SMOTHERMOSS BY ALISA ALERING

“Equal parts gruesome and gorgeous and otherworldly.”The New York Times Book Review

This beautifully strange book of the mountains is alarming and inspiring.”Samantha Hunt, author ofThe Unwritten Book

A haunting, imaginative, and twisting tale of two sisters and the menacing, unexplained forces that threaten them and their rural mountain community.

In 1980s Appalachia, sisters Sheila and Angie couldnt be more different. While their mother works long shifts at the nearby asylum, Sheila cares for their home and keeps to herself, even when enduring relentless bullying. Her fearless younger sister, Angie, is more focused on fighting imaginary zombies and creating tarot-like cards that seem to have minds of their own. When the brutal murder of two female hikers on the nearby Appalachian Trail stuns their small community, the sisters find themselves tangled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Angie discovers a ripped, blood-soaked shirt; money Sheilas been stashing away disappears; and a strange man tries to barter with a womans watch at a local store. As the threat of violence looms larger, the mysterious, ancient mountain they live onand their willingness to trust each othermight be the only things that can save these sisters from the darkness consuming their home.

In turns both terrifying and otherworldly, author Alisa Alering opens the door to the hidden world ofSmothermossa mountain that sighs, monsters made of ink, rabbits dead and alive, and ropes that wont come undone. Unsettling, propulsive, and wonderfully atmospheric, Alerings stunning debut novel renegotiates what is seen and unseen, what is real and what is haunted.

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