Title: The Woods All Black
Author: Lee Mandelo
Publisher: Tordotcom
Length: 153 Pages
Category: Historical Fantasy
Rating: 4 Stars
At a Glance: Horror is not always about the things that go bump in the night or hide in the places that light can’t touch. Horror is as often about the inhumane masking as human, the beastly disguised as the righteous, the devil you know and the devil you don’t. The Woods All Black is composed of the monstrous lurking beneath the shallow surface of piety.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Leslie Bruin is assigned to the backwoods township of Spar Creek by the Frontier Nursing Service, under its usual mandate: vaccinate the flock, birth babies, and weather the judgements of churchy locals who look at him and see a failed woman. Forged in the fires of the Western Front and reborn in the cafes of Paris, Leslie believes he can handle whatever is thrown at him—but Spar Creek holds a darkness beyond his nightmares.
Something ugly festers within the local congregation, and its malice has focused on a young person they insist is an unruly tomboy who must be brought to heel. Violence is bubbling when Leslie arrives, ready to spill over, and he’ll have to act fast if he intends to be of use. But the hills enfolding Spar Creek have a mind of their own, and the woods are haunted in ways Leslie does not understand.
Review: Horror is not always about the things that go bump in the night or hide in the places that light can’t touch. Horror is as often about the inhumane masking as human, the beastly disguised as the righteous, the devil you know and the devil you don’t. The Woods All Black is composed of the monstrous lurking beneath the shallow surface of piety. This short novel elicited some powerful emotional responses, so be aware that rape, off-page yet still visceral, is the driver of a pure and perfect vengeance in which the beasts who perpetrate violence get exactly what’s coming to them.
Mandelo’s storytelling is every bit as evocative and provocative as I recall it being in Summer Sons. This, however, is a very different story. In a post-World War I Appalachia setting, Leslie Bruin meets more than his share of prejudice and suspicion in rural Spar Creek, Kentucky, where outsiders are met with distrust, and Leslie himself is besieged by outright hostility thanks to the vitriol spewed by a fire and brimstone preacher. Under the guise, of course, of saving souls and preserving morality. Leslie being transmasc and not fitting into the patriarchal mold or definition that his anatomy conveys, causes as many problems as him being perceived as female in a society which demands women submit and he is exhaustively misgendered.
When Leslie meets Stevie Mattingly is when the story takes a turn towards the fantastically gruesome.
Bodily autonomy takes its place among the various confrontations in this book. It’s not only emblematic of the time period but has a current events context to it as well, and adds more fuel to the fire of Leslie’s unwanted presence in Spar Creek, where he fears for his own safety and Stevie’s too. Stevie is the darkness. He was not born that way, he was made so, and he’s out to exact revenge. This plays into Leslie’s savior complex, and him prioritizing Stevie’s health and wellbeing over the evil that still roams free and unpunished. Until it is punished in a brutal but viscerally satisfying way.
As the relationship between Leslie and Stevie evolves, the story takes a turn toward the kinkishly carnal, and I don’t use that lightly. Ultimately, this historical erotic fantasy horror mixed bag of storytelling comes to a happy ending.
You can buy The Woods All Black here:
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