I was hooked thinking this would be a dark exploration of an elderly narc mom cracking or something, but it was just super sad. I’m not saying it definitely misused what happened in an Ick way for shock value, but that was my initial reaction.

 

Energy: Macabre. Petulant. Affected.  

 

🐕 Howls
The beginning was giving creepy mom energy, and it just felt jarring (in the wrong way) given the ‘truth’ of what was really happening. 

🐩 Tail Wags
Being epistolary only. The gradual unhinged lines within the letters. The pretentious tone of the letter writer. Using the police reports to find out the truth. 

 

Scene: 🇺🇸 Set in Meyne, Virginia.

Perspective: Letters from mother to daughter.  Police 911 transcripts. Incident reports. 

Timeline: October - April 1981-1982. October 1986.

🔥 Fuel: Foreshadowing. Ominous tone. Unreliable ‘narrator’. Why are these letters being written? What do they mean? 

📖 Cred: Plausible with horrific hyper-realism

 

Leaves crunching. Gristle. Frost on grass. Obituary clippings. Rotting fruit. Painted stairs. 

 

Content Heads-Up: Bug stuff (larvae, maggots, squishing). Animal murder (dog; brief). Hallucinations, paranoia, delusions. Body shaming (clothes, promiscuity). Child abuse (descriptive). Child sexually explicit abuse materials, pedophilia, incest (discovery; evidence; explicit). Kidnapping, confinement. Serial murders. Corpses. Mental illness, psychosis.

 

Rep: American. Cis. Hetero.

 

📚 Format: Kindle Unlimited