I absolutely did not love this. The premise is utterly up my alley, with the small town/Appalachian horror, but this did not come together for me at all. I also really, really didn't enjoy the art, but I can (kinda) see how it went with the vibes. If you like Junji Ito-style body horror with somewhat similarly half-baked plots, this might be for you. Props for the queer representation, at least, though, which was refreshing in this kind of traditionally masculine/male-protagonist dominated genre.

First off, this is an adult graphic novel, just a heads up.
Second, it is INCREDIBLE. This is easily one of the most amazing and artistic graphic novels I've read in a long time. It is visually stunning, crafted like the most psychodelic monster movie you've ever seen, with a twin peaks weird murder mystery vibe. It's also very queer!! Yay!!
I'm definitely going to purchase this for my own personal collection when it comes out, as well as encourage all the libraries to snatch it up.

This creepy cool graphic novel blew my socks off. The art style is somehow endearing and spooky all at once. I found myself engrossed in the story and can see this easily having follow up volumes. I enjoyed the sexuality representations in the main character and her girlfriends as well as two gay male characters. I really enjoyed this! There were some loose ends that were not cleared up, but overall a really fun and creepy read. Yes!

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

This is defiantly a graphic novel I will think about for awhile. The story immediately pulled me in and kept me glued to its pages. I absolutely love the way this novel was illustrated.

"Everyone seems friendly. Small town hospitality, et cetera. Most of the time you can chalk it up to money. Tourism, roadside attractions. But look around, sugar – Silk Hills isn't exactly bustling with outsiders like us. It's all superficial, that politeness. It's a reflex. A shame. There's a darkness that spreads beyond tradition. Something older. This town is hiding something. Something old and bad...from before anything had a name..."

But then, aren't they all? Just once it would be nice to read a comic about an old mining or mill town (hell, Silk Hills, greedily, is both) which doesn't have a dozen dark secrets, where people are getting along pretty much OK and there's nothing in the woods beyond songbirds and entirely non-supernatural deer. I requested this from Netgalley because it looked like Ryan Ferrier was the writer, and he sort of is, but on the comic itself he's listed second, after co-writer Brian Level, whose stuff I don't know at all. Certainly this feels lacking in the high strangeness which made D4VE or Kennel Block Blues such fun; I suppose with the current vogue for fungal horror* it's slightly novel to have moths be the axis of odd instead, but that's about as far as the surprises go. Though for my tastes at least, I'm not sure the visuals helped; compared to the eeriness of a Low, Low Woods or Harrow County, the minimal colours and cartoonish figures of Kate Sherron's style never sold me on the supposed spookiness (though she does do an endearingly odd Mothman).

*Though it occurred to me at the weekend that I hadn't yet seen anyone do the obvious thing and crossbreed that with the increasing prevalence of mycoprotein in the human diet. Are they really Greggs vegan sausage rolls – or do they belong to something far older and stranger?

I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed this story, while dark, it kept my interest and the art matched the tone of the graphic novel.. I did feel though that it could've been a bit shorter.