Humboldt Cut: A Redwood Gothic
Humboldt Cut: A Redwood Gothic
Humboldt Cut: A Redwood Gothic
Description
Description
Jordan Peele and Chuck Tingle meet The Overstory in comedy writer Allison Mick's darkly humorous debut eco-horror novel, as a Black woman returns home to the redwood forests of northern California, only to unearth the monsters that lurk among the trees... Jasmine Bay is a nurse for an Oakland mental health facility, battling her own demons, caught in a spiral of suicidal despair. Estranged from her brother James and his wife Tilly, who was once her best friend, Jas has chosen self-isolation to protect herself--even if it means denying herself a hopeful future with co-worker and potential love interest Henry Lewis. When her godmother dies, Jas returns to Redceder for the funeral, a logging town where her grandfather William Whipple made a living deforesting the countryside, ripping and raping apart nature's very foundations for corporate profits. As trees fell to axes and chainsaws, so did dozens of lumberjacks, falling prey to the dangers of their job--and to the ecoterrorism of Jas's grandfather who was lynched for his crimes. And buried in the haunted woods are even more dark secrets perpetrated by Jas's family. Unnatural acts giving birth to entities made of human flesh and petrified bark, seeking to avenge the devastation that ravaged their land. It is an inheritance that threatens to consume the remnants of Jas's family, and her very sanity. . . Celebrated comedy writer Allison Mick's Humboldt Cut exposes the traumatic costs of environmental destruction in an energetic, darkly humorous horror adventure that combines the botanical terrors of VanderMeer's Annihilation and the psychological horror of The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones with a dash of Jordan Peele.
About the Author
About the Author
Allison Mick is a Los Angeles-based comedy and animation writer from the Great Lakes. Mick's writing appears in Trailer Park Boys: Big A$$ Comic Collection (Devil's Due Comics) and The Hard Times: The First 40 Years (Mariner Books). She was a contributor to the Los Suelos, CA interactive fiction anthology and voices Cougara on the Adult Swim Shorts series High Moon Queen. You can find all sorts of stuff at allison-mick.com.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
Praise for Humboldt Cut by Allison Mick "At once a paean to the northwestern forests and a terrifying slide into the darkest places of the woods, Mick's fantastic debut explores the relationship between humans and the earth that keeps them alive--or can kill them.... A propulsive ecohorror novel that will gently curl its tendrils around readers' fingers and never let go." --Booklist, STARRED REVIEW "A brisk and beguilingly strange novel that reimagines genre tropes and asks heady questions about sorrow, vengeance and healing. Humboldt Cut goes big, encouraging readers to revisit their assumptions about the economic, political and social systems that shape us. But most of all, it's really entertaining."--San Francisco Chronicle "Humboldt Cut casts revelatory light on those shadow histories; it conveys a more inclusive narrative of place--the stretch of the unchecked press of the frontier movement, the blood sunk deep in its soil."--Alta Journal "Mick balances horror and humor brilliantly in this bold novel that asks big questions about our relationship to the natural world. You will never see forests the same way again after reading it." --T. L. Huchu, USA Today bestselling author "A wild ride through grief, humor, and horror, all rooted in the majestic redwoods. Allison Mick's voice is fresh and fearless, and this debut feels like sitting around a campfire where the stories are visceral and engrossing, making you glad there's no clock to tell you it's way past your bedtime." --Jeremy Bates, nationally bestselling author of The No-End House "Allison Mick is the queen of eco-horror, and this novel will put you through the ringer." --Richard Thomas, Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, and Thriller Award finalist "A terrifying, lyrical masterpiece of ecology and ecohorror." --Gretchen McNeil, author of They Fear Not Men in the Woods and #murdertrending "A sensory experience that will make you forget where you are, Humboldt Cut gets under the skin and stays there." --Neena Viel, author of Listen to Your Sister "Both a love letter to national forests and a cautionary warning, Mick meticulously blends mysticism and elemental horror with laugh out loud humor. You'll never look at those redwoods the same way again." --Veronica G. Henry, best-selling author of The Canopy Keepers "With hypnotic prose mirroring the forest's allure and menace, Mick draws readers deeper into the shadows until turning back is impossible. Humboldt Cut is Mother Nature's answer to Jaws." --Leopoldo Goût, award-winning artist, filmmaker, and author of Piñata
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Erewhon Books
Pub date:
2027-01-26
Length:
304 pages
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