Reston author Ivy Grimes latest book is ‘The Cellar Below the Cellar.'
For anyone who has gone down into a dark, damp cellar with a dirt floor, lit by a fading flashlight beam, it is scary enough. It is a place one feels waited for, with draped cobwebs and skittering sounds while being surrounded by the cloying smell of decay — but a cellar below a cellar is worse.
Reston author Ivy Grimes’ 150-page paperback, released in March 2026 by indie publisher Violet Lichen, is titled just that: “The Cellar Below the Cellar.” The book received a starred review from Publishers Weekly: “Grimes conjures a world that is simultaneously vast, mysterious, and fully lived in, replete with idiosyncratic folk horror elements.”
The novella is a survival story with Russian fairy-tale roots and Baba Yaga, transplanted into a story about a Carrington Event-style solar flare and community survival, Grimes said in an interview with The Connection.
“I took the fairy tale ‘Vasilisa the Beautiful’ and did a modern‑day spin,” Grimes said. “It’s a horror story,
but it’s not terrifying. It’s just a little dark.”
Grimes, a former law school and creative writing student, blends magic in a contemporary survival setting with hope and community resilience. Grimes said she planned the ending and the character’s journey from the start, noting that the horror would appeal to audiences 13 and older, given its quirky, speculative fiction. With memorable set pieces like the “demon jars” and the eventual reveal of the cellar below, it is a book for teens to adults to read outside on a bright summer day and finish in an afternoon.
Grimes is originally from Birmingham, Alabama, and has an MFA from the University of Alabama. Her stories have appeared in The Baffler, Vastarien, Hex, Maudlin House, Ergot, Potomac Review and elsewhere. She is the author of the collections “Glass Stories” (Grimscribe Press) and “The Ghosts of Blaubart Mansion” (Cemetery Gates).
Printed in paperback and available as an ebook, the cover of “The Cellar Below the Cellar” hints at the dark mystery within: a striking black design with pink-purple typography and an eerie cabin image by Jack Hillside.
Order directly from the publisher at VioletLichen.com. Readers can find “The Cellar Below the Cellar” at major retailers, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org. Visit https://www.apexbookcompany.com/products/the-cellar-below-the-cellar to learn more about the book and read recent reviews.