Make Me Better, Sarah Gailey
Make Me Better, Sarah Gailey
List: $32.99 | Sale: $23.10
Club: $16.49

Make Me Better
A Novel

Author: Sarah Gailey

Narrator: Xe Sands

Unabridged: 13 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/12/2026

Synopsis

Sarah Gailey's MAKE ME BETTER is an eerily seductive look at the desire for community connection and self-improvement—and the darkest places inside us all. Urgent and yet timeless, this listen is perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson, Ari Aster, and Patricia Highsmith.

"...it’s compulsively listenable. That’s thanks in part to [Xe] Sands’s intense narration..." —Vulture on Just Like Home

An exclusive invitation.
A remote island infamous for its miraculous ecology.
A once-in-a-lifetime chance to fix everything that's broken.
But sometimes growth requires sacrifice....

WELCOME TO KINDRED COVE.

Celia is so tired of being alone. All she wants is to have a family—to belong to someone. That's why she's going to Kindred Cove for the annual Salt Festival held by the secluded community that lives there. They promise that healing is possible. They promise that transformation is inevitable. There is no grief at Kindred Cove, because there is no suffering. Nothing is ever lost.

Celia knows that, at that mysterious island surrounded by that impossible, ever-growing reef -- she will find herself.

She’s ready to be healed. She’s ready to be transformed.

She's ready to believe.

"The audiobook narrated by Xe Sands is a genuinely nail-biting listen." —BuzzFeed News on Just Like Home

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

About Sarah Gailey

Sarah Gailey is a Hugo Award and British Fantasy Award winning and bestselling author of speculative fiction, short stories, and essays. Their nonfiction has been published by dozens of venues internationally. Their fiction has been published in over seven different languages. They have written comics for Marvel, EC, and BOOM! Studios, including multiple original series. They are the editor and publisher of Stone Soup and Love Letters: Reasons To Be Alive.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) on February 16, 2026

3.0 Stars This is a familiar cult story that felt very reminiscent of the popular horror movie, Midsommar. This is generally an enjoyable story but it didn't feel particularly new or innovative. I hoped to see this story subvert tropes or surprise but instead it was a very familiar story that I could......more

Goodreads review by Kennedy on March 31, 2026

So we have an island inhabited by a community of people that stays disconnected from the world and rely on only each other. Except for one week of the year when they host “the salt festival” and allow selected applicants to visit and “learn their ways.” The premise of this is great. I always love a c......more

Goodreads review by Emily on April 22, 2026

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey is an atmospheric, wellness retreat based horror story. It becomes clear very early on in the story that the intentional community isolated on an i......more

Goodreads review by Justin on January 20, 2026

I entered into Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey not quite knowing what to expect, as Gailey is one of those authors that surprises me every time and is not one to shy away from taking risks. That unknown turned out as part of the fun. Make Me Better to remind me why I’m always excited to see what......more

Goodreads review by JenJenReads on May 01, 2026

This is my bread and butter!!!! Make Me Better is creepy, immersive, and completely addictive. A remote island. A cult-like community. A promise to “fix” everything broken in you. I was ALL IN. Kindred Cove, the Salt Festival, the reef, the unsettling sense of belonging…I loved every piece of it. And......more

Quotes

"With a gloriously creepy atmosphere, unreliable narrators on every page, and a story that will hurt in the best way possible, this is absolutely Gailey at their finest." -- Katee Robert, New York Times bestselling author of the Dark Olympus series

"Emotionally arresting, deliciously provocative, impossible to predict, MAKE ME BETTER is a singular novel by a singular artist. I loved it. Sarah Gailey--your mind!" -- Courtney Summers, New York Times bestselling author of Sadie

"Make Me Better is a hypnotic tide pool of a novel, a habitat of horror teeming with all types of taxonomies of folkish frights. It is a dizzying display of unwell wellness, encrusted in the brine of belief systems unfamiliar and curdled, that sucks you right in and never lets you up for air." -- Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

"Gailey does impressive work .....Readers are sure to be unsettled."— Publishers Weekly

Praise for Sarah Gailey

“Gailey is one of those rare writers who jumps from genre to genre with virtuosic ease.” —Emily C. Hughes, Vulture

“Sarah Gailey knows how to build the heck out of a world. Cooked right, science fiction and murder mysteries taste great together, and Gailey layers those ingredients together with a chef's kiss.” –NPR

"Sarah Gailey has adroitly woven suspense into science fiction and fantasy... I love a thriller that engages with the current true-crime craze, especially when it calls out us readers for our morbid fascination."—Paste, on Just Like Home

“Gailey’s Just Like Home represents … the ultimate kindness of horror, where we’re often allowed a chance to see outcasts find love and acceptance amidst the blood and viscera.”
―CrimeReads

“The Echo Wife puts a fresh sci-fi twist to a well-worn dramatic story about the cheating husband.”—Cosmopolitan

“Sarah Gailey’s The Echo Wife is a creepily personal rendition of what happens when a man in your life wishes you were a doll instead….It’s gross, and totally engrossing.” —Wired

Fans of Big Little Lies, The Island, Frankenstein and Killing Eve will love this gripping, skillfully told firecracker of a book.-- Bookpage on The Echo Wife

"For those familiar with Gailey's work, expect this one to offer familiar pleasures and some new surprises. And for those who aren't, well, get ready." —Entertainment Weekly, on The Echo Wife

“Gailey has done it again, creating an utterly unique sci-fi thriller. Equal parts unsettling and unputdownable, readers will cringe as they tear through this eerie tale, unable to look away from the ethical monstrosity that is The Echo Wife.” –The Nerd Daily

“Somehow [Spread Me] is both terrifying and tantalizing... the true gift here, though, is Gailey's character work—[these fully-realized individuals] truly feel alive.”—Chuck Wendig, New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers

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