Reviews and Comments

An eerie folk horror gothic and psychological slow-build of madness, in a closed-in, oppressive small-town historical setting, surrounded by woods in which something hungry calls. . .

Ada Byrd starts out as the anxious new teacher in the village whom everyone treats affectionately, only to slowly descend in status to a smelly forest witch they can’t stand to be around. Ada narrates this story through journal entries, so we only get her perception of events. This is a madwoman’s diary, and leaves a lot of questions unanswered and ambiguous, in true gothic horror style.

The horror here is mostly in the grotesque imagery and psychological intrigue, and the mysterious force courting the fiery yet meek young women of the village, enticing them to embrace their wildest desires. There’s also creepy children, a mysterious beautiful rich widow, and suspenseful environmental isolation.

This book engages topics such as religious trauma, sexism, and manifestations of master-slave relationship dynamics various kinds of women may have experienced back in the early 1900s when this is set. The pain and horror of childbearing and childbirth is another hot subject recurring in the story. Many females in the village area (and not just the human ones) miscarry, but it’s not always a bad thing for them.

Finally, while this was certainly a slow build of a story, it passed rather quickly due to the easy lengths of the journal entries, and didn’t feel like 400 pages at all. Like the grey dog of the title, it is seductive and dream-like.

[ I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley and am leaving my honest feedback here voluntarily. ]

We needed this book so much. We’re fortunate to have authors like Leah Penniman to collect all these beautiful Black experts together for us. The presentation of the dialogue is enjoyable, and there were handy introductions before each speaker. It was inspiring to hear from my people about this, in our voices, on tackling the biggest challenge of our time. Tell it like it is, call out the purposeful, systematic blocks and even sabotages to resolving past and current environmental issues! Mother Nature says we trippin’, and it’s true.

The scope of this book was more than I ever expected. Amazing that it took us from the farm to the city to the ocean, and every crack and crevice in between. The fact that the ocean is more the lungs of the planet than the forests was the biggest eye-opener here for me. So much we gotta do for our water, so much more attention which has to be paid.

And hell yeah, of course we bringing it all back to the arts, because only artists can shift social consciousness in the ways necessary to galvanize the people. This sentiment was so beautifully communicated in the chapter with Alice Walker, and expressed poetically later on.

Thank you Penniman for this very timely, very necessary collection.