Everett Rice lives in isolation with her mother, Margot, who refuses to discuss their family history. Driven by a need for connection, Margot flees to her mother’s hometown of Fairchild, Nebraska, to find the grandmother she has never met. She discovers a decaying farm where the soil is scorched and the townspeople are hostile. As she unearths her lineage, she finds physical duplicates of herself buried in the fields and learns that her grandmother, Gram, maintains a cycle of supernatural replacement to preserve the family line.
Readers of body horror and rural gothic fiction choose this title for its focus on biological autonomy and toxic inheritance. It appeals to those interested in how physical trauma passes through generations. The story provides a stark look at the limits of maternal love and the terror of being tethered to a family’s monstrous past. A reader finishes the book with a dark understanding of how individuals struggle to claim their own identities when their literal foundations are built on inherited violence.
Escapist; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Escapist Adventurer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2020
- Language
- EN
