This mystery/suspense follows Cheyenne Ashby as she returns home to Blue Cliff, Virginia after being away for 5 years. She grew up with her eccentric mother in the woods - the woods where local legend the Hickory Man is said to wait and kidnap children. Only five years ago, it wasn't the Hickory Man who murdered three children but a man named Jasper Clinton. Now, Jasper is released due to new evidence coming to light, another child goes missing from Blue Cliff, and Cheyenne's mother is becoming obsessive with her superstitions and protection rituals. When Cheyenne reconnects with her friend, Natalie, the two are determined to find out what is truly happening to the children of Blue Cliff.
TW/CW: kidnapping, death of a child,
This was a fantastically creepy read. The small town Appalachia setting combined with a great supernatural undercurrent really worked well together to create a great atmosphere for the entire book. The town of Blue Cliff is a mix of people who outwardly believe in the superstitions, those who pretend they don't but believe behind closed doors, and outsiders who don't believe at all. This creates a really great dynamic and fuel for tension as more children go missing. There's a constant push/pull between the superstitions and reality as the people of Blue Cliff try to figure out what is happening to their town.
The Hickory Man legend was really well developed and did a lot of work in the story. I did a quick search to see if this was a well-known Appalachian legend but didn't find anything so I believe Greene created it. We get a really great backstory through some flashbacks that show how entwined the Hickory Man and Blue Cliff are. Layered on top, we have Cheyenne's family of the Ashbys being charged as the town's protectors - a role which her mother takes very seriously. I loved the details of the nursery rhyme that the children chant and adults follow to protect the children from the Hickory Man. When I was reading, I could almost hear the creepy children singing this rhyme and I loved it. The Hickory Man wasn't just a background story to our characters, he is a real legend and Greene used that to her full advantage throughout this read.
I really enjoyed the characters and their relationships were so complex. Small towns are a favorite setting of mine for this exact reason. Everyone knows everyone and that can be useful but also can cause tension when suspicion turns inward and the townsfolk turn on one another. The chapters alternate between following Cheyenne and Natalie and it was interesting to see the difference in their lives. They were friends since they were little, but when Cheyenne left suddenly five years ago, their lives took very different paths. The comparison between Cheyenne, who is now treated as a bit of an outsider, and Natalie, who is now engaged to the mayor's son, is really fascinating.
I thought the solution to the mystery came together really well and tied together a lot of the details we got throughout the story. My favorite element to these folk horror/superstition mysteries is finding out if the supernatural entity is real or if someone is using it as a cover for their crimes. I did see a post on Twitter comparing this read to a specific movie that did spoil the general ending a bit but I didn't guess the exact details so it was still a fun read figuring out what is really going on in this small town. I did find the main story ended a little quickly for my liking, but we do get an epilogue so we are able to see a bit of the aftermath of the ending reveal which I always appreciate.
Overall, this was a great, creepy, folk horror read that really paid off on the premise. The small town setting and legend of the Hickory Man were really used to their utmost potential and really heightened this story.
Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC. Publication date is July 11, 2023.
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