The Unmothers: A Novel

by Leslie J. Anderson Narrated by Chelsea Stephens

Overview

In this emotionally raw and propulsive folk horror-mystery, a journalist goes to a small town and unravels a dark secret that the women have been keeping for generations.

Marshall is still trying to put the pieces together after the death of her husband. After she is involved in a terrible accident, her editor sends her to the small, backwards town of Raeford to investigate a clearly ridiculous rumor: that a horse has given birth to a healthy, human baby boy.

When Marshall arrives in Raeford, she finds an insular town that is kinder to the horses they are famous for breeding than to their own people. But when two horribly mangled bodies are discovered in a field-one a horse, one a human-she realizes that there might be a real story here.

As she's pulled deeper into the town and its guarded people, her sense of reality is tipped on its head. Is she losing her grip? Or is this impossible story the key to a dark secret that has haunted the women of Raeford for generations?

Unbearably tense and utterly gripping, this atmospheric tale of female rage, bodily autonomy, and generational trauma hails the arrival of a masterful storyteller.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

06/17/2024

Debut author Anderson crafts a truly unsettling gothic horror story. Reporter Carolyn Marshall is still recovering from her husband’s death and the miscarriage he never knew about when she’s sent to rural Raeford to follow up on a strange story: a horse has given birth to a healthy human infant, with a local teen claiming to be the father. Marshall finds an isolated, desolate, and deeply superstitious town, unwelcoming to outsiders. After someone releases a local barn’s horses and an immigrant worker is found murdered, Marshall thinks she might be on the trail of a more urgent and plausible story. As she builds rapport with the horse baby’s father and discovers the mundane troubles of this tight-knit community, she also pulls back the curtain on a looming supernatural threat. Anderson never builds the pervasive theme of pregnancy to a particular point, but her clear love for horse girls and an implicit acceptance of women’s competence despite gendered discrimination give the novel a strongly feminist tone. In the end, she pulls off an impressive trick by providing a satisfying conclusion while still leaving readers with a lingering sense of mystery. Horror fans will be rattled. Agent: Eric Smith, P.S. Literary. (Aug.)

From the Publisher

An August 2024 Indie Next List Pick
One of Paste magazine’s Most Anticipated Horror Books of Summer 2024

“[The Unmothers] is a triumph of folk horror that will gratify lovers of Midsommar and The Handmaid’s Tale.”—Jennifer Embree, Library Journal, starred review

“Debut author Anderson crafts a truly unsettling gothic horror story. Horror fans will be rattled.”—Publishers Weekly

“Desolate, heartrending, and genuinely scary.”—Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt

“The Unmothers is exquisite and haunting in equal measure. . . . Nauseatingly tense and crushingly insightful. This book represents an absolutely vital entry into the horror canon.”—Sarah Gailey, nationally best-selling author of The Echo Wife and Just Like Home

“At the crossroads of True Detective and Emma Donoghue’s The Wonder, this equine Wicker Man manifests a mood equal parts majestic and terrifying, tragic and sublime.”—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters

“Leslie Anderson writes with searing honesty and a palpable compassion for her characters in this story about the terrifying ways people cling to—and weaponize—belief systems. The Unmothers is riveting; the evil it depicts is insidious and real.”—Anne Heltzel, author of Just Like Mother

“The Unmothers is a grimly beautiful novel about the terrifying collective power of women’s sublimated hope, grief, and rage.”—Emily C. Hughes, author of Horror for Weenies and former editor of TorNightfire.com

“The Unmothers is brilliant. It is beautiful, heartbreaking, terrifying, and sharply intelligent.”—Sam Rebelein, author of Edenville 

“Terrifying in its beauty, horror, and power, this is a breathless read and a groundbreaking debut. You will never forget its dark spell.”—Alison Stine, Philip K. Dick Award–winning author of Road Out of Winter and Trashlands

“Haunting. Anderson’s deft debut fuses intriguing small-town mystery, disturbing horror, and a supernatural horse cult into an urgent and original tale.”—James Kennedy, author of Bride of the Tornado and Dare to Know

“Absolutely stunning. Leslie J. Anderson arrives on the horror scene with an atmospheric folk tale brimming with horrors both real-world and horrifyingly ‘other.’ With its flawed, fascinating characters and eerie, brooding mood, The Unmothers is a masterpiece in slow-dripping tension that had me desperately turning the pages long into the night.”—Josh Winning, author of Heads Will Roll

author of Horror for Weenies and former editor of Emily C. Hughes

A grimly beautiful novel about the terrifying collective power of women’s sublimated hope, grief, and rage…This is folk horror for a forgotten America.”

Philip K. Dick Award–winning author Alison Stine

Terrifying in its beauty, horror, and power, this is a breathless read and a groundbreaking debut. You will never forget its dark spell.”

author of Just Like Mother Anne Heltzel

[A] story about the terrifying ways people cling to—and weaponize—belief systems…You will easily fall captive to the eerie town of Raeford and its monsters.”

Library Journal

★ 07/01/2024

DEBUT Grief-stricken journalist Carolyn Marshall finds herself in the small rural town of Raeford to cover an absurd story—a horse has given birth to a human baby. Having been assigned this outlandish piece by her editor in an attempt to force her into processing a recent devastating loss, Marshall has no plans to seriously investigate this bizarre rumor. However, as she begins making half-hearted inquiries, she is unexpectedly drawn to the mysterious town and its even more mysterious residents, leading her to discover that Raeford contains many disturbing secrets that simmer right beneath its surface. Anderson absolutely dazzles in her debut, with a beautifully crafted novel that is as mesmerizing as it is sinister. The book positively crackles with powerful storytelling that expertly captures the essence of feminine fury, anguish, and empowerment and bottles it into haunting folk horror that will linger with readers long after the final chapter. VERDICT This is a triumph of folk horror that will gratify lovers of Midsommar and The Handmaid's Tale.—Jennifer Embree

Product Details

BN ID:	2940192356432
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	08/06/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Myths about horses begin with the sea, but there is no sea near Raeford. There are small, wandering creeks and the Narrow Bone River, but no sea. So Raeford’s horses must have come from somewhere else, not fighting out of the waves but wandering out of the dark forests, rising from the pine needles, tumbling down like ripe apples from the branches. It was easy to believe, if you stood on one of the sagging porches and looked over the dark pastures and forests, that the place had some of the terrible, pounding magic of the sea. The heartlessness of the sea. Dark creatures hid in the coves and shallows of its wild places like hungry eels stitched into the reefs. The blackness of midnight was heavier there, thicker, and smelled like ozone and decay. It felt like it was on the edge of creation or destruction.
     That was one reason why, on the night of June twenty-first, Agatha Bently’s first reaction when she heard an infant’s cries carry over those fields, through that gloomy miasma, was surprise, and then fury and then resignation. This thing had happened before and would happen again. She rose and pulled on her boots and headed to the barn, where she was needed.
     Something had been born, unexpected, the salt of the sea in its lungs. It screamed and screamed and it lived.

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