Full disclosure: I love Giano Cromley. I've worked with him on a few of his previous titles and I love cryptid fiction, so when I saw this was releasiFull disclosure: I love Giano Cromley. I've worked with him on a few of his previous titles and I love cryptid fiction, so when I saw this was releasing, it was an absolute no-brainer. I had to have it.
Montana locals Jute and Vergil are overheard at St. Pete’s Tavern discussing plans for a Basic Bigfoot Society expedition. Renowned Bigfoot expert Dr. Marcus Bernard leans over and promptly invites himself along. He’s accompanied by Vicky Xu, a young graduate student filming a documentary about him, and Jute and Vergil can’t believe their luck. But Bernard’s intentions may not be entirely noble and when Vergil’s daughter Rye hears about the trip, she insists on joining—not for the squatch hunt, but to protect her dad and Uncle Jute from potential embarrassment and exploitation.
What began as a modest two-man search for the elusive North American Woodape and the mythical Ramsey Lake quickly evolves into a ragtag crew of misfits, each driven by their own reasons—some chasing proof, others seeking to debunk it. As they venture deeper into the wilderness, they’re forced to confront painful truths from their pasts while pursuing one of the most haunted and hunted cryptids in American folklore.
At its core, American Mythology is a Bigfoot story, sure. But it’s also about having the courage to chase what you believe in. It’s about surrendering to grief. And it’s about the relentless pursuit of truth, no matter the cost.
This was an impulse buy from a used bookstore. I hadn’t seen anyone reading it, but the publisher and cover caught my eye, and the jacket copy sealed This was an impulse buy from a used bookstore. I hadn’t seen anyone reading it, but the publisher and cover caught my eye, and the jacket copy sealed the deal.
I tore through this deliciously bizarre novel in nearly one sitting, sprawled out in the passenger seat as my husband and I drove back from vacation. I didn’t want to put it down. From page one, I was sucked in and absolutely needed to know what in God’s name was going on.
Eleanor is a wildly unreliable narrator with a wicked sense of humor and a laundry list of traumas. She’s reeling from a bad breakup, recovering from breast cancer and a mastectomy, unemployed, and reluctantly living with her mother again. Life’s bleak, until she lands what seems like a dream gig: teaching a small group of kids in the isolated Australian town of Talbingo. We read along through her journal entries as she documents what feels, at first, like a fresh start.
But as she start settling in, things start eating at her again. Talbingo is quiet. Too quiet. The locals are off-kilter, the teacher she’s replacing has vanished without a trace, and the town priest suspects something more than cancer has sunk its teeth into Eleanor.
As her stay stretches on, things twist further into the uncanny—until we’re left asking: is Eleanor alright? Inner and outer demons twinkle at the edges, and Eleanor’s cheeky persona does its best to mask the misery gnawing at her. The town is strange... but Eleanor might be stranger.
Fans of grief fiction, weird fiction, and the sad-girl fiction will have an absolute blast with this one. Don’t let it skate under your radar like it nearly did mine....more
I was a little worried when I started this one. The beginning felt a bit sloggy and the writing took some Well, that took a dark turn fast, didn’t it?
I was a little worried when I started this one. The beginning felt a bit sloggy and the writing took some getting used to... but once I settled in, it really took off. And let’s be honest - who doesn’t love a good carnie novel?
Set in the 1990s in the small, conservative Scottish town of Pitlaw—a place with its own buried secrets—a traveling freakshow sets up camp in a vacant field. The locals clutch their pearls at the incoming “degenerates”, scandalized by the velvet-clad oddities invading their quiet lives. But the sounds and smells soon lure them in.
At its center of the spectacle are Gloria, a fortune teller with a taste for vengeance, and her daughter Nancy, a contortionist with witchy talents. Their arrival isn’t just a performance. It’s an omen. They aren’t just here to entertain... they’re here to settle a score. And by the time the curtain falls, Pitlaw will be irrevocably changed.
Like the best carnival fiction, this novel is teeming with oddball misfits, queer sensuality, and a wicked undercurrent. It's strange, seductive, and sinister—in all the right ways.
Step right up—revenge is the real sideshow....more