This book is dark, richly woven, with the atmosphere of the Appalachian mountains dripping from the pages. The characters crawl out of the book, forcing you to feel their pain, their rage, their hope for survival. The descriptions are so vivid, the book rattles your bones and causes you to shiver. Because something evil permeates from a land that is meant to be safety, and we all know that feeling of being at home and wondering if something is hiding in the dark waiting to strike. This is really a book about how home is supposed to be your safe space, a place of comfort and refuge. We wrap ourselves in the idea that nothing can touch us there; when really, anyone who really wants to can break in and hurt us. Also, home can sometimes be the source of your suffering (whether physically from someone who is meant to show you unconditional love or emotionally from your own inability to leave or the whispers from the world around you). Laurel had tried to escape, only to find herself right back on her hungry land. Even as the world around us is unsafe and dangerous, we can find allies and bravery in order to fight back. The book also dealt heavily with family, the bonds that we share with people who are supposed to love us but sometimes only hurt us. In the case of Laurel, her mother was trying to protect and save her, but only in a way she knew how to. Which was a way that took an emotional toll on Laurel, that would seek to destroy her found family. A mother's love is strong, but it can also sometimes smother. In the case of Isaac, his home is a danger to him constantly, and shows that not all parents are good parents. However, Laurel, Isaac, Ricky, and Garrett have become their own family; they help each other to survive their pains, the abuses, their trauma, in order to be able to find happiness. There were also moments in this book that dealt with bigotry and homophobia. These could also be symbolized as your home being turned against you. Having been raised in a place you love, only for that place to ostracize you because you do not fit into the outdated and harmful ideals of said place, which is heartbreaking. When you give your literal blood, sweat, and tears to a town and land that continues to reject you, it tears at you and means to destroy you. The relationship between the four friends sometimes became a little too confusing and convoluted, and I really wish there had been more Christine in the story (I found her character so interesting), but I did cherish that ending! I thought it fit the eerie love that Laurel has for her land, for a wild place that holds her heart so completely.
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