I'm so torn. Did I love the setting? Absolutely. An atmospheric 1920s Appalachian small-town is what horror dreams are made of. At least, that's what my horror dreams are made of. Unfortunately, The Woods All Black didn't meet my horror expectations.

*** spoilers ahead ***

When I picked up this book, it was tagged as Horror, Queer, and Historical Fiction on Goodreads and Sci-Fi & Fantasy on Netgalley. Other than Queer and Historical Fiction, I don't feel like I got those genres. What I unexpectedly got was a monster romance, which isn't my cup of tea. In addition to the surprise monster sex scenes, I was also pretty turned off by the way the main character called the eighteen-year-old love interest "boy" repeatedly - not because of the queer implications, but because he was calling an eighteen-year-old a pet name that emphasized how young the love interest was.

Ultimately, this just wasn't the book for me. I enjoyed the prose and characters. I really liked learning about the Frontier Nursing Services. I loved the Southern setting and the queer emphasis. It just wasn't what I expected. The Woods All Black has over a 4-star rating on Goodreads, so please take my review with a grain of salt. If you like monster romances or romantic horror/suspense, you might like it more than I did.

sitting down to write this review actually made me google "how much swearing is okay on goodreads" so I feel like that says enough all on its own.

our mc (Leslie "Les" Bruin) is a nurse who is assigned to a small mountain community that arguably did want his help but, after a lovely fire and brimstone speech from the pastor (bc Leslie's visibly female and god forbid he wears pants) they change their mind. Leslie doesn't really take no for an answer and sticks around anyway, determined to at least get some of these unhinged hillbillies vaccinated before he goes. he begrudgingly puts on a dress and goes to church to try and placate the town and ends up meeting Stevie, a visibly female trans man that the church is trying to tear apart to force into a feminine role.

unsurprisingly, these two dudes are very angry. and like, for good reason, the transphobia seeping out of this town is rancid, but anyway they get on together like a house on fire. Leslie is trying to suss out what the hell is happening around here and Stevie is ,,, running around in the woods scaring people, which was a fantastic vibe. when push comes to shove and the town turns on the two of them, Leslie very quickly figures out that Stevie maybe got called 'monstrous' one too many times and decided to just run with it.


I do think that if you are a reader who enjoys queer horror you're going to like this book. if you loved Andrew Joseph White's Hell Followed With Us and want to read something similar (but definitely more adult lol), grab this novella. it's got the same thrumming undercurrent of "hard to misgender a monster, huh?"


google did confirm that I could theoretically swear as much as I'd like in a goodreads review, so here's hands-down my favorite quote.
Stevie spat the tongue out like a mouthful of chaw.
“You thought you were going to fuck me again?” Stevie asked. He unbuckled his belt and thumbed loose his trouser buttons while Marshall scrambled onto all fours. “That’s real fucking funny, you arrogant piece of shit. I’m going to eat you raw.”


rep - trans achillean mc, trans queer mc, side queer characters
thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc ✨

WOW this book.

We follow Leslie, who works for the Frontier Nursing Service as he travels to a tiny town in Appalachia in the 1920s. Leslie encounters a young man who is being harmed by he townspeople as they see him as a tomboy who needs to be brought to heel and marry. All the while, a creature is trolling the dark woods, leaving carcasses and fear in its wake.

I had no idea what to expect from this and it far exceeded my expectations. This story builds into something I did not see coming, and I had a great time reading it and finding out what was in store for Leslie. Best to go into this without reading too much more.

Lee Mandelo does it again! The Woods All Black is an atmospheric, historical horror novella set in 1920s Appalachia where old school religious fervor acts as the ultimate evil. A beautiful and compelling story about trans men, freedom, and T4T love. I would read 1000 pgs about Spar Creek.

This is a historical fantasy set in WWI. I love historical fantasies, they brig a great deal of action and knowledge into the reader.

Immersive and easy to read writing style. Able to connect with the main characters and their segregation from their communities. Isolation and conformation were key themes and I liked how they were highlighted in this book. The plot was straightforward and clean and was quite condensed. This did mean that the side characters lacked some depth. But overall it was well written, emotionally stirring and powerful.

I was unaware that it would develop into a monster romance read. Not sure if it was necessary to the plot, but it didn’t sway me either way.

Thankyou to NetGalley and Tor Publishing group for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is short, but very impactful - and VERY surprising! Part Appalachian horror story, part queer love story, there's a lot going on in these 160 pages. Our main character, Leslie, arrives in a small town as a traveling nurse and ends up being faced with more adversity, transphobia, and misogyny than he bargained for. I loved the revenge aspect, and also the focus on self-acceptance. There are certain things throughout this story that could be triggering for folks, so definitely go into it knowing that and looking up content warnings if you need them. This is my first book by the author, and judging from this, I'll definitely be reading more in the future.

When I saw that this book was described by the publisher as “equal parts historical horror, trans romance, and blood-soaked revenge, all set in 1920s Appalachia’, I immediately said yes please, sign me the heck up!!!! And let me tell you, it did NOT disappoint. This was just so, so good. I can’t thank Tor Publishing enough for sending me an ARC!

The Woods All Black follows our main character, Leslie Bruin, who is a nurse working for the Frontier Nursing Service. Upon being assigned to Spar Creek, a town in the middle of nowhere, Leslie finds himself in uncomfortable territory. The townsfolk follow Pastor Ames Holladay and his violent sermons devoutly, and immediately show their disdain for Leslie, who does not abide by their terms of what a “traditional woman” should be. Leslie does his best to curry the favor of the townsfolk, but overall accepts that his time there will be unpleasant at best. But he is determined to provide whatever care he can, and plans to focus solely on this, until he witnesses the violence that has begun to brew against one of the younger townsfolk in particular.

Stevie Mattingly, who also holds the townsfolk’s discontent due to the way that he presents himself, is at the center of the town’s violent demands for conformity. Refusing to believe that Stevie is anything other than an “unruly tomboy”, they focus their attention on trying to force him into submission.

Leslie finds himself drawn to helping Stevie, even at the cost of further disdain from the townsfolk. But as his time in Spar Creek continues, Leslie can’t help but feel that there is something more dangerous, more foreboding in the trees surrounding. As more secrets of the forest come to the surface, and the townsfolk become more emboldened by their violent Pastor, things come to a jarring and grotesque climax, that I can guarantee you will not see coming ( I mean maybe you will, but I DEFINITELY did not).

I absolutely loved this, every second of it. It was dark, scary, and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I think this is a prime example of a novella that felt complete and successful in it’s short parameters, and didn’t really leave me wanting for anything. The story covered so much material, but never felt underdeveloped. Spar Creek was vivid and horrifying. If you know me, you know that a micro-genre that I LOVE, are books that spotlight and call attention to toxic religious cult-like communities, and this was no exception; Pastor Ames Holladay and the complicit townsfolk were more terrifying than anything lurking in the Spar Creek woods.

Even though it was absolutely grotesque and definitely dark, this was a powerful queer story of determination, the fight for bodily autonomy, and an unwavering refusal to be forced into something that you’re not. I will say that this book had a twist that was SO unexpected, and that I think maaaaaay turn some readers off, but for me, I was here for it hehehe

I think some people will love this but it was really not what I was expecting. I don’t do well with on-page sexual violence and I’m also not that interested in monster smut. But for people who are into that, I think this is definitely a book for them!

I have found myself enjoying historical horror more and more lately, and this is no exception. 1920s Appalachia was such an atmospheric place for this trans romance x revenge x small town religious culty story to take place. I would love for this to be longer because I was enjoying the characters so much and would love to see them get even more room to breathe. I hope my branch is able to get copies of this, because it was just so well done and touches on important topics. This was so good!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for sending me a copy in exchange for a review.

I love a good horror, and to have this blurbed as a queer trans horror had me pumped!
this was so atmospheric and detailed for such a short novella, I kind of wanted it to be longer - just so our good guys could have a longer time getting revenge. That would have been good!

I will say I wasn't expecting the spicy scenes, but I loved that it was included - we have too much straight sex in the publishing world, lets have some representation of others to let people feel seen why don't we?

Overall, this was a great read, but comes with trigger warnings:
rape, sexism, misogyny, blood, sexual content, transphobia, gore, religious bigotry, animal death and body horror.

What a dark, mysterious and satisfying novella! Historical horror, trans romance and blood-soaked revenge is exactly what this book is! I loved the setting, the use of pronouns, and the small-town religiosity. I’ve never read a fictional love story set in 1920’s Appalachia but I’m here for it. Figuring out what the darkness was that was haunting the woods was fun too. I do wish that the story was longer and the romance was expanded on a bit more because that was honestly my favorite part. I can’t wait to read more of Lee Mandelo’s backlist starting with Summer Sons. Thank you to Netgalley and Tordotcom for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I have not read a single piece of work by Lee Mandelo that didn't blow my mind. They know how to write a truly compelling and concise novella filled with beautifully crafted characters and settings, and I need them to write MORE! While reading, you can really tell that Mandelo is also an academic; every setting and historical aspect is perfectly portrayed and incorporated into the plot. I love that! The Woods All Black was the perfect tale of queer revenge and while some things were predictable, I was thoroughly entertained for the whole reading experience. There were only two things I did not enjoy: the significant age gap between the protagonists that end up together, and the explicit sex scene that seemed to come out of nowhere near the end--I felt like it was just a completely different tone that had been set for the first part of the story. Other than that, I enjoyed this novella and I'm still on board to read whatever Mandelo writes!

"I will tell you," Marge said carefully, "that there are stranger currents running under Spar Creek, and a preacher who sets himself foremost against devils has good reasons to find them wherever he is able."

The Woods All Black
by Lee Mandelo

QUICK SUMMARY
Set in 1920s Appalachia. We have genre combining historical horror, trans-romance with bloody revenge thrown in.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I would have loved this one, if it was longer. I wanted more of the fantastical horror that the book eluded to instead the story was almost over before we had gotten anywhere with it. This could have easily been more fleshed out and I would have devoured the whole thing and probably would have been closer to a 5 star rating. I loved what the story did have and the characters that the author presented us with but it was lacking more meat on the bones.

To say this has an unexpected element in it would be an.. understatement. Hoo-wee.

Ahem.

So I accidentally went from one WW1 book to another but other than both featuring nurses who had worked on the front lines, and dealt with things few can even imagine, that’s really where the similarities end. Because this quickly gets.. uncomfortable. Eerie. Claustrophobic. And, well, all sorts of phobic. This has that small-town bigot patriarchal religious zeal vibe going for it in spades and even in novella form it’s a lot. It also, not surprisingly, smashes itself up against the painful realities of what reproductive care and education looked like (and that, somehow, in some places, we’re stupidly reverting to these days.. insert silent rage-filled scream here). But then, just when you’re sitting there seething, fuming, frustrated, things get.. weird. And that’s where I’ll leave you.

If you like dark fantastical horror revenge stories, and very queer ones at that, you should definitely give this a go.

Made my Heartbeat go a lot faster than it's supposed to. Lee Mandelo's writing makes it easy to forget your surroundings, and be fully immersed in a horror story.
Trans romance AND horror in one is such a delightful combination, bonus points for the monsters, if you know what I mean.

The Woods All Black

So so dark. So so good. Not a single wasted page in its 150. I wish I had a pen while reading because there were so many things I wanted to highlight and process.

Too many triggers to list, but message me if you have specific questions!

Plot - 5
Writing and Editing - 5
Character Development - 5
Narration - 5
Personal Bias - 5
Final Score - 5

Thank you Lee Mandelo, NetGalley, and Tordotcom for my ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

Thank you to Net Galley for the e-ARC for review!

I enjoyed a lot of aspects of this book, I was looking very much forward to the Appalachian setting, the queer representation, and the religious trauma/hysteria. Ultimately this story just wasn’t for me! I can still appreciate the writing objectively, and I think that the atmosphere was incredibly well written and I was transported into the story which is worth noting!



I considered DNFing but the reviews were so positive I didn’t want to miss out on the rest of the story and potentially miss out on my opinion turning around for the better! But I still didn’t love it in the end. 2.5 rounded up to 3 stars!

Honestly, and this is entirely my problem and no one’s fault, but I was kind of enjoying the idea of and hoping for mentorship between Stevie and Leslie, and the romance kinda threw me off. I know age gaps like this are common and the book is also set ~100 years ago, but the romance between the 18 year old kid (constantly referred to as kid and boy) and the 30 year old who had a ton of life experience just kinda icked me out. I would’ve personally enjoyed them escaping together and Leslie mentoring Stevie and helping him find his place in queer communities he didn’t know existed! I digress. Just not for me!

The Woods All Black is a tense, highly atmospheric, and eerie horror story that focuses on a small town whose eager embrace of the more hateful elements of faith lead to something waking up in the woods that refuses to go down without a fight. The novella turns into a triumphant tale of resistance and vengeance in the face of ignorance and malice, and a pretty sweet romance as well.

I loved the descriptions of Appalachia and how Lee Mandelo evoked the claustrophobia of being in the backwoods, and how well crafted the characters were. Leslie and Stevie being obvious standouts.

I will say that there are definitely some parts in this that weren't for me (namely the uh, 'intimate encounters' with the supernatural which I was *not* expecting), but so long as readers go in knowing that there are going to be some pretty upsetting things happening to our protagonists then I can definitely see this as being a real winner.

Nope. Nuh-uh. No way. What did I just subject myself to?!?!

I was ok with the queerness and with it being set in backwoods Appalachia, but the monster porn? Yeah, no. That was a genre line I was not expecting to cross.

... My 2024 reading year is NOT off to a good start you guys...