This was an atmospheric and compelling debut, and a bit of a magical-murder-mystery tour.

After her divorce, Lee returns to her former home in Appalachia with her children. Her kids have never known of their mother’s past, and as they meet their family, they realize all they’ve missed out on, but also why their mom has kept them away.

The moody story is a page turner, and while there’s magic, it’s also about generational trauma, and working to heal it.

Looking forward to more by this author!

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC, I’ll definitely be recommending this title to my colleagues and customers.

Ughhhh I loved living in this world, even for a little while. It was full of magic, and the woods, and family and herbs and a lot of love. It had Practical Magic vibes for sure. I can’t wait to read whatever else Dyer writes!

3.75⭐️

Suspense
Addiction
Folklore Vibes
Magic

A woman returns to her estranged, magical family in Appalachia but when a man is found dead in the woods nearby, it seems the family has conjured something sinister in this lush, shimmering, and wildly imaginative debut novel

This book was a pleasantly unique fiction. It was like Practical Magic and the Craft coming together for a wild story deep in the Appalachian wilderness. If you could take the everlore era and embody it into a book, this would be that book.

I love how descriptive and inventive Alli Dyer was with Lee and her children’s story. The way she uses magic that felt very real and believable. I could easily see a family just like this living in the woods somewhere. They are one with the earth, exchanging energies, and creating healing properties. It felt mystical!

Such a cool book. It has all the witchy vibes with a great story line set in a little Appalachia town. It deals with a lot of childhood trauma and feels pretty creepy, but a great story!

It’s giving practical magic meets Nancy drew. A mom of two returns home to the small town she grew up in and discovers the truth of her past, and finds herself again. Full of magic and twisted, an enjoyable book of not only finding oneself again, but forgiving them.

4 stars! Not easy to predict, really loved the world of magic that was built here.

Folklore and magic weave a tight thread through all of the Buck family. Some members embrace it for good, others for bad, and others ignore it or battle it.
In this story of a family caught in a web of deceit and evil magic, Lee returns home with her two children seeking peace and comfort. Instead, she and her family encounter malevolent and nefarious workings designed to destroy them all.
The ties of family shine through on the pages even though relationships are strained and the magic of lost bonds is tested. A very engrossing novel.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Strange Folk was such a great story. It is about families, magic, addiction, and so much more. It tells of Lee, who returns to her small rural hometown with her two kids. The relationships she has with her family there are complicated and we find out bit by bit as the story unfolds. I loved the atmosphere, it gave the story a magical woodsy vibe. Some of my favorite parts were when the family was doing spellwork in the woods. I am conflicted about the main character, she comes across as one who thinks they are better than everyone, yet she has some serious substance abuse issues of her own. A lot of pot calling the kettle black from her. I found her unlikable. Lastly, while I enjoyed this one, I felt the ending was a bit flat. However, it is a great story overall.

I love how the straight-forward writing style is combined with a twisty atmospheric tale. We have a magical family and strange events where some things are explained and others are not. The author has crafted an engaging plot to keep things moving in this engaging story. There is an element of mystery but overall I recommend this one to fans of family dramas. As a native Appalachian I thought the story was true to the area in a delightful way.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance e-galley; all opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is a book about families and the complicated dynamics that occur within them. Lee pretty much had cut herself off from her family from a young age, but when her life falls apart there is nowhere else, she can think of being safe then with her grandmother. Going back though means that she will be exposing her kids to the fact her family is connected to the land and welds powers. Lee herself never learned her family’s magic, but her son feels extremely connected to it and her daughter longs to learn her family’s ways. But when magic seems to go wrong, and a beloved teacher ends up dead Lee’s family is pinpointed as being behind the death. Can Lee learn to embrace her family, it is history, the magic, and the truth before more people fall victim?
This book, even without the magical element, shows the real complexity of each family. Sometimes as kids we don’t realize how much the past can form the future, and that our parents have a life outside of just being a parent. There is always something to be learned from our family and their lived experiences. Many times, though, they aren’t something we will learn at a young age. This book was a hit and miss for me. I liked some of the elements, such as learning a family tradition. But the characterization was a bit flat for me. I didn’t feel attached to Lee’s story or her daughters. The pace of the book was decently slow until you got to the final reveal.
Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this eARC of Strange Folk.

I absolutely loved the premise and themes of Alli Dyer’s Strange Folk, but felt let down by the execution. But if you love the idea of Appalachian magic and multi-generational grudges and love between powerful women, this book is worth a read.

The book tells the story of Lee, who returns to her small rural hometown with her two children in the wake of a separation from her uptight husband. The story follows Lee as she confronts her relationships with her mystical grandmother and addict mother, and solves a murder mystery plaguing the town.

Reading about the relationships between the women in this story was a delight. There are tons of strong female characters of all ages and temperaments, and every one of them felt realistic. The magic was also incredibly fun - all of it was weird and whimsical and vaguely unsettling, from nailing your lover’s boots to the floor to stop him cheating to brewing hallucinogens from flowers that grow in the woods.

Despite so much good here, the writing style made it hard for me to connect with the story. I expected lush, poetic writing for a setting like this, but the prose is very straight forward and dull - a style I might have liked in a different book but that feels like a mismatch here. There is a lot of clunky lines telling us how the characters feel instead of showing us. And some of the dialogue feels extremely stiff or and the nose - there were multiple times I groaned out loud when a character talked about their emotional state in a totally straightforward way with no subtlety. In particular, this all made it especially hard to feel attached to Lee, the main character, who ended up feeling as aloof and distant as the prose. It’s a shame because there are a few places where Dyer’s writing absolutely sparkles, like the epilogue, which flowed beautifully and truly captured a feeling of magic. If the whole book had had that quality of writing it would have been a five star read for me.

Ultimately this was a disappointment for me because of the writing style. But if you love the idea of backcountry feminist magic and are someone who’s not too bothered by stiff prose, I highly recommend giving Strange Folk a try.

4.5 ⭐️

While stepping out of my normal type of read this book was a captivating and deep read. The book examines intergenerational trauma and healing, how despite having the same experiences it affects everyone differently. How someone’s choices and actions or inactions alter the tapestry of a person.

The writing is incredibly rich and immersive. The characters are as familiar as the people I grew up and the setting something you could step into. Pausing my reads was disorienting as it was so immersive.

The only reason this is not a five star is that despite being so beautiful I was not so enraptured that I need to tell everyone to read it regardless their preferences. I would absolutely recommend it if this is your niche.

Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy of Alli Dyers debut novel

Lee seeks comfort and safety after the life she worked hard to create falls apart. This means heading back to Craw Valley. Back to her family that she has complicated feelings about. Having nowhere else to go she heads back taking her two children with her. Townspeople say Lee's family are magic until a man dies in the woods near the family house. Then they wonder if the town healer created something darker.
A big thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
The blurb sounded interesting and I always love reading debut fiction. Plus, who doesn’t need magic in their lives, right? Underneath the magic is a story about family, addiction, and coming to terms with yourself. Lee resents the way she grew up and the people that failed her. Yet, Lee ends up repeating the same mistakes that her mother did. Being confronted with emotional baggage you thought you buried is never easy.
Why didn’t I give this five stars? The thing that caused me to score this lower is the murder mystery plot. I feel the murder wasn’t necessary and took away from Lee working through her past. Lee has a lot of emotional baggage to deal with because she moved back. She is drinking more and walking around acting like she is better than everyone because she left. Her hypocrisy gets put on the back-burner because Lee has to figure out the murder mystery. I think the story would have been better if Dyer had focused on Lee coming to terms with and dealing with her past. The romance subplot felt like wasted potential. The guy Lee starts dating is someone she knew when she was young. He stayed in town while Lee took off as soon as she had the chance. There are a few different times he says that the town isn’t that bad and Lee scoffs. There is so much to explore there but, for me at least, it felt like a box to check off for plot points.
Still, I did enjoy this book and I recommend anyone that likes witchy stories and folksy magic to check it out. I’m going to be keeping an eye on Alli Dyer's career and look forward to seeing how she refines her craft.

Strange Folk follows a magical family in Appalachia when Lee (previously estranged from her family) moves back with her children. What follows is a series of magical events that push at the boundaries of what the characters understand. Over the course of the book they pull from the land both to create monsters and heal sickness.

I really enjoyed this book. I actually finished it all in one day. It’s a great example of magical realism and reminds me of the sort of vague magic that’s in Practical Magic. It’s an interesting and thoughtful read. Dyer handles difficult topics with grace and weaves them flawlessly into her magic system.

If you like magical realism, family dramas, and mysteries this book is for you! Strange Folk is going to be out August 6th and I would highly recommend picking it up.

I…. I talk a lot, but I don’t know what to say…

The Plot:

Lee is forced to move back to her hometown in Appalachia with her two children following her divorce. A tough childhood left Lee emotionally scarred and reluctant to participate in the family business, magic. When two murders occur that seem to be connected with her family, Lee sets out to find the truth before anyone else dies.

The good:

I LOVE the setting. Appalachia intrigues me, and I think the author did an amazing job of capturing the culture. The very real struggle of addiction in rural areas plays a huge part in this book in a way that inspires empathy and understanding to those struggling within the grips of addiction. The magic element kept me engaged, but this book is really about family, and roots. It’s about accepting your own inner power and living authentically. The characters are incredibly complex and it is evident the author put a lot of care and thought into them. We get more of Lee and her mother, Redbud’s, story. but I would like another book that focuses on Lee’s children, Meredith and Cliff.

The bad:

There’s the tiniest love element in this book and I can’t see that it added anything at all. With the other characters having such deep complexity, the love interest is just lackluster and that comes off as odd to me. It’s like a chef plating Cheetos on the same dish as Filet Mignon. I would say it detracted from the overall flow of the story and felt out of place. I also could not connect with the main character, Lee. Don’t get me wrong, Lee was a very well written character and I understand her motives perfectly, I just didn’t like her. I think this falls more on me than the author though if I’m being perfectly honest. Lee was frustratingly stubborn and, despite being very close to her daughter, is too caught up in her own life to dig deeper into why her daughter suddenly acting out of character. Like I said, I get why she acted this way and why the author made that choice, but it didn’t do much for the character as far a likability goes.

Overall, this is a very good read. I took a star for Lee’s Character and for the love interest, but would 100% recommend this to anyone who likes a good mystery, magic, and or Appalachian culture.

I had a really difficult time getting into this read, putting it down and picking it up again various times.

This book felt really uncomfortable the whole time. So many main characters that I couldn’t keep track of! I just didn’t jive with the writing.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not a big mystery reader, but this was an interesting book about folk magic and Appalachia, mixed with addiction and generational trauma. Truthfully, I was ready to be done with this book about halfway through. Maybe because it's not a genre I typically gravitate towards or maybe because I just wasn't fully invested in the story and characters--some of whom are wholly unlikable. Prepare yourself for a jarring twist at the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC.

as a native Kentuckian, I find myself drawn to novels set in rural Appalachia. I especially love any and all that include ties to witchcraft. If you are a fan of Practical Magic, you will LOVE this. the story is incredibly atmospheric with a good backstory filled with generational trauma, mystery and romance. I only wish the pacing was a bit more even, but not enough to remove a star. Excellent writing. Beautiful story.

I knew I had to read this book as soon as I saw it was set in the Appalachian area, where often I don't get to see this portrayed often in literature. I have been working now with high schoolers in the Tennessee Appalachia region, but i originally grew up in California. The sense of wanting to escape or fit in is such a huge topic that I saw really connected within this book and Lee's journey specifically. Just the general connection to everything that I see and experience being portrayed through fantasy and magic (my favorite genre) was amazing to see portrayed. Overall, I throughly enjoyed the mystery of this book and being able to fall into this multi-generational story.

A strong well written magical story. The world building is in depth and provides you with great insight on not only the world but the characters as well.

You are able to feel and experience the struggles they are experiencing as well as their growth. I was greatly impressed with the level of details they provided in this story. I was able to get engaged with the novel and I found myself slipping deeper into their lives.

I enjoyed this book. I liked the dynamics of the family. It was a captivating story based on folk magic and Appalachian culture. You take the girl out of the mountains but you can’t take the mountains out of the girl. Just when you think the story is ending another twist has you enthralled and turning the pages. This book is a must read!