The Doloriad
The Doloriad is a 2022 debut novel by English writer Missouri Williams. It blends horror and science fiction in a bleak, post-apocalyptic world. A matriarch leads a small, isolated family—her brother, known as The Uncle, and her children, including the twins Dolores and her unnamed brother. They live in a crumbling shelter, struggling to survive under the Matriarch’s strict rules, strange rituals, and occasional violence.
Dolores, who has no legs, grows curious about what lies beyond their home. The Matriarch sends her on a journey to find other survivors. As Dolores travels, the story uses flashbacks to show how the family came to be under the Matriarch’s control and hints at a pre-disaster life in Eastern Europe. Dolores discovers evidence that there are more stable communities, and that the Matriarch’s explanations aren’t entirely true. This fuels conflict within the family, especially as Pa—the Matriarch’s son and the twins’ father—becomes resentful and violent.
The ending leaves the family’s fate open, but Dolores’s journey offers a potential new path for them. The Doloriad is praised for its lyrical, dense prose and its blend of horror, feminist themes, and speculative fiction. Williams drew on her own experiences with temporal lobe seizures to shape the book’s style. It won the Republic of Consciousness Prize in 2022, appeared on End-of-Year lists in the Sunday Times and Vulture, and was shortlisted for a First Novel Award at Virginia Commonwealth University. Publication details: 240 pages, 2022, UK publisher Dead Ink Books and US publisher MCD x FSG, Language English, ISBN 9780374605094.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:41 (CET).