"Swiftly and violently as a gunshot a scream pierces the sloped fields lying open and fallow behind the house. Sounding like a woman being murdered in the way he has seen it on television where her agony is drawn out over several breathless and voyeuristic minutes until he changes the channel. Yet he knows it is not a woman but some unnamable beast of the forest come to bewitch and maim. A mother despondent, in all her devastated keening—the fox whose children now reside in the stomachs of the hounds at Stag’s Crossing has finally returned."

"The difference between wolves and foxes his father says is that wolves love to hunt and foxes love to play. A tantalizing trail of blood in the half-melted snow. Wolves only have enough foresight to kill and upon their killing they will feed ravenously and strip the bones. But foxes; they are quick-witted and brutal. When they hunt they do so with finesse stalking and pouncing then snapping the spine in their slender jaws."

What goes around comes around.

Life’s a bitch and then you die.

Carlyle Morrow is bitter widower, his third son, Christopher, buried on his land, along with his mother, who died in the attempt to birth him. Morrow is left on his thousand acres in the middle of Nebraska with two sons. Joshua is the golden boy, beautiful, attentive to Carlyle’s every wish, a loyal favorite lapdog. Nick is the second son, plain in appearance, tepid in his embrace of his father’s violent nature. He possesses a bit of his mother’s second sight, his orientation less than that of a purebred. They have both been made to endure a legacy of cruelty passed down from father to son over at least three generations. Carlyle forces him into an act, while hunting, that goes beyond wrongfulness, beyond sin, into the realm of abomination. Nick will live with the guilt the rest of his life, even though the responsibility was not all his. Now in their forties, Nick and Josh have been separated from their father for decades. (Nick still calls) But neither can refuse the summons to return home on news that their father is preparing to die.

We follow Nick as he recalls his life, his struggles with Joshua and Carlyle, mostly the latter. He always found his brother’s wife, Emilia, fascinating, alluring in the mode of a siren. Carlyle is cruel, requiring complete obedience. He expects his sons to love the raw violence that marks his life. He does not raise his boys so much as train them. He even wishes that they could be as faithful and bloodthirsty as his best friends.

"If Carlyle could have had dogs for sons he would have been a happy man; but when has a Morrow man ever been happy?"

The structure of the novel is a back and forth, with alternating chapters, Then and Now. We learn how the boys’ treatment (Nick’s mostly) brings them to become the men they are in their forties. One would think that with chapters labeled so, there would be a clear differentiation between the internal timelines of each chapter. But no, there are transgressions within, as “Now” chapters, as well as “Then” chapters include lookbacks. Seems not cricket to me, but no biggie. The personal history is clearly a roadmap to the boys’ doom, which is referenced many times, so will not come as a shock. Pederson keeps offering glimpses of the future, a bell being rung louder and louder with each recurrence. There is an unrelenting atmosphere of dread. Awful things will be happening, although we are not let in on the specifics. For example, an early omen.

"No thousand acres, no grand inheritance can ever be enough to postpone their destinies. Nick will die as bitter as he came into the world. He knows this just as well at thirteen as he will in thirty years."

Carlyle’s cruelty and monstrous control pushed them both away, Nick to New York, and a career as a cruel literary reviewer, Josh to the other coast with his wife, Emilia, whom Carlyle would not even allow into the house because of her Asian descent.

"Yet in only ten years his children will betray him in their own inimitable ways—Joshua marrying out, Nick exiling himself to a foreign land. And in their absence Stag’s Crossing will lie silent and fallow as the fields surrounding it. This place: no place for young men."

or old men, for that matter. This tale displays the violence of a Cormac McCarthy tale. It is not for anyone with an aversion to scenes of death, particularly the death of animals. It comes as no surprise that

"Cormac McCarthy is an all-time favorite writer for me, perhaps my favorite of favorites, and his influence is very obvious here." – from the JamReads interview

References to animals are legion, not in a happy way, for the most part. It is clear that the Morrows fit in well. A sample:

"Would he kneel before his father’s magnificence and eat oats from his hand like a wayward steer?"
————————————–
"Now he and Joshua must return to Stag’s Crossing. Return to that grand two-story house where as children they were left alone for hours at a time savaging each other like wild dogs."
————————————–
"Finally, she turned to him. Only the slightest tilt of her neck, elegant as a swan’s."
————————————–
"Upon awakening she is languorous as a cat sunning itself in a windowsill."
————————————–
"Joshua sees him lying down next to him perfectly still. Breathing through his nose softly like a newborn foal."

There are only a gazillion more of these.

Pederson is masterful with sustaining tension. The reminders of doom help, but there is much more going on here. The tragedy felt very Shakespearean. (Titus Andronicus maybe? King Lear with competing sons instead of daughters?) People make choices, and suffer the results. The language is rich and diverse, from terse Cormac-McCarthy-esque declaratives to languid poetical passages.

Pederson uses much of her background to inform her tale. She was adopted by a Nebraska family, is of Asian descent and uses her experience as a gay kid coming of age to inform her portrayal of Nick’s growing sexual awareness and exploits. She weaves a Chinese myth into the story, providing some early breadcrumbs to lay a foundation for the horror to come. It does.

Given that the characters are so damaged, and so damaging, it can be tough to work up a lot of sympathy for them, even Nick, who carries forward into his writing the cruelty he was bred to in Nebraska. Carlyle is pretty much a pure monster, and Joshua is given much less coverage that the rest of his family. Emilia is mysterious and alluring whenever we see her, which is mostly at the back end.

This is Kaileen Pederson’s first novel It is an impressive debut, a smartly literary horror story. We cannot get enough of these.

"Much of the novel’s setting of Stag’s Crossing, the thousand-acre farm owned by the Morrow family, is directly based on my family’s farm in Nebraska. I always found the woods that surround our farm to be a very contemplative, mystical, and mysterious place. I knew I wanted to draw on my Chinese background for Sacrificial Animals, so I started to think about different aspects of Chinese mythology that could be a good fit for this setting. Without giving anything away, I will just say the natural world plays a huge role in the mythological elements of the novel, and foxes — as featured on the cover — are one of my favorite animals."

Review posted – 11/15/24

Publication date – 8/20/24

2.75

I saw this marketed as a literary gothic featuring a Midwestern farm and Chinese mythology and I was so thrilled by that concept but unfortunately it fell pretty flat for me. Told in dual timelines we follow Nick Morrow as he and his brother, who had been disowned for marrying an Asian woman, return to their family farm because their father is dying. Maybe it's because I listened to this but I had a hard time distinguishing between Nick and his brother. I also found the plot really dragged and while I appreciate the slow build of tension, I think this would have been better served if it was 50-100 pages shorter because for me at least the slow build was slow to the point that I lost interest nearly entirely. I love what this book is trying to do in exploring cycles of abuse and race and familial expectations, but ultimately I struggled to get drawn into the story so I didn't really care about the ending despite it being a rather explosive ending.

I really loved the structure and differing perspectives. Great mix of horror and topical social issues. Loved the prose and style.

Utterly beautiful writing with little substance. So many repetitions of the same ideas: the sons subservient the father; Nick’s abandonment as the second son; the violence and bloodlust of men; Carlyle’s brutality and thousand acres. The book became a slog with nothing new being revealed or advancing. Emilia was compelling and a worthy follow, but even her story was so limited, that the payoff isn’t worth it.

Sacrificial Animals was a page turner from beginning to end that had me intrigued from the start. This author wrote this well and every character was great in it. I loved how it explores the ancient Chinese mythology with the supernatural horror. It was such a strange and scary read that I highly enjoyed and would recommend to any reader who loves horror. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this read in exchange of my honest review of Sacrificial Animals by Kailee Pedersen.

I think this would have worked so much better as a short story. It felt a little too bloated and drawn out. I also couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a surprise that Emilia was the fox because I kind of had that figured out from literally the first moment she showed up??? Not truly horror, but more a tragedy. Some interesting concepts and ideas but nothing developed enough to justify the length. I thought this was just okay.

Such a good read! I love horror based on different history/traditions/folklore, and this book draws from Chinese folklore to set up a creepy story about family secrets. Also about queer coming-of-age/awakenings!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

I like the idea, but this is written with very purple prose, and the dialogue is done from the perspective of Nick, but with no quotation marks. It manages to distance itself from the narrative, and I lost track of who was talking quite a bit. Certain character details felt disconnected from the overall story. I think this would have worked better as a novella, to keep the style of writing, but with a leaner storyline.

Excellent thriller with a sprinkle of gothic! Each page increased the tension. I loved the subliminal messages that the author weaved into the story.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A supernatural horror novel that explores the dark legacy of a troubled family. There are sinister secrets that have haunted this family for decades. The pacing is a little uneven with some parts feeling drawn out and incomplete. Still an interesting read.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion

this book was a litttlleee bit too slow for me but i generally enjoyed the story! it would have been fun to have had lean a bit more into the horror aspect throughout the book. personally it was a bit predictable to me but i think that is because of my own knowledge of some Chinese culture but i do love a woman getting vengeance on men! my only other complaint would be the lack for quotation makes for dialogue, i understand it is a style choice, but it's just something not for me

I DNFed the written ebook because I was bored. I picked up the Audiobook to give it another shot, less boring, but can someone explain why now 40s Nick sounds like a whiny 15? It's just that nothing *happens* and the "character" development isn't there. It's just hit after hit and I got tired of it. The "twist" at the end was nice as it at least was something happening, but by then I was so bored I just wanted it to be over.

**Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC**

I wanted to love this book, with the overlay of the magical realism it felt that it was going to be a great read. With plot points of dysfunctional families, small towns and growing up gay in rural America this book had the ability to be so exciting. I felt as if the story really didn't pick up until 70% of the way in and how things had been hashed out before it were pointless. This could have been wrapped up as a short story in a longer anthology but felt dragged out with repetitive motions. The big reveal wasn't as big as expected as it was hinted at all the way through with the overemphasis of the animal in the stories throughout his childhood. It also felt it didn't qualify as horror more violent fantasy contemporary writing but the plot was fresh and unique and I learned about a new mythological story I wasn't previously aware of.

Sacrificial Animals is an intriguing and complex story that delves into the complicated dynamics of family, trauma, and dark secrets. The premise, which centers on Nick Morrow’s return to his estranged family, is gripping. The tension between him, his father Carlyle, and his brother Joshua sets up a fascinating exploration of generational conflict and emotional baggage.

The relationship between Nick and Emilia is one of the most engaging parts of the book. It starts off with a simple flirtation but quickly evolves into something far more unsettling, with layers of mystery and tension that keep you turning pages. However, while the story is absorbing, some of the plot twists feel a little too forced and the pacing can be uneven at times.

The flashbacks to Nick’s adolescence add depth to his character, but they sometimes interrupt the flow of the main narrative. The themes of inherited trauma and the impact of past events on present relationships are handled with nuance, but some parts of the story could have been fleshed out a bit more.

Overall, Sacrificial Animals offers a thought-provoking narrative, though it occasionally struggles with pacing and some underdeveloped elements. It's an enjoyable read for those who appreciate dark family dramas, but it might not fully satisfy readers seeking a more cohesive and polished plot.

I had high hopes for this book as I had heard some good things about it, Unfortunately it completely missed the mark for me and I struggled to finish it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ebook in exchange for an honest review

Horror books are my love languages and this one was fantastic

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book

**Sacrificial Animals** by Kailee Pedersen is an enthralling supernatural horror debut set in the eerie landscapes of rural Nebraska. The narrative delves into the Morrow family's dark legacy, weaving themes of inherited trauma and family disintegration. The plot shifts between Nick Morrow's troubled adolescence and his return home as an adult, building tension and atmosphere. While the character development could be improved, the richly layered plot and haunting ambiance make it a captivating read. Overall, it's a solid addition to the horror genre, deserving a respectable 3.5/5 stars.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for the digital and audio copies to review.

This starts off with a pretty gruesome animal scene that I skipped forward given I listened via audio, which I was not expecting right out of the gate. The overall story is told in two timelines, past and present, and this scene is in the past, setting the stage for the future. I did not connect with the characters, and I don’t always have to, but I just was not present for either timeline and that did not change as the book went on. It was a bit redundant with the characters and the two timelines, e.g. the same thing was happening whether it was the past or present timeline, and I thought that overall this story had the potential for so much more.

This is a hell of a debut novel, and honestly, it's not one I saw coming, in the best kind of way. We have a patriarch dying in the Appalachian woods, his sons dealing with his imminent death and what they all underwent under him, and the new wife who seems almost too perfect. I originally wasn't that fond of the framing of our POV character, but honestly, with the twist of the last chapter of this book, I don't think it could've been crafted any other way. I had an idea of what was coming at a certain point, and I still managed to be surprised in the best kind of way. Pick this up this winter and see who comes knocking at your door.

This is a slow burn horror that was beautifully written. So many metaphors that were perfectly played out. I’m not usually a fan of slow burn horror but it worked with this book