Smothermoss is such a unique story. We follow two sisters that are growing up poor in the Appalachian mountains. Sheila is older and has an invisible rope tied around her neck and Angie draws tarot cards that seem to have power. One day, a brutal murder occurs in their community which begins to shift the lives of our main characters. I loved the magical realism aspects of this story. The mountain is almost its own character and the magic that follows the sisters is incredibly interesting and unsettling. The author created such vivid imagery which made the magical elements even more alluring. I really enjoyed my time with this story however, some of the elements didn't quite come together for me. I constantly wondered if I simply didn't understand the symbolism or if there were just too many elements and not enough tying them together. However, I strongly recommend it to anyone that loves atmospheric southern gothic with horror elements.

I don't usually read this genre (ghost thriller?) and am not a convert, but this book is beautifully written (rich with luscious phrases such as "the quilted silence of the pines") and the dream-like story, set in the Virginia forest, is wrapped in a keen sensibility of the mystery and nuance of the natural world and the deep tribalism of Appalachian culture interwoven with the human desire for the supernatural. A nice follow-up to reading Demon Copperhead.
An couple excerpts:
"... Now she feels dizzy, lightheaded, like the whole-body buzz that follows a wasp sting. The tingle on her skin sinks deeper, like he is scanning below the surface, digging past her flesh and into her heart and shadows. Into the murk and darkness where she keeps her need and her shame. ..."
"... Sheila sighs. “I sometimes wonder if we ever get to choose anything.” The magnifying glass thunks on the bureau’s top as Angie sets it down. “What do you mean?” “This. All of this. Everything.” Sheila waves at the room and the world around them. “Where we live, who we are, what happens to us. The parents we’re born to and the family we live with. Who likes you, who hates you. Whether you’re an airline stewardess or a night shift aide at an insane asylum. If the bomb falls next week and we die before we get out of school, or we fall in love with someone who sweet talks us into a backwoods hike where we’re clubbed to death in a tent, or we live a long life and fade slowly in the back room of a relative’s house.” .."

In this epic novel of Appalachia, centered on the 1996 real-life (and still-unsolved) murders of couple Julie Williams and Lollie Winans on the Appalachian Trail, author Alering has created a broad and deep world centered on a pair of poor, rural, white half-sisters at a crucial and dangerous moment in their lives. Teased and abused by their schoolmates, Sheila wishes she could hide or flee, while Angie fights back and preps for imminent Soviet invasion. Both know their community and their mountain better than anyone, both its perils and its protection, and as a murderer tries to shelter within it, they are challenged to stay safe, to protect themselves even as they grapple with who they are and who they might be. I loved the folk magic aspects of the story--Angie's monster cards, Sheila's magical burden of the rope around her neck, Thena's crystals, the easy, matter-of-fact acceptance of ghosts--and the mountain as sentient. This is a superb novel.

While I personally enjoyed this novel, I do not think it suits my community. I live in a small town and work in a small store, so I can't picture this book being popular in my customer base.

Part thriller, part sister story, this book was unputdownable! I was enthralled with the 80s nostalgia while equally terrified of the monsters: both real and imagined.

4.25. I thought this book was beautifully written. This is a tale involving a coming-of-age of sorts among two sisters with elements of horror and magical realism. I think many parts of the novel are left pretty open to interpretation. I don’t mind this. Though the role of the boy felt a bit confusing to me or maybe unfinished. I will say that I did think that towards the end, the climax felt a little too fast. It left me with a lot of questions regarding the murderer however m, I think this novel is has you focus more on the journey of the two sisters’ identity formation which I really liked! Thank you NetGalley for access to this ARC.

📚Book Review📚
⭐⭐⭐
I had high hopes for Smothermoss by Alisa Alering, a novel I'd describe as a mix of southern gothic, magical realism, and crime drama. In the end, though, the parts just didn't work as a whole for me.
Set in rural Appalachia, Smothermoss revolves around two sisters--Sheila and Angie--who live in the woods outside of town with their mother, Bonnie, and their grandmother, Thena. The family is poor and the girls are often ridiculed by their classmates for being dirty and backwards. When two young women are brutally murdered while hiking the Appalachian Trail and Angie discovers a bloody shirt, the girls are inevitably thrust into the search for the killer who is likely hiding out in the woods surrounding their house.
While the novel is grounded in these realities, the characters struggle with less visible, yet equally mysterious forces: a mountain that has a life of it's own, an invisible rope that binds Sheila to her world, and tarot cards that seem to predict outcomes. All of these elements converge to make a novel that is full of symbolism and the thin line that separates the real from the "imaginary."
What I liked: Alering is a master at creating atmosphere and bringing the natural world to life. It is treacherous and beautiful, a site of life and death, renewal and decay. I also appreciated the rope as metaphor for the things that can hold us down, even to the point of killing us.
What didn't quite work for me: some of the elements of magical realism like the boy in the asylum only Sheila can see and speak to and the murder subplot which didn't feel fully integrated into the novel as a whole.
I'm probably an outlier on this book because I'm not a huge fan of magical realism. I think this book will have _lots_ of fans *because of* the magical realism and the very haunting atmosphere Alering creates!
Thank you to @netgalley for an advanced copy of this book. Smothermoss by @Alisa.Alering will be released on July 16, 2024 by Tin House Books.

This was weird and dark and I thought it was ok? Sheila is constantly annoyed by her little sister, Angie, who insists on running through the woods of Appalachia behind their home pretending to fight zombies and communists. When an unsolved murder rocks their remote community, Angie becomes obsessed with finding the killer, despite the fact that she's a child and no one believes her. Some magical realism elements (Sheila's "rope" around her neck," a boy at the asylum that only Sheila can see, hand drawn monsters that have a mind of their own) that both confused me and kept me interested. This was a quick read and a satisfying resolution - it reminded me of dark rainy days and gothic Americana.

The cover is what drew me into wanting to read this book, but it was also very exciting on the inside as well. Full of interesting characters, lore, atmosphere, and suspense.

Smothermoss totally cracked my head open in the best ways. I´m not from Appalachia and am not super familiar with its lore and folk stories, etc, but I still found myself totally wrapped up in this incredible, unique debut novel. I finished it in about 24 hours and fell asleep reading...I´m pretty sure these sisters permeated my dreams. This is a story about generations of women living together in the rural woods, about sisters who are bullied and teased for being poor and dirty, about a mother who works long shifts at the local asylum and an elder whose stories from youth might just connect with what´s happening to the town in the present. What exactly is happening? Two women from the East Coast are murdered while camping not far from where the girls live, and the town becomes consumed with the missing killer, especially the 12 year old Angie, the younger sister. The older sister, Sheila, has her own experiences with the surreal, the bizarre, and when it comes together, the story reveals itself in a smart, gripping reveal--the mountain always knew, the river always knew, the forest was always letting the people play its game. Haunting and wonderful and so special.

I was hooked from the cover and description and really glad I got to read this. It uses the Appalachia element perfectly. I was invested in the characters and how they worked in this universe. I was invested in the supernatural element to this and thought it was perfect for the genre. Alisa Alering has a great writing style and I'm glad I got to read this.

Set in the 1980s, Smothermoss by Alisa Alering is about two sisters who live near a hiking trail in the Appalachian region where a murderer is on the loose. This historical Appalachian folk horror is one of the most unique stories I’ve read in a long time.

Each character is distinct, even the mountain the sisters live on and the tarot-like cards are characters all on their own. The author takes the reader deep into the claustrophobic psychological worlds of the eldest sister’s strangulating burden and the younger sister’s fixations in a realistic and sometimes creepy way. Occasionally, I was a bit disturbed and left with an eerie feeling. Hikers cannot be trusted. What is real and not real? The natural world was beautiful and dangerous, especially with a murderer in their midst. But at times I felt that the real threat came from within the sisters than without. By the end, everything felt dream-like and smothering and though I was left with unanswered questions, I still felt satisfied with the evolving relationship between the sisters. The descriptions were vivid, and I highlighted many passages! Fans of fairy tales and stories set in the natural world with an uncanny atmosphere, and who don’t mind unanswered questions, will want to read this. I look forward to reading more of the author’s works. Thanks to Tin House Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this novel.

Creepy, unsettling, and at times confusing, but wholly satisfying. I've read a bunch of gothic books but not as many based in Appalachia which I think added to the sense of unreality.

Thanks to Tin House Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC copy of this novel.

At its heart, this is a story about two starkly different sisters and their home in the mountains of Appalachia. Set in the 1980s, Sheila and Angie are both outcasts amongst their peers, a fact which could, but does not, draw them closer together. I was immediately drawn in by Alering's clear evocation of place and her inclusion of magical realism elements. If you enjoy Appalachian gothic works, Smothermoss would fall into that subgenre.

There were things that I loved within this novel and things that fell flat for me. I loved the language and descriptive imagery, especially of the mountains and the natural world. I loved the strained relationship between Sheila and Angie and the smothering, claustrophobic atmosphere of their shared bedroom contrasted with their distance from each other outside of the house. And I loved the narrative voice that switched between the perspectives of Sheila, Angie, and the mountain they live on.

The plot was where the novel began to unravel for me. Questions were brought up, mysteries introduced and emphasized, that were never resolved. The magical realism elements that seemed so promising in the beginning--Angie's tarot cards, Thena's quartz, the boy at the asylum, Sheila's rope--were clunkily explained away, if explained at all. I wanted so much from this novel, which wasn't wholly delivered, but I still enjoyed my time reading it. Looking forward to more works by this author.

I think this book was good. . The cast of characters was interesting and all so different from one another. I love the setting and environment this book created it really helped to create well rounded and dynamic characters

This was a quick read, mixing the dynamics of a poor family, sexuality, mystical/supernatural elements and a murderer on the loose. That’s a lot to pack into a fairly short book, so there wasn’t much room for building suspense or character development. It seemed the author had a lot to express, but didn’t say much. Not bad…just not great.

Smothermoss is a Gothic Appalachian tale about two sisters, Sheila and Angie whose lives intertwine with the rustic woods around them, mirroring the beauty and darkness of nature. Trees, rabbits, ghosts, and murder initiate a coming of age for the sisters who must grapple with the threats and dangers of their burgeoning awareness of the powers of nature both literally and metamorphically.

The descriptions of the flora and fauna created a creeping atmosphere where the hiddeness of nature played up the survival and harsh life of the forests inhabitants. The scurry of a squirrel, the heartbeat of a rabbit, or the glimmer of a rock created a propulsive feeling that made me anxious with anticipation. The mood and vibe of the story had a pagan folk horror feel and this was the best part of the writing. With that being said, I found the plot confusing and finished the book being very unclear about what actually happened. Not a lot made sense to me...

Overall if you enjoy atmospheric elusive stories, then Smothermoss should be on your reading list.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The ONLY issue I had with this book, is that it wasn't longer. I wanted to read more about these young girls and their interesting, magical life. I love anything that takes place in an Appalachian setting, and it seems more books are trying this nowdays. Such a great book and look forward to more by this author.

3.5 stars

I rate this one slightly above average because though I’m not sure I loved it, it will certainly stick with me. I did not dislike it either. It was just different from my usual brand of reading, and it left me having to kind of decipher things for myself. This is not a bad thing, just not really what my mind could handle this time around.

The writing is well done and the story is good.

Thank you to Tin House Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review Alisa Alering's 'Smothermoss.'

This is a wondrous and dark fable set in the Appalachian mountains in western Pennsylvania in the early 1980s.

Two young sisters - polar opposites - live in the shadow of a mountain literally and figuratively. This being set at the height of the Cold War they live in the shadow of a potential nuclear holocaust, something Angie, the Russian-obsessed, younger sister would almost welcome. They live in the shadow of the aftermath of a brutal double murder of a pair of female backpackers on the nearby Appalachian Trail. The murderer is still out there and their lives are affected in different ways - Angie plots his capture and Sheila tries to curtail her. The mountain - a living character in the novel - conspires with them in their efforts. They live in the shadow of their various 'otherness.'

It's a novel of otherness. There's a paranormal otherness that runs throughout the novel - the mountain, Angie's hand-drawn cards, Sheila's friend. There's a sexual otherness - Sheila 'doesn't like boys.' There's socio-economic otherness - this a poor family and as such the girls are targeted by others in school and out. There's a cultural otherness - although they're living in the rational late 20th century where nuclear annihilation is always near and would take seconds, their lives are born out of an earlier more elemental time and of a much different pace of potential destruction.

It's a generously written book in that there are lots of opportunities from start to finish for the reader to come up with their own interpretation of events and to fill in the 'gaps' though I wouldn't say there's anything missing - just room to come to your own conclusion.

The wondrous and paranormal elements of the book and the tone, to some extent, put me strongly in mind of Max Porter's astonishing 'Lanny.'

I loved it (including the cover), congratulations to Alisa Alerling and Tin House Books on this achievement.