Smothermoss. Alisa Alering. 2024.
Debut. Literary fiction. Magical realism. Southern Gothic.
When a brutal murder of two hikers awakens a dark, supernatural presence on an Appalachian mountain, two impoverished, estranged half-sisters must unite to confront their own personal hauntings and hunt down a real-world fugitive.
Alering adopts an alternating, multi-perspective point of view for this story. One perspective is the mountain (Smothermoss) itself. The others are the sisters, who have very different personalities. The oldest: repressed and self-loathing. And the youngest: confident and adventurous.
This unusual combination of voices creates a vibe that is, at times, perilously inconsistent. One moment the reader is lingering in the haunting and surreal mind of the eternal mountain. Then the story cuts to the thriller-esque perspective of the chaotic younger sister. Only to switch, a few pages after that, into the slow and anxious foreboding of the traumatized protagonist.
But since this is a debut novel, I will not judge Alering too harshly. This vibe, while unpredictable, does not ruin her story. It merely makes it a little less enjoyable than it might have been had the author made different choices.
AUTHORS – I write short book reviews that focus on voice and vibe. They are useful to querying authors searching for comp titles. There are more like this on my website.
REMINDER – If you follow my reviews, you already know this. I have a policy about reviewing debut novels. Provided I finish them, I always rate debut novels with maximum stars, regardless. When I don’t finish a debut novel, I don’t review it. No exceptions. And I don’t review books I don’t pay full price for.