Smothermoss

by Alisa Alering Narrated by Susan Bennett

Overview

In 1980s Appalachia, sisters Sheila and Angie couldn't 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 Sheila's been stashing away disappears; and a strange man tries to barter with a woman's watch at a local store. As the threat of violence looms larger, the mysterious, ancient mountain they live on-and their willingness to trust each other-might 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 of Smothermoss-a mountain that sighs, monsters made of ink, rabbits dead and alive, and ropes that won't come undone. Unsettling, propulsive, and wonderfully atmospheric, Alering's stunning debut novel renegotiates what is seen and unseen, what is real and what is haunted.

“Tense and absorbing ... an original story from a truly gifted storyteller.”-Karen Joy Fowler

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Bristles with dark magic. . . . equal parts gruesome and gorgeous and otherworldly. Smothermoss is a compulsive journey through a wild, unknowable landscape and the wilder hearts of young girls trying to understand themselves, and find their way to each other."— The New York Times Book Review

"Surreal, thrilling. . . . Moody, potent, and tinged with the occult, Smothermoss is unlike anything I’ve read in a long time."— Bustle, A Best Book of Summer

"For those obsessed with Appalachian lore comes a hauntingly atmospheric tale toeing the line of a twisted fairy tale. Centered on two sisters growing up in 1980s Appalachia, this novel is a gothic and propulsive read that will dazzle you from start to finish."— Barnes & Noble, A Most Anticipated Debut of 2024

"Atmospheric. . . . one part fairy tale, one part thriller. . . . a compelling debut that glimmers with the lights of the forest as it unwinds its tale."— Kirkus Reviews

"Evocative."— Publishers Weekly

"Alisa Alering’s alluring novel Smothermoss enters the bloodstream of Appalachian storytelling like a fevered dream, unraveling the intergenerational tales of women living on the edge. . . . a glorious Southern Gothic novel that celebrates women’s innate, powerful magic."— Foreword Reviews, starred review

"Stunning. . . . It starts with a vicious death and then spirals into a supernatural tale filled with pitch-perfect tension and atmosphere."— Debutiful

"A Southern gothic fairy tale. . . . The story carries you away, with brief chapters and high stakes, each scene building in tension and a sense of wonder, surprising you with the direction these sisters’ future may take."— Book Page

"Astounding. . . . The descriptive imagery of the natural world calls to mind a more sinister version of Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting, while the peculiar, mystical events draw comparisons to an earthbound Alice in Wonderland."— Southern Review of Books Southern Review of Books

"Alering is a poet in prose, an alchemist with a pen, and Smothermoss delights and terrifies."— Shelf Awareness

"Unique. . . A cult novel in the best possible way."— Reactor

"Spooky and otherworldly, this debut novel will have you feeling unsettled in the best way possible."— Purewow, A Best Book of July

"Outstanding. . . . I remain awed by Alering’s impressive ability to create something so unique, so evocative, and certainly without contemporary comparison. Don’t miss this rural literary explosion that resonates long after the final page is turned."— Locus

"A twisted fairy tale and an original coming-of-age story."— Virtuoso Magazine

"Hauntingly eerie."— Southern Bookseller Review

"Lush and deliciously witchy … feels like pages from a spell book."— Compulsive Reader

"[Alering] lyrically evokes a mysterious landscape as splendid as it is diabolical in this stunning debut novel."— The Arizona Daily Star

"This beautifully strange book of the mountains is alarming and inspiring. Alisa Alering’s Smothermoss goes fearlessly toward realities dismantled by violence, and the weird, wonderful world of the woods."— Samantha Hunt, author of The Unwritten Book

"At the heart of this story are two sisters, the mountain on which they live, and the persistent question as to which is more perilous, the natural world or the unnatural.  Beautifully written, tense and absorbing, Smothermoss is an original story from a truly gifted storyteller."— Karen Joy Fowler, author of Booth

"Smothermoss is rich, strange, and beautiful, simultaneously eerie and so very honest. An exciting first novel."— Kij Johnson, author of The Privilege of the Happy Ending: Small, Medium, and Large Stories

"Unnerving and beautifully weird."— Claire Fuller, author of The Memory of Animals

"Smothermoss is written in kudzu, an all-consuming triumph of southern gothic, where the words creep into your consciousness and squeeze."— Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother

"Smothermoss is unsettling, intricately strange, and sweet as decay. Angie and Sheila are utterly real, trapped in humid adolescence in the shadow of a mountain who guards her secrets jealously. I loved this trek into Gothic Appalachia."— Verity M Holloway, author of The Others of Edenwell

"Smothermoss is a brave and beautifully executed novel. Utterly mesmerising."— Kate Hamer, author of The Girl in the Red Coat

"A coming-of-age tale set in a world where the realm of the imagination meets stark, brutal reality and the wonders of nature merge with the uncanny. A highly accomplished, beautiful read."— A. J. Elwood, author of The Cottingley Cuckoo

"Many strange, slippery things draw together in these pages, and at the heart of them lies the complex, surprising relationship of two sisters and the mountain they call home: home, with all the good and bad that entails. Smothermoss has magic; I read it in one sitting."— Aliya Whiteley, author of From the Neck Up and Other Stories

"Smothermoss is an essential read for fans of Appalachian horror. Alisa's writing is rich and vibrant when capturing the dark themes in this heart-wrenching story of survival and love. Don't miss this one!"— V Castro, author of Immortal Pleasures and The Haunting of Alejandra

"Bewitching and beguiling, Smothermoss is a gorgeously haunting fairytale, written so evocatively you'll swear you can smell the humid foliage, hear the whirring insects, and feel the snap of twigs underfoot as you tread deeper and deeper into the nightmare."— Nat Cassidy, author of Nestlings and Mary: An Awakening of Terror

Kirkus Reviews

2024-05-17
A murder on the Appalachian Trail draws two sisters deeper into the mystery of their mountain home.

Sheila and Angie are growing up in a ramshackle house at the top of a “long, rutted lane,” where their extreme poverty singles them out even in the generally impoverished environs of 1980s Appalachia. Along with their mother, Bonnie, and an elderly relative, Thena, the girls scrape by, making due with meat from the rabbits they raise in the yard, vegetables from their garden, and the wild bounty of the mountain to whose side they cling. As if the realities of their lives weren’t difficult enough, both girls are also afflicted with elements of mountain magic that make them seem even stranger. Twelve-year-old Angie—a fierce girl whose daydreams all feature guerrilla warfare against invading Dolph Lundgren–lookalike Russians—always carries a pack of index cards on which she’s drawn arcane characters like the Dustman, The Twins With Too Many Teeth, and Tangle of Rabbits. She uses the cards for divination and protection, but sometimes the cards seem to use her, choosing for themselves where they will be dealt. Seventeen-year-old Sheila, who’s far more traumatized by their isolation, holds herself apart from the rest of the family, intent on guarding her twin secrets: her love for her classmate Juanita and the invisible rope that has been thickening around her neck since childhood. When two women hiking the Appalachian Trail are beaten to death in their tent only two ridges from the girls’ home, the whole mountain community—and indeed the mountain itself—is galvanized by the rabid brutality. Each in her own way, Sheila and Angie set out to resolve the wrongness that has entered their world in the murderer’s wake. A dense, atmospheric novel whose setting operates as fully as any of its characters, Alering’s debut is one part fairy tale, one part thriller, and one part ethnography of an area that endures in our mythopoetic memories even as it vanishes from the face of the land.

A compelling debut that glimmers with the lights of the forest as it unwinds its tale.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940191539829
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	07/16/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

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