Heidi Sopinka has created a piece of art and it is glorious. Utopia takes the Gothic genre and births something completely unique – forget abandoned castles, the harsh desert can be equally terrifying, where the sun peels away your flesh and being alone is safer than being with the people closest to you. Utopia is like if Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca were set in the glamorous art scene in 1970s California, and you’ll be left wondering why this genius mashup has never been made before.

Paz has all she could ask for. She’s just married Billy, a successful and handsome artist with whom she shares a beautiful house, and she’s on the rise too, about to become just as successful in her own art. But Paz is haunted by Billy’s ex-wife Romy, who died after falling off a building. Billy and Romy were the dream couple, loved by everybody and as passionate about each other as they were about their art. Because Billy remarried Paz so quickly after Romy’s death, Paz has never felt welcomed by Billy’s friends. ‘She stole Romy’s life,’ they say. Even Paz can’t seem to wholly deny it, as she sleeps in Romy’s bed, wears Romy’s jewellery and wedding dress, and looks after Romy’s child.

When Paz suddenly receives postcards penned in Romy’s handwriting, she falls into a labyrinth of fear and doubt at the thought of Romy being alive – and wanting revenge. As she reads through Romy’s diaries – each entry drawing her closer to the day of Romy’s death – Paz won’t stop until she discovers the truth. That is, if she lives or stays sane for long enough.

Utopia is a jeremiad of the disintegration of the human mind, an excavation of the jealousies and obsessions between women, and an analysis of the worlds – in art and in life – that are ruled by men.