The people of Edgewood have come to believe their tithes are what keeps them safe. Faye and her husband prepare to take on their positions of town stewards, a family tradition for generations. They soon learn the terrible truth about the fall festival: it is an unthinkable sacrifice that keeps the people of Edgewood safe.
Hiding her postpartum anxiety, Faye is terrified of leaving the sanctuary of her little enchanted town, but everyone has turned against her … even her own husband. To survive, Faye must get out of Edgewood with her infant son and face the evil lurking in the woods, and the dark trappings of her own mind.
Why we’re excited about this book:
In just a few years Lisa Quigley has taken the horror fiction world by storm. Co-founder and co-host of The Ladies of the Fright podcast with Mackenzie Kiera, Quigley is the author of Hell’s Bells and Camp Neverland (both of Unnerving’s Rewind or Die series), and her work has been featured in Unnerving Magazine, Journal of Alta California, Automata Review, IDEA Fitness Journal, and Dwarf + Giant. With her debut novel, Quigley draws from her own personal experiences with a story that deals with psychological trauma and the fear of the evil in the woods.
Why Lisa’s excited about this book:
“What would you do to protect the ones you love? The Forest is the first honest story I ever wrote. When I first moved to New Jersey with my husband and 8 week old son, I was a new mom with intense postpartum anxiety. I missed my friends, my community, the comfort and familiarity of California. Becoming a mom brought all my old childhood wounds to the surface. It made me see my upbringing with acute, sometimes painful, clarity. Motherhood brought so many conflicting emotions: deep, exquisite joy, debilitating exhaustion, and worst of all—guilt-inducing resentment. I felt isolated, alone, and I feared I’d lost myself in the process of becoming a mother. The Forest is fiction, and these characters, events, and locations are make-believe. But in more ways than one, this story is the truth. My truth. Be careful not to lose yourself in the woods at night.”
Forthcoming from Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing on 5 October 2021, The Forest by Lisa Quigley (and stunning cover art by Matthew Revert) is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA