Ｃｕｒｄｌｅ Ｃｒｅｅｋ

| Thank you @henryholt @macmillanaudio for the free copy & access. |

𝚆𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚋𝚢: 𝚈𝚟𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚎 𝙱𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎-𝙵𝚎𝚕𝚝𝚘𝚗
𝙿𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎: 𝙰𝚟𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚗𝚘𝚠!
𝘕𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳: 𝘑𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦 𝘈𝘣𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘵-𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘵

ˀqotd: if you could time travel would you go to the future or the past?

Ａｕｄｉｏｂｏｏｋ Ｒｅｖｉｅｗ

📖 (𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥):
𝙛𝙤𝙡𝙠𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙚 • 𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙨 • 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙡 • 𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙢 • 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩-𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙤𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 • 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙢 • 𝙝𝙖𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 • 𝙜𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙘 𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙚 • 𝙖𝙩𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙥𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘 • 𝙙𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 • 𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙦𝙪𝙚 𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙩 • 𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 • 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 • 𝙙𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙖𝙣 • cults •

💭:
This was a really hard book for me to get into. I had to set it down a few times, but it wasn’t so bad that I wanted to DNF it.

In fact, I didn’t feel this book was terrible at all, it just didn’t work for me. 😭

I can’t say for sure if that was due to my current head space, or simply put - I just wasn’t the right audience for this one. 🤷‍♀️

With that being said, I would still recommend this book to anyone that enjoys books with great writing, that also has you thinking about existential themes.

🎵:
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘫𝘰𝘣 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘔𝘊!

𝘐 𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author/publisher for a copy of this audiobook.

I really loved the narrators voice and her reading style throughout the book which made this more enjoyable for me I think. The story itself had potential but it was slightly hard to follow with the jumping around and the odd details/in depth storyline and town. I am interested in what else this author will put out in the future but this one fell short for me which is a bummer considering how creepy the cover looks and all of the reviews/description.

Curdle Creek has long been a sanctuary for its residents, an all-Black community seemingly frozen in time since the late 1800s.

Curdle Creek is a dark, folk gothic tale about a small, secluded town, with an all black population, that decides to completely control its borders, its demographics and its citizens, in an effort to "keep them safe' from the dangers and racism happening in its surroundings.

This novel is a combination of the violence of The Lottery with a sprinkling of the dystopia of The Handmaid's Tale and the magic of Brigadoon. Battle-Felton builds a town corrupted by its need for rules and its competitive power-hungry leaders.

Osira is a widow who must compete at an event for the opportunity to gain a new husband. She must speak a certain way, dress a certain way, show no affection, turn on her own friends, family and children, And she is fed up. And the town turns on her and forces her into a well. And this experience leads her to different experiences? time periods? dimensions? to see how her life could have turned out.

A very different take on southern gothic, skewed towards a condemnation of government and conservatism, racism and family dysfunction, of guilt and hope and redemption.

This is one of those books that on the surface is super interesting and I really want to love, but I had to very hard time following the time leaps and intricacies within this world building.

Curdle Creek is a small all black town with its own scent of conventions, traditions, and rules. Give me a very 1984 vibe and reminded me of the old 70s movie, Logan’s Run.

I think the part I liked most about this book was the actual narration of the audio the voice work from Joniece Abbott-Pratt was excellent. Her accent work really places you in this time frame and she does a great job delineating the various characters voices.

In the end, this book fascinated me and it felt like a piece a literature I wouldn’t like to study more than read for general enjoyment.

I honestly didn’t care for this book. It was a very hard read/listen.
I had an audiobook version and I absolutely loved the narrators voice and expressions.
The story itself was very up and down for me and hard to follow along. There were quite a bit of flashbacks and i didn’t realize they were until I was in them. It was very hard to follow.

Overall the story was interesting, just really hard to get there.

Thanks for NetGalley for the copy.

I had some trouble following the story but even so found the atmosphere and language so compelling that I enjoyed it

Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into this book. It was a slow slog to nowhere all the way through.

Billing it as a book for "fans of “The Lottery” and The Hunger Games" was just no accurate. I can see the correlation between them both -- especially "The Lottery," but it just didn't reach the heights of either. (And it only marginally resembles The Hunger Games in any way.)

I listened to the audio book, and I constantly had to return and re-listen to parts I'd zoned out on.

Maybe it just wasn't for me.

It wasn't the worst book I've ever read -- or even the worst book I've read this year. But I can't give it more than 2 stars, either.

Special thanks to the author, @henryholtbooks for my gifted copy & @macmillan.audio for my ALC‼️

Drawing readers into a world where murder is a means for control and disagreeing can get you killed the author’s imagination went wild with this one. This book was weirdly interesting I was left confused and intrigued at the same time. I still have so many unanswered questions like why did they choose to live like this. In the beginning it wasn’t made clear what “Moving On” meant but after a few chapters I realized what they were doing.

This town did some odd things like women competing in foot races for marriage. Being punished to the well and nearly beaten to death. But the Moving On was their craziest ceremony which was a purge type of event and Osira was against all of the towns customs. When her father’s name is called to move on but he runs away she begins snooping and searching for forbidden knowledge surrounding Curdle Creek’s sinister history. Soon Osira finds herself punished to the well and transported into the past.

The town was like a dictatorship society stripped of all common sense and everyone was in purgatory. The author was very detailed except when it came to world building. I wanted more when Orisa time traveled to the past, into the Underworld for judgement, and England before time traveling again. The author did great capturing the emotions of all the characters but I still wanted more of an understanding of what was happening and why.

Overall, the book was okay idk about that ending but if you’re a fan of Hunger Games, Kindred, or LoveCraft Country you’ll enjoy this book‼️

Rating: 3.5/5

First and foremost, I want to thank NetGalley, Macmillian Audio and Yvonne Battle-Felton for this wonderful ARC.

Curdle Creek has long been a sanctuary for its residents, an all-Black community seemingly frozen in time since the late 1800s. This quiet, isolated world offers safety and stability, especially when compared to the unpredictable, racially charged 1960s that rage beyond its borders. Yet, this peace comes at a cost that they are all willing to pay.

Osira is a 45-year-old widow, who has lived her entire life in Curdle Creek, a town bound by tradition where adherence to strict rituals is the price of survival. One such ritual, the annual "Moving On". This demands that the community votes for one of the resident to be sacrifice each year in exchange for collective well-being. It's a harsh and unquestioned reality, especially for Osira, whose mother is one of the town’s ruling matriarchs.

Despite spending her life within these rigid confines, Osira begins to see cracks in the surface of this supposed utopia. Her husband was "moved on" years ago, and now her children have mysteriously vanished. With her world slowly unraveling, Osira begins questioning the traditions she’s lived by and whether life in Curdle Creek is worth the pain staking price. As doubt stirs within her, Osira takes on a journey into the past, seeking the truth about her community and the rules that have governed it for so long.

Awesome narration! I loved this woman’s voice and her portrayal of all the characters.

This was such a unique take on gothic horror. I couldn’t quite tell what time this took place in, which made it timeless.

Told in the main character, Osira’s perspective throughout the story. Although she was in her mid-forties, due to the rules and ways of Curdle Creek, Osira seemed so much younger. More naive in some things, but had already experienced so much death. Her sisters, in their twenties, seemed as 5-10 year old children.

A really engrossing tale, with human monsters, time travel, and cult like vibes. For fans of gothic horror.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

It started off pretty interesting. However, I lost interest about a third of the way in. DNF- I do have hope for the author. I will try another of her works. This one missed the mark for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the audiobook to read and review.

This small town horror is like the author took Shirley Jackson's The Lottery short story and gave it flesh and clothes, and set in a Black community in the recent-ish past (I think?). It's a gruesome reflection on the cost of utopia.

But the story begins immediately and continues to the last page in an intricate web of uncanny-valley type world building. It's the real world, but it's not.

And it's done in a way that I ultimately didn't care for. Too much action and introspection without actually understanding *why* or who the main character really, really is and trying to accomplish. It lacked that ultimate gut punch we get from The Lottery.

The audio narration is great but too emotional for my taste. Her voice is beautiful and clear.

DNF around 30%. I really liked the premise of the book, and was interested at first, but I became confused with all of the traditions. Things weren't explained very well, just kind of left to the reader to figure out. This may be a me problem? Maybe I have trouble reading between the lines. I ended up finding my mind wandering off and not paying attention to the story, so I decided to give up. I did find the narration to be pleasant, though, and I felt the voice matched the characters personality from what I listened to at least.

This was a truly unique story, and I enjoyed multiple aspects of this narrative. This is definitely a creepy and dark story, perfect for spooky season. I love that this is set in an all Black town with history. I love that the creepy aspect has to do with Black folks and not racism directly. In many ways, this town was formed as a refuge from the racism in the rest of the US. At the same time, over time, this town has warped into its own horror.

This has many relatable elements even though it's set in a dark but magical space. Osira's struggles with her mother were relatable to many mother and daughter power struggles. Even the dynamic with her siblings was quite relatable to many family dynamics. In many ways, even the restrictive society felt relatable.

The writing in this story is excellent and engrossing. I was always deeply invested in Osira's well-being no matter how confusing the story got. The closing 30 percent of this story is just confusing for me. I enjoy the bizarre aspects, but this ends in a weird place for me.

Joniece Abbott-Pratt's narration of this story was perfection. Her voice has the perfect matter of fact tone that increases the deeply creepy aspects of this story. Definitely consume this as an audiobook.

Thank you to Yvonne Battle-Felton, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read and review Curdle Creek by Yvonne Battle-Felton on NetGalley.

Narrator: Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Published: 10/15/24

Stars: 2.5

I was immediately drawn to the cover and the synopsis sealed the deal. Unfortunately, the story is not as clear as my path was to requesting the book. Marketed as layered -- I agree to a point. The dialogue was repetitive and by 40% it was old, and while not seeing the author's vision it was frustrating. At 60% I reread the synopsis and nothing changed.

The narrator was good. Her voice was easy to listen to. I felt as if she was performing and I was clearly missing out.

I found the ambiguous ending disappointing.

I still want to understand this book.

Thank you, Henry Holt and Co., Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for my free books for review.

At the heart of Curdle Creek lies an all-Black community that teeters on the edge of cultish devotion, their beliefs and sacrifices as intricate as they are unsettling. The town's population is maintained with meticulous precision, a feat that forms the crux of this enthralling tale. Guided by the enigmatic Charter Mother, the inhabitants find themselves bound by an intricate web of rules and customs that govern every aspect of their lives.

Our protagonist, Osira, emerges as a beacon of complexity in this tightly controlled world. Initially a faithful adherent to Curdle Creek's ways, her journey takes a poignant turn following a series of heart-wrenching losses. The cruel custom of "Warding off"—a population control measure—claims not only her children but also her father, igniting a spark of rebellion within her. As Osira's faith wavers, we're drawn into her internal struggle, a beautifully crafted exploration of belief versus blind following.

The narrative's pacing, while occasionally languid, serves to immerse the reader fully in Osira's world. The introduction of time travel adds a fascinating layer to the story, offering profound insights into the intricate relationship between Osira's mother, Constance, and the mysterious Opal. This temporal element becomes a mirror, reflecting Osira's own journey as she grapples with the age-old dilemma of safety versus risk-taking.

As Osira's tale unfolds, we're invited to ponder alongside her: Is the known evil of Curdle Creek preferable to the unknown possibilities that lie beyond? This central question elevates the narrative, transforming it from a mere dystopian tale into a thought-provoking exploration of human nature and the courage required to challenge the status quo.

For the audiobook, the narration of Joniece Abbott-Pratt was evenly paced. Her voice evoked Osira’s emotions and internal questioning. Check it out for a more elevated experience of the story.

Overall, Curdle Creek is a literary labyrinth that invites contemplation on the nature of belief, the price of conformity, and the transformative power of questioning one's reality.

Curdle Creek
by Yvonne Battle-Felton
Narrated by Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Thank you so much partner @henryholtbooks @macmillan.audio for the gifted ARC and ALC.

About the book 👇🏽

Welcome to Curdle Creek, a place just dying to make you feel at home. Osira, a forty-five-year-old widow, is an obedient follower of the strict conventions of Curdle Creek, an all-Black town in rural America stuck in the past and governed by a tradition of ominous rituals. Osira is considered blessed, but her luck changes when her children flee, she comes second to last in the Running of the Widows and her father flees when his name is called in the annual Moving On ceremony.

Forced into a test of allegiance, Osira finds herself transported back in time, then into another realm where she must answer for crimes committed by Curdle Creek. Exile forces her to jump realms again, landing Osira even farther away from home, in rural England. Safe as long as she sticks to the rules, she quickly learns there are consequences for every kindness. Each jump could lead Osira anywhere but back home.

📖 My thoughts:

I was not expecting that! It’s sinister, unique, and perfect for spooky season! Whether that’s October or all year ‘round… it’s a spooky must read. It really gave me a dark and twisted Hunger Games vibe and I loved it. The audiobook narrator did a fantastic job encompassing and projecting this chilling story. There were moments I had to go back to reread paragraphs because I’d get lost. That could just have been a me thing but it did happen a few times. Although I didn’t have the same experience with the audiobook. Overall it was an intriguing read and listen and it’s a story with a solid premise, so I’ll be recommending it! Curdle Creek is out Tuesday, 10/15/24!

Happy reading 📖

#macaudio2024

Curdle Creek by Yvonne Battle Felton, is about an African-American cult type town with their own rituals rules and social atmosphere. When the book 1st started I was a little confused as to the moving on the widows run ET see but the more I got into the book the better it God and I can definitely see its comparison to the lottery by Shirley Jackson I felt bad for the main character with her relationship with her mom her children who left yet the town hung them an effigy anyway her husband who had is own moving on ceremony and right when I started getting in to the book and really picking up what the author was putting down she threw me into some wonky dream scenario mystical type situation and I was confused. I really thought the narrator Joanie S Pratt did a phenomenal job performing the audiobook and kudos to her the writing was great up until we got to the lasts 20 or 30% of the book and then it’s just all confusing but having said that the other 70% is really worth listening to and maybe you might even like the wonky dream scenario. Who knows stranger things have happened.#NetGalley, #McMillanAudio, #CurdleCreek, #YvonneBattleFelton, #JoniSPratt,

This book was interesting but it just didn’t grab me. Part of it may have been the narrator who read painfully slow and deliberate. Some of that may have been for effect but for me personally it didn’t work for me.

The description was intriguing comparing it to the Lottery which is was. The first 2/3rds of the book was enjoyable and straight forward with exploring a lot of heavy themes. However the last 1/3 is what ruined it for me. It was like it was written by another author or a heavy handed editor that changed the authors voice. Or it was that so many twists and time jumps and was much harder to follow. Disjointed is the word that comes to mind and listening to it doesn’t help at all.

I did appreciate the themes of racism, sexism, classism and more in home the author wine them through the story without feeling like you were slapped over the head with the hard themes.

While the book fell short for me in the end I think it’ll have it audience and it’s worth it for folks to try it when it comes out Oct 15 2024
I am thankful to have gotten the ALC for free from Netgalley and MacMillian Audio. so I can leave my voluntary review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again