The Woods All Black - Hardcover

by Lee Mandelo (Author)

When they call you a monster, show your teeth.

The Frontier Nursing Service is sending Leslie Bruin to Spar Creek to vaccinate the flock, birth babies, and weather the judgement of those who see him as a failed woman. Hardened by the atrocities of the Western Front, Leslie thinks he can handle anything a backwoods Appalachian town throws at him. But Spar Creek holds a darkness he isn't prepared for.

Something ugly is festering in the congregation. Violence bubbles around a younger queer person who won't comply with the church's demands on his body -- and the wooded hills enfolding Spar Creek have a mind of their own.

The Woods All Black is a blood-soaked horror story about prejudice and power that reminds us to fight tooth and claw to live as who we are.

Author Biography

Lee Mandelo is a writer, critic, and occasional editor whose fields of interest include speculative and queer fiction, especially when the two coincide. His debut novel, Summer Sons, which has been featured in NPR and the Chicago Review of Books, is a contemporary Southern gothic dealing with queer masculinity, fast cars, and ugly inheritances. Other work can be found in magazines such as Tor.com, Uncanny, and Nightmare; he has also been a past nominee for awards, including the Nebula, Lambda, and Hugo. Aside from a stint overseas learning to speak Scouse, Mandelo has spent his life ranging across Kentucky, currently living in Louisville and pursuing a PhD at the University of Kentucky.