Thank you Netgalley and RDS Publishing for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is my second Selected Papers from the Consortium for the Study of Anomalous Phenomena, and it has continued to keep me captivated. A woman in a bar, her presence beckons to MacKenzie, and she looks like she's full of stories, or maybe just a singular tragic one. Lila relays her younger experience, of losing her younger brother, Beau, and the challenges she has had to face in the south without a father, and a Mother who barely holds the family together. The setting, and the descriptions that accompany this novella continue to astonish me. In the pieces that I've read in this series, the authors never fail to hold me into where the characters are. The sweet rot of the Lower Congaree, the panic, anger, and fear that Lila felt every step of the way. Now I fear whether I believe her story

I enjoyed this short southern gothic. After leaving a small town that gave off very similar vibes to the one in this story, I felt like I could connect with Lila’s character or at least understand the town background. This was an eerie tale of the horrors Lila had to face coming from a small southern town with many disturbing views and a swamp that holds many secrets. Her youngest brother is missing, and Lila is determined to find him regardless of what troubling tales are told about the depths of the swamp. I would recommend this to anyone that is interested in exploring a southern gothic novella. Thank you to NetGalley and RDS Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The primary Southern Gothic (with elements of folk horror) story as standalone would have rated higher for me, but I didn’t enjoy the setup with the introductory narrator. Her character and her relationship with Lila felt not only unnecessary, but borderline insulting to the reader. Most of her purpose seemed to be as a surrogate for the reader, to prompt for additional explanation of the central story which could have been inferred by the reader without her help. Her POV was not necessary for the epilogue to have been included to cap off Lila’s story, and I think the book overall would have been stronger for it.

Thank you very much to RDS Publishing and Net Galley for the ARC.

Lila's brother Beau goes missing but no one cares cause he is neither heir, nor spare. He is either special needs or has medical issues - but no one knows because "he wasn't born right" so no need to take him to a doctor.

We listen to how he went missing and what happened after from Lila years later. The incident itself is scary enough, but the small town people make it even more scary and disturbing.. it was hard to read but at the same time I could not not keep reading.

It was a solid 4 star read.