels both operatic and intimate.

This page walks you through the reading order, highlights the major characters and their connections, and points to related material like American Squire, which briefly crosses the New Camelot cast into Thornchapel’s world. If you are in the mood for slow-burn polyamory, elaborate rituals, and a series that asks “what if the manor house is both haunted and horny,” Thornchapel is where to go.