Ah, this was so atmospheric and creepy! It was also very heartbreaking at times, and certainly conveyed some strong and relevant commentary on the way trans (and other queer folks in general, really) are treated- because while this book is set in the past, make no mistake, the themes are, unfortunately, still very pervasive today. There is also some great discussion on the role religion plays in hateful rhetoric.

We meet Leslie, who is a nurse who has served in some of the most horrific situations one can find themselves in, but when he goes to this small town to help people get vaccinated and take care of the citizens, he's immediately shunned and treated abhorrently. Which is extra bad, because again, he is literally devoting his life to helping people. While in town, and while still trying to serve the people, he meets Stevie. He sees a lot of himself in Stevie, and sees how horribly the townspeople react to anyone who doesn't fit their definition of acceptability, so he wants to be able to help more than ever.

Obviously this is a thriller/horror type book, so I don't want to give away any more info. It does go a wee bit off the rails for me toward the end, but it is still overall an incredibly well developed story with truly phenomenal commentary that shouldn't be missed.

Bottom Line: It's bananas, but it's worth it.

Wow, what a ride!

This novella packed a freaking punch! It was creepy, queer, gory, and horny! How the author fit it all of this and more into a novella is a superpower honestly.

Set in 1920'S Appalachia, Mandelo wrote a beautifully haunting revenge story with a trans protagonist nurse just trying to survive their job in a horrifying Christian-fundie town. Oh, and the cherry top was that this was also a monster romance by the end! I did NOT see that coming!

I have always been terrified of Appalachia, yet now I want more books set in this area, especially horror ones. I like being scared!

Read this novella. Its great! (Make sure to check the content/trigger warnings!)

This is an enjoyable and haunting quick read. Mandelo is excellent at writing novellas and this is a perfect example of how great they are at utilizing such few pages to tell a story.

"The Woods All Black" is a gripping mash-up of historical horror, trans romance, and revenge set in 1920s Appalachia. Following Leslie Bruin's journey in the backwoods of Spar Creek, where prejudice clashes with the supernatural, the story delves into themes of identity and acceptance amidst societal turmoil. Though its mix of genres might not suit everyone, the novel's exploration of reproductive justice and empowerment adds depth to its thrilling narrative.

Overall- this was a quick read for me. I enjoyed the setting and themes, however, I think that maybe I just don't enjoy this author's brand of horror. I felt very middle of the road about previous books and this one was no different (the premise gets me every time!). For fans of horror, I would recommend it!

I enjoyed this way more than Summer Sons. I'm really enjoying some of the recent trans historical fiction that has been released lately, and I thought Mandelo did a thorough job exploring how people navigated these identities post-WWI.

The Woods All Black is an apt title - it is dark, with a hell of a revenge arc. The woods play a central role, which I love. There is a slow build up of tension, and while the big reveal itself was something I predicted, it didn't make it less resonant.

Oh yeah, and if you're a fan of monsterf**king, let's just say this book will tick those boxes.

I received this book in exchange for a honest review from NetGalley.

I loved this book. It was a beautiful representation of the turn of the century and its moment of flux. This book excellently described how the world was changing yet in some places deep in the woods the world was still very much the same. I loved Les as a character and I had to do a bit of research on the FNS because it was so interesting. Overall great book! The ending was so satisfying.

I think that the book hit really well with its portrayal of of the zealotry of christianity in some cases. Combining that with the gothic horror vibes made this one a must read.

3.5 stars

It seems I’m bucking the trend on Mandelo’s works - I really enjoyed the first two, which were rated lower, and didn’t enjoy this one as much. There was a lot to like, or at least find very effective in this queer Appalachian trans horror novella. I read this in full daylight and found myself checking to make sure the doors were locked.

The religious trauma was strong here, and definitely brought up some of my own stuff as I read. Once I hit the 50-60% mark though, it started losing steam. Or rather, it got more steamy, which was unexpected. Don’t get me wrong, I love spice as much as the next romance reader, and trans spice especially is phenomenal to see and read. But it felt like such a major tone shift, especially the second scene, given what had just happened and where it was happening. Spice aside, something about the connection between the characters and their romance felt kind of off to me?

I will absolutely be picking up more from this author though, and am excited to see what comes next!

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for early access to this title!

A wonderful trans horror romance that takes place in Appalachia during the 1920s. Leslie is a trans man who works for the Frontier Nursing Service who is assigned to give vaccines and help birth babies at Spar Creek. The locals are not welcoming of strangers especially not ones like Leslie. The local church leader is the biggest voice against the nonconforming. The main target of the town’s hatred is someone they insist is a tomboy who Leslie gets to know. The plot twist in this book is so good, and it is great to see those who deserve it get punished.

Well, this one was definitely not what I was expecting at all. I was drawn in by the trans horror description, especially set in Appalachia, as that has some particularly spooky local history and lore. I stayed for the same, but also for the vicious and horrific elements that I did not know I would enjoy nearly as much as I did. I will definitely be looking for more books by Lee Mandelo, as well as looking into the shows, music, and other resources provided as inspiration and research at the end of the book. Be prepared for violence, gore, some blush-inducing sexy scenes, and sweet sweet revenge. While this book may be for a bit of a niche audience, it will please that audience well.

The first three quarters set an eerie tone and built the story nicely and then....right off the rails.

What a tricky and marvelous piece of queer historical fiction! This slim volume will draw you in and not let you go until the final (shocking) act. Put far too simply, this is the story of an "invert" (period language used in the book) who works as a traveling nurse and is posted to the very remote, very rural, very secretive community of Spar Creek, Kentucky during the summer of 1929. To say too much about this book is to ruin its best parts. What I can say is if you love queer (particularly trans) lit, revenge lit, horror lit, or any combination of the above, run, don't walk to get a copy of this book!

I am entirely unsure how to rate this, so I am sitting in the middle with this.

This is a dark horror revenge story set in a very religious small town, following a trans main character.

While I did enjoy the nuanced discussions about identity, I still don't know who to feel about this book. I feel that the book's length was great, I want more from this. And this went in a direction I could never have guess and am still contemplating how I feel about.

I think this was well done but I was left wanting something more by the end.

The setting of The Woods All Black is rural Kentucky in 1929, over a decade after The Great War. With the soldiers back home from the trenches, male and female gender roles have been firmly re-established. Scientists and doctors have embraced the study and advancement of eugenics, founding programs that encourage only the “fittest” to reproduce.

Lee Mandelo has strategically chosen this as the setting for his two protagonists, both viewed as women by society, but who identify as men. Before joining the Frontier Nursing Service, Leslie treated soldiers on the front lines of the war. Stevie is eighteen, wears pants, and spends his time harvesting tobacco and exploring the woods. Labeled an “abomination” by the town’s preacher, Stevie is being pressed into marriage as the solution to his unnatural choices.

The first half of the book is a suspenseful slow burn. Spar Creek’s residents are hostile and something is lurking in the woods. Leslie knows he isn’t safe, but stays out of concern for Stevie.

The second half is a wild ride, as tensions come to a boil with a steamy paranormal climax of revenge. The ending is not for the faint of heart or those with weak stomachs. Mandelo holds nothing back.

Thank you to @tordotcom and @netgalley for granting me this eARC.

TW: rape (off page), graphic violence, religious zealotry, transphobia

The Woods All Black is a claustrophobic tale of transphobia in rural Appalachia in the 1920s where a trans man, Leslie, our main character travels as a frontier nurser to deliver vaccines and other various medical care, but is quickly froze out by the town.

While there the town’s church delivers sermons on “jezebel women” and about the “roles that women should play”. Check the trigger warnings because he’s constantly misgendered! He’s labeled as a miscreant and unholy, and is cast out before he is even given a chance.

The claustrophobic element comes to play when Leslie is basically threatened to stay within the confines of the cabin he’s staying at, and at night sees a mysterious figure lurking about the shadows.

The silver lining is he meets another Trans man Stevie Mattingly and they develop a relationship where Leslie is able to educate and give language to Stevie’s gender expression.

I loved the romance element in this so much. It’s giving shadow daddy quite literally.

In 1920s Appalachia, Les enters the small town of Spar Creek to inoculate the town against whooping cough, small pox, and typhoid. He’ll take a census of the population, check in on any mothers-to-be or women in need of help, and in general do the good work the Frontier Nursing Service sent him to do. The only problem is that Spar Creek is so much worse off than Les might have expected. The people of the town have been firmly gathered up by the minister, Ames Holladay, whose narrow-minded hatred spreads like an infection. Holladay takes one look at Les and figures out very quickly that Les doesn’t belong.

For Les, being a nurse is his way of doing good. Of making some sense of the world. He cares for children and protects them from sickness, helps mothers through childbirth, brings life into the world rather than holding the hands of young, dying men as they leave it. A survivor of the Great War, Les has seen so much in this world, experienced so much, and knows well enough that he’s going to have to play by the rules if he wants to get his task done in Spar Creek.

So Les smiles when they call him Miss Bruin. He wears skirts to church. He keeps his mouth shut and his smile serene and lets himself be treated like a woman. And maybe things would have been … acceptable, maybe he could have gotten his task done and left in a timely manner if it weren’t for Stevie Mattingly, a young man whose pain Les knows all too well. Whose rage, whose fear, and whose teeth bared in defiance could be Les’ own.

When something horrible happens to Stevie, Les isn’t able to help. And when Stevie comes to Les asking to do something about the child forced upon him, Les isn’t able to help. But he wants to, oh how he wants to. And when Stevie comes to him with words of vengeance, Les says yes.

This is a dark romance — emphasis on the dark — and comes with strong trigger warnings for religious homophobia, mob violence, gun violence, rape, victim blaming, pregnancy because of rape, murder, attempted murder, abortion, homophobia, death in childbirth, and the shunning and casual cruelty of a small town turning against one of their own. It’s also a story of two kindred souls finding one another, aware of the pain they share between them, and turning fear and loneliness into love. But, again, it’s a dark book and will not be for everyone.

I very much enjoyed the author’s spare and eloquent writing:

Sleep had escaped to frolic with the night wildlife. […] The cabin ceiling fluttered with the furry bodies of moths.

…

Fire, lightning, the bell toll or the red string: every metaphor for connection he’d ever read, all the dead-end fantasies he’d crafted for himself, paled in comparison to the simple rightness he felt holding his boy’s hand. After the war ended, he’d tried to shape himself into a softer person. He’d tried to model his novels, his mentors, to make room for a good love, but the relationships he’d attempted and how he’d attempted them were never going to fit his truth.

Les sees the world through a critical eye, but a loving one. For all the indifference of the townsfolk, Les doesn’t hate them for their smallness, for their narrow mindedness. He understands it and accepts it — and them. He smiles at their pettiness, allows their judgement, accepts their looks and sly comments and not-so-sly cruelties. Because they’re afraid of the unknown, afraid of change, and yelling and screaming at them won’t change their minds … and will certainly not encourage them to accept the vaccinations.

As an “invert” — a man in the body of a woman, who lives as a man (when he’s able) — Les has always walked that fine line between sir and madam. His walk, the way he moves, the way he approaches and deals with other men give him away; it’s hard to duck his head and play the role of a woman, even though here, he has to. Les is full of compromise, and goodness. He means well, willing to forgive and overlook when possible, to try to understand the people around him. He’s the sort of character that would make an excellent paladin, slaying demons and saving the helpless … and meting out justice where needed.

Les was a combat nurse in the Great War and has seen more than enough of blood and violence. And when violence was enacted on him, he did not hesitate to spill blood on his own. It’s why, when Stevie comes for vengeance, for justice, that Les goes along with it. Not out of fear for the townsfolk, but fear for Stevie, for a young man who might get in over his head, too eager to fight when escaping might be the better part of valor.

Stevie is also a man in the body of a woman in a small town where what he is not accepted. When he’s raped by a man in a ‘courting,’ it’s seen as nothing more than what he deserves, and a sign that the young man in question is interested in making an honest woman out of Stevie. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been so public about it. Stevie grew up here; these are his neighbors, people he went to school with, those he works with in the tobacco fields, and with whom he goes to church. And because some preacher talks about hell and damnation, they have allowed him to be hurt. And Stevie is having none of it.

And I’ll be honest, I was there for it. Call it judgement, call it justice, call it revenge, I was there every step of the way, eager to see how Les and Stevie took the town to task. When Les finally stopped smiling at people and let them see his anger, his contempt, his true opinion of the casual indifference these people gave to someone who had been harmed was beautifully done. And then the book took a turn.

There’s a great deal here about religion and folklore, with Holladay mentioning demons and sin and the monsters in the hills, and Stevie himself who vanishes into the woods to make an offering to whatever is out there — old god, spirit, angel or demon — and all of that was groundwork for turning this into a paranormal story. Personally, I think it needed a bit more time to set up; it felt like such tonal whiplash. For me, it felt like a stumble in what was otherwise a fluid story.

Other than that, I enjoyed everything about this book. The atmosphere, the character work, the setting, and especially the moment when Les finally made Holladay shut up. If you enjoy dark stories of revenge and justice — and remember to mind the trigger warnings — this book is definitely something you might enjoy. If you like good characters bringing the hand of retribution to bigots, of seeing someone get tired of playing polite turn around and give someone a piece of their mind, and of two kindred spirits finding one another and igniting a bonfire of a glorious reckoning on someone who roundly deserves it, consider reading this book.

This book is historical horror with LGBT protagonist, in the early 1900's Appalachia. Now, I don't know how true to history and culture the Appalachian setting was. However I deeply enjoyed the queer horror of the novel switching between a cryptid monster in the woods to the conservative and traditional preacher.
I find myself searching for all of Lee Mandelo's other works on another tab as I write this.

I wanted to love this book so much. Horror? Appalachia ? Historical fiction? Representation ? Everything is there. For a novella, this dragged so much. It took me two weeks to try and get through it and it makes me so sad. Nothing of importance really happened. It's slightly mysterious. I kept waiting for something to happen. Unfortunately, this wasn't the story for me. The pace wasn't to my liking for a novella and I found it overall anticlimactic.

Lee Mandelo really said this one’s for the monsterfuckers. The Woods All Black is a captivating gothic Christian-fundie horror novella. We follow Leslie, a war-hardened nurse, who’s been sent by the Frontier Nursing Service to this back-water Appalachian town of Spar Creek. There, he’s immediately faced with hostile suspicion by this isolated community, drummed to a fervor by the local pastor. And given the setting, something unnerving is lurking at the edges of the woods, evoked beautifully by Lee’s immaculate prose. Without giving much away, there are beasts prowling in the dark, Leslie slowly discovers whether they are friend or foe (see first sentence). Lee’s development of Leslie’s character, a trans man existing in a particularly hostile environment in the 1920s, is fascinatingly portrayed and the historical elements were interesting to learn about. As someone who grew up adjacent to Christian fundamentalists, Mandelo absolutely nails the horrific atmosphere even just one religiously-fervent pastor can wield, to an unnerving degree. I found myself struggling to read at times because of how uncomfortably accurate the zealotry was portrayed and had to stop and restart multiple times. Unfortunately, it means this book hits just a little too close to ever be a favorite, but regardless it is spectacularly written. Overall, I rate this book a 4.5/5.

The Woods All Black review
THE WOODS ALL BLACK
Lee Mandelo
Release: today! (3/19)

TWAB is the perfect mix of spooky, religious extremism, frontier, small town vibes, with a splash of a lil’ freaky deaky toward the end. It’s described as a historical Appalachian revenge-romance. I really feel like this story sells itself and I don’t need to say anything else to convince you to add it to your TBR, but also, I was in a major slump (salute emoji) when I picked this novella up and it scooped me right out. I really liked Mandelo’s writing style, I have a couple quotes I’m obsessed with, the way he puts together words? I love it.

“While it’s true that he’d rather muck a stall with his bare hands than enter a house of god, strategic maneuvers to assimilate were another matter.”

I mean, just so good haha.

Highly recommend picking up this lil’ novella that is small but mighty on your next bookstore trip!

Thank you to netgalley and Tor Publishing Co. for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!