Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

Full Rating: 3.5 stars rounded up

"Smothermoss" by Alisa Alering is a chilling gothic novel set against the eerie backdrop of an Appalachian town reeling from a double murder. The story centers on two sisters, Sheila and Angie, whose lives are marred by poverty and family dysfunction. Sheila, the older of the two, harbors resentment towards her half-sister Angie, who is fixated on Cold War paranoia and spends her time drawing unsettling tarot cards. Despite her frustrations, Sheila has resigned herself to her dismal circumstances and does her best to support her family, taking on a job at a local asylum alongside her mother.

The novel excels in its atmospheric descriptions, with Alering turning the Appalachian mountains into a living, breathing character. The natural world, with its wild and untamed beauty, is depicted in vivid, eerie imagery that adds depth and tension to the narrative. The mountains seem to watch over the town, its presence felt in every shadow and whispering wind, enhancing the book’s gothic tone.

As Sheila and Angie navigate the aftermath of the murders, they struggle to be taken seriously by the adults around them, including those involved in the investigation. Their attempts to prove their worth and gain recognition form a core part of the narrative. Sheila, who is coming to terms with her queerness and her crush on a classmate named Juanita, dreams of escaping the town and its oppressive poverty. Meanwhile, Angie is determined to rise above their circumstances, believing that solving the murder will earn her the respect she craves.

The novel’s exploration of these themes is compelling, particularly in its portrayal of Sheila’s internal conflict over her sexuality and her desire for acceptance. The tension between the sisters, their different coping mechanisms, and their interactions with the wealthier, bullying kids in town are well-drawn and add emotional depth to the story.

However, while the book's atmosphere and character development are strong, the plot ultimately falls short. The narrative’s progression is marked by a pervasive sense of unease, but this tension does not culminate in a satisfying resolution. By the end of the book, many plot threads remain unresolved, leaving readers with more questions than answers. This ambiguity may appeal to some readers who enjoy symbolic and open-ended stories, but it left me feeling confused and somewhat unsatisfied.

Despite these shortcomings, "Smothermoss" remains a compulsive read, driven by its haunting atmosphere and vivid depictions of nature. Alisa Alering’s talent for creating an unsettling, almost otherworldly setting is undeniable. If you are drawn to gothic fiction with rich, eerie landscapes and complex characters, this book is worth exploring, even if its conclusion may not tie everything together as neatly as some might hope.

📖 Recommended For: Fans of gothic fiction with a haunting atmosphere, readers who appreciate stories set in the Appalachian mountains, enthusiasts of character-driven narratives with a touch of the supernatural, and those interested in themes of queerness and socio-economic struggles.

🔑 Key Themes: Queer Representation, Family Dysfunction, Poverty, Gothic and Eerie Natural Elements, Adolescence and Identity, Socio-Economic Struggles, Appalachian Setting.

Content / Trigger Warnings: Blood (moderate), Gore (moderate), Death (moderate), Medical Trauma (minor), Bullying (moderate), Murder (severe), Animal Cruelty (minor).

I requested an eARC of @alisa.alering debut novel Smothermoss on netgalley because the synopsis sounded like it would be my vibe and the cover is STUNNING!

I went into the novel thinking that the main focus would be on the murder of two female hikers on the Appalachian Trail but, ultimately, the story is more about sisterhood, family and identity.

Even though I don’t have a sister I felt like I could really understand the frustrations of both Sheila and Angie, especially when it came to their dynamic and rocky relationship. I appreciated that we were able to get some insight into both of these characters through their own POVs. Alering fleshes out these two voices so well and is able to make them completely unique so that you always know who is speaking, even when the narrators can change mid chapter.

I adored the way Alering writes about nature and I would consider this to be a character all on its own. The descriptions are so rich and layered it was a pure delight to read.

Smothermoss is out July 16th and needs to be added to your summer TBR. You won’t be disappointed.

4⭐️

Thank you to @netgalley and @tin_house for the eARC.

i always request anything in appalachia set. with this habit comes lofty expectations. i want to hear about lush greenery, i want to hear about the culture. i want to be able to hear the crickets at night in the summer and smell honeysuckle on the breeze.

the setting for smothermoss is immaculate and immersive. it's the 1980's and two sisters, sheila and angie, live in a small, rural community. their mother is overworked and underpaid. they get by by raising rabbits and foraging their own food in the forest. people at school tease them for their poverty, too. i found this utterly indicative of an impoverished appalachian experience.

appalachia is also known for its magic and lore, so when this book delved into that, i was initially pleasantly surprised. there's very specific rules for living in appalachia, like: 1.) if you hear a baby cry in the woods or someone asking for help, no you didn't, 2.) don't whistle or sing in the woods, 3.) never look too hard in the woods. angie's brain, fixated on russians and adventure, apparently didn't get this memo and when two hikers are found dead in the woods, she makes it her life's mission to hunt down the murderer, perhaps with the help of a mysterious deck of cards that she's made featuring sinister characters...

sheila's story is mostly about grappling with her sexuality. she's also got a rope wrapped around her neck that no one can see and the only one that can see it is a boy that no one can see. confused yet?

same.

ambiance was a plus, but a murder "mystery" this book is touted as it is not. i think this was meant to feel like a fairytale but it felt flat and fell mostly on the side of just vibes for me. i desperately wanted to love it, though.

The mountains remember everything.

I am SCREAMING a huge thank you to Tin House Books, Netgalley, and Alisa Alering for the #gifted digital copy of this 1980s Appalachian horror before it hits shelves on July 16, 2024.

This gothic tale isn't for the faint of heart or those surrounded by a thick patch of trees and residing in such Appalachian territories, for this one might hit a bit too close to home. My husband grew up in eastern Kentucky, a well-known Appalachian region known for its ages-old lore surrounding the mountains and the forests that I'm all too familiar with. Its landmarks see, hear, and experience everything, keeping the land's secrets and protecting those who need care.

In Alisa Alering's tale, we have two sisters and their maternal figures doing their best to survive the hand they've been dealt, living off their land and making do with their mother's measly salary at the old asylum. Sheila is the oldest, starting to explore her sexuality and longing to work with her mother so she can raise the funds to leave this lonely place, and Angie is the exact opposite, a bit younger, with a fantastical mind that paints a picture of hunting Russian spies and evading nuclear war.

When two hikers are found murdered in the dense forest by their home, Angie springs into action with her makeshift Tarot cards and her grit to try and catch the murderer. Her homemade tarot cards, drawn with monsters and demons such as the Worm King and other devilish characters, depict the lay of the land. With the mountains on her side, those very cards find their way into the hands of the wrong and right people, enacting death, change, and actions of fear.

Smothermoss depicts scenes of magical realism and hyper-fantastical dialogue, leading the reader to transport to the Appalachian territories, seeing its magic at work, and I couldn't get enough—easy five stars.

SMOTHERMOSS is evocative and compelling. I'm a native Appalachian, and I found much to admire here in the way Alering depicts the region and its folklore. The sisters are interesting, well-crafted characters. I enjoyed how the town became consumed with figuring out the missing killer. At times the sisters' ages didn't quite ring true, but I appreciated the role that the natural world played. Although the writing seemed overdone in places, overall this is a very strong novel. Highly recommended for fans of creepy, literary stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance e-galley; all opinions in this review are 100% my own.

Atmosphere, check. Lush language, check. Setting, check. There are some things to love about Smothermoss, and some of it just felt as though the author missed a whole, juicy opportunity to lean into the quirky, the eerie, the gothic weirdness of a creepy asylum and some illustrated cards which seem to have a life of their own - I simply wanted more of the story behind those cards more than I wanted to know who murdered a couple of hikers. This wasn’t a bad book, it just failed to engage on a level it could have given the elements present in the story.

So, I was going through a bit of a reading slump, reading a little bit of one book (Vampires), reading a bit of fantasy (the second in a series I'm reading), but nothing seemed to stick…nothing seemed to hold my interest enough for me to stick to it until the end. Until I started Smothermoss. This novel is so uniquely atmospheric that it immediately captured my interest through the character of 17-year-old Sheila. Sheila's life is a story, even if she doesn't understand it. It is filled with memories she doesn't know are real, a confidant she doesn't know is real, a sister who is extraordinarily unmoored from normalcy and a sense of self that she finds confusing and heartbreaking. 
Sheila's sister Angie lives in a somewhat make-believe world. Believing the Russians will invade at any moment, Angie hones her survival skills in tracking and knife-wielding. To give her more of an edge against the enemy, she also creates "tarot" cards with images that "speak to her," guiding her decisions. 
As if life isn't tricky enough, the elderly aunt they live with is dying (and scaring them with stories from the past and two female hikers are murdered in their area. 
Alering creates believable characters amidst an unsettling, visceral setting. 
Altering is a beautiful, gifted writer whose prose can effectively be used as mentor texts in a classroom, especially when teaching atmosphere, conventions, imagery, character development and theme. 
This is a perfect Southern Gothic to immerse yourself in for the summer (it will be in stores July 16th). It's the ideal choice for those long, lazy summer days.
Thank you to Tin House and Netgalley for the advanced copy.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I liked this more than I was expecting to, but I didn't love it. I found the majority of the book really solid, if a bit over-reliant on flowery descriptions of the Appalachian landscape. The older sister, Sheila, was really interesting tragic figure, and I loved the descriptions of the younger sister, Angie's cards (and the little illustrations at the beginning of each chapter). The cards were probably the best, most unsettling part of the whole novel. But the ending felt too deux ex machina-ish for my tastes, and I found there were just too many underdeveloped elements (the boy with the spot of blood in his eye, Sheila's crush, etc).

The writing in "Smothermoss" is exquisite, as is the figurative and metaphorical world. That said, I had a very hard time getting into this and staying there. I felt a bit ungrounded. What was real and what wasn't? So much was given to the dream and imagined-world, that I felt little tension to propel me forward. I would try another book by this writer for sure, but I didn't love this one.

I enjoyed the book overall. Loved the dreamy quality it has as well as the haunting atmosphere. The story had good pacing but the characters maybe needed more fleshing out and development. 3 stars.

Unfortunately this book was not it for me. I wasn’t prepared for how much of a mix of real and dream it was. It was really confusing to get through with the EPUB and each character just really frustrated me.

Poetic and magical. This book swirls around you like a strong wind, holding you in its grasp. It is both realistic and fantastical, teetering between the sad reality of Shelia, Angie, and her family-living in poor, rural Appalachia in the 1980’s-and the fairytalesque pull of the mountain. But among the sister, the author gives us a stark contrast. Shelia is fearful, scared, and lashes out at anyone who gets too close. Her sister, Angie, is fearless, reckless, and walks through the world with something to prove. Both are ruthlessly bullied and shunned, but each deals with it in their own way.

As the story moves along, we see the magnetic pull between the girls and the danger lurking in the mountain, and with it, a change they perceive in each other. The magic is woven deep in this complex and tragic tapestry, but the ending provides a glimpse into the possibility of hope, and different outcomes-even when it seemed so far out of reach.

This was a well written novel, and I really enjoyed it. And anyone who enjoys magical realism will as well.

3.5 stars

A haunting thriller with a little bit of whimsy and magic. Beautiful writing and imagination went into this, and I can see fans of Bunny liking this (even if you wanted to like Bunny but didn't).

The relationship between the sister is so authentic, which really helps be equally as annoyed with Angie.

I had a hard time connecting with a few devices (the rope mainly) for the duration of the book, but did come to connect with it a bit more at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book

Thank you to NetGalley and Tin House Books for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book! I really enjoyed this one!

Smothermoss is a blend of horror and fantasy that is both captivating and strange. Its Appalachian deep woods setting and uncanny elements give it the feel of a folklore or dark fairytale. There are aspects of the story that can be interpreted as supernatural or as a metaphor for the struggles the characters are dealing with. At times, the story takes a sharp turn into the surreal, but the reader is kept grounded by a cast of believable characters and relatable hardships.

The story is told through the perspectives of two main characters. Sheila, the oldest sister, is a sensitive young woman, struggling with her identity and place in the world. Angie, the youngest, is the exact opposite, completely at ease in her battle-ready, Rambo-loving self. The one thing they have in common is a sense for the supernatural. Sheila glimpses things that no one else is able to see, and Angie draws tarot-like cards that seem to speak to her. When two hikers are brutally murdered not far from the sisters’ home, Sheila and Angie are pulled into the hunt for the killer.

Overall, I loved this story. I didn’t quite get everything I’d hoped to get from the ending, but I loved the characters, setting, and atmosphere of the story so much that it didn’t really matter. Those things outweighed my desire to know more about the supernatural/surreal elements.
I’m so impressed that this is a debut novel. The writing is silky smooth and captivating, and the character building is just expert level. I definitely look forward to reading more books by this author!

Ratings:

Plot: 💀💀💀💀💀 /5
Characters: 💁‍♀️💁‍♀️💁‍♀️💁‍♀️💁‍♀️ /5
Setting: 🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳 /5
Ending: 🃏🃏🃏🃏 /5
Overall: 🐇🐇🐇🐇.5 /5

✔️ would recommend

Smothermoss is such a unique story. We follow two sisters that are growing up poor in the Appalachian mountains. Sheila is older and has an invisible rope tied around her neck and Angie draws tarot cards that seem to have power. One day, a brutal murder occurs in their community which begins to shift the lives of our main characters. I loved the magical realism aspects of this story. The mountain is almost its own character and the magic that follows the sisters is incredibly interesting and unsettling. The author created such vivid imagery which made the magical elements even more alluring. I really enjoyed my time with this story however, some of the elements didn't quite come together for me. I constantly wondered if I simply didn't understand the symbolism or if there were just too many elements and not enough tying them together. However, I strongly recommend it to anyone that loves atmospheric southern gothic with horror elements.

I don't usually read this genre (ghost thriller?) and am not a convert, but this book is beautifully written (rich with luscious phrases such as "the quilted silence of the pines") and the dream-like story, set in the Virginia forest, is wrapped in a keen sensibility of the mystery and nuance of the natural world and the deep tribalism of Appalachian culture interwoven with the human desire for the supernatural. A nice follow-up to reading Demon Copperhead.
An couple excerpts:
"... Now she feels dizzy, lightheaded, like the whole-body buzz that follows a wasp sting. The tingle on her skin sinks deeper, like he is scanning below the surface, digging past her flesh and into her heart and shadows. Into the murk and darkness where she keeps her need and her shame. ..."
"... Sheila sighs. “I sometimes wonder if we ever get to choose anything.” The magnifying glass thunks on the bureau’s top as Angie sets it down. “What do you mean?” “This. All of this. Everything.” Sheila waves at the room and the world around them. “Where we live, who we are, what happens to us. The parents we’re born to and the family we live with. Who likes you, who hates you. Whether you’re an airline stewardess or a night shift aide at an insane asylum. If the bomb falls next week and we die before we get out of school, or we fall in love with someone who sweet talks us into a backwoods hike where we’re clubbed to death in a tent, or we live a long life and fade slowly in the back room of a relative’s house.” .."

In this epic novel of Appalachia, centered on the 1996 real-life (and still-unsolved) murders of couple Julie Williams and Lollie Winans on the Appalachian Trail, author Alering has created a broad and deep world centered on a pair of poor, rural, white half-sisters at a crucial and dangerous moment in their lives. Teased and abused by their schoolmates, Sheila wishes she could hide or flee, while Angie fights back and preps for imminent Soviet invasion. Both know their community and their mountain better than anyone, both its perils and its protection, and as a murderer tries to shelter within it, they are challenged to stay safe, to protect themselves even as they grapple with who they are and who they might be. I loved the folk magic aspects of the story--Angie's monster cards, Sheila's magical burden of the rope around her neck, Thena's crystals, the easy, matter-of-fact acceptance of ghosts--and the mountain as sentient. This is a superb novel.

While I personally enjoyed this novel, I do not think it suits my community. I live in a small town and work in a small store, so I can't picture this book being popular in my customer base.

Part thriller, part sister story, this book was unputdownable! I was enthralled with the 80s nostalgia while equally terrified of the monsters: both real and imagined.

4.25. I thought this book was beautifully written. This is a tale involving a coming-of-age of sorts among two sisters with elements of horror and magical realism. I think many parts of the novel are left pretty open to interpretation. I don’t mind this. Though the role of the boy felt a bit confusing to me or maybe unfinished. I will say that I did think that towards the end, the climax felt a little too fast. It left me with a lot of questions regarding the murderer however m, I think this novel is has you focus more on the journey of the two sisters’ identity formation which I really liked! Thank you NetGalley for access to this ARC.