The Woods All Black

February 1, 2024
In his latest outing, Mandelo (Feed Them Silence, 2023) explores folk horror in a historical setting. Frontier nurse and war veteran Leslie Bruin travels to the isolated, disquieting Appalachian town of Spar Creek, Kentucky, in 1929. He's been charged with seeing to the mundane medical needs of the community, but he's also prepared to offer prophylactics and advise queer youth. However, the town is under the control of a fundamentalist pastor, and its residents are suspicious of Leslie even when he works to present as female. Leslie is drawn to Stevie Mattingly, a local youth and potential kindred spirit who is expected to marry a persistent local boy. Despite outright hostility from the townsfolk, Leslie stays in town because of a desire to help Stevie, who is bloodthirsty after being assaulted by his would-be fianc�. When Leslie is unable to help with an abortion, Stevie disappears into the dark woods, and it's not long before a monster is stalking the town. The Woods All Black blends revenge, identity, and love in a tense and slow-building story that surges to a horrifically satisfying conclusion. This is a viscerally brutal and ultimately hopeful tribute to queer forebears, both known and lost to time.

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February 1, 2024

After serving in World War I, then spending some time reviving himself in Paris, nurse Leslie Bruin returns to the United States and joins the Frontier Nursing Service to continue helping others. Assigned to remote Spar Creek in Appalachia, he expects to administer vaccinations and help with health concerns. But when Leslie arrives, his immediate feeling of unease grows as he tries to help a young person survive Spar Creek's insistence on conformity and the outright hostility of the local pastor and his flock. Leslie is seen by the intolerant locals as an intractable woman (he is a trans man) who chose education and a career over the bonds of proper attire and marriage. Leslie's sense that he is being watched at night becomes a realization that in the woods is a monstrous danger far outside the threats he is used to managing. Mandelo (Feed Them Silence) has created a compelling tale about the tension between the perceived safety of following orders and rules established by others, the strength found in being one's true self, and the terrible power in violent revenge. VERDICT Readers will be drawn in to this horror novella with broad crossover appeal, thanks to its skillful blend of trans love story, historical fiction, and Southern gothic folk horror.--Lila Denning

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