Inspired by Kailee Pedersen's own journey being adopted from Nanning, China in 1996 and growing up on a farm in Nebraska, this rich and atmospheric supernatural horror debut explores an ancient Chinese mythology.
The last thing Nick Morrow expected to receive was an invitation from his father to return home. When he left rural Nebraska behind, he believed he was leaving everything there, including his abusive father, Carlyle, and the farm that loomed so large in memory, forever.
But neither Nick nor his brother Joshua, disowned for marrying Emilia, a woman of Asian descent, can ignore such summons from their father, who hopes for a deathbed reconciliation. Predictably, Joshua and Carlyle quickly warm to each other while Nick and Emilia are left to their own devices. Nick puts the time to good use and his flirtation with Emilia quickly blooms into romance. Though not long after the affair turns intimate, Nick begins to suspect that Emilia's interest in him may have sinister, and possibly even ancient, motivations.
Punctuated by scenes from Nick's adolescent years, when memories of a queer awakening and a shadowy presence stalking the farm altered the trajectory of his life forever, Sacrificial Animals explores the violent legacy of inherited trauma and the total collapse of a family in its wake.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press.
1 of 1 copy available
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Creators
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Publisher
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Awards
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Release date
August 20, 2024 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781250349880
- File size: 221227 KB
- Duration: 07:40:53
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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June 10, 2024
The mythic Chinese figure of the nine-tailed fox spirit goes Midwestern Gothic in Pederson’s unsettling debut, which tracks the rise and fall of the Morrow family of Stag’s Crossing, a 1,000-acre farm in Nebraska. The narrative toggles between “then” and “now.” “Then” follows the three Morrow men—father Carlyle, older son Joshua, and youngest son Nick—as they hunt a deer and a fox after killing the fox’s cubs. In the sections labeled “now,” Carlyle is dying of bone cancer and hopes to reconcile with his sons, who have become estranged after Carlyle disowned Joshua for marrying Emilia, an Asian woman with a mysterious past. As Joshua is drawn back to the farm, Nick, now a jaded literary critic, develops an intense fascination with Emilia. The two timelines come together in an unexpected and clever way, leading to a supernatural and bloody denouement. The close third-person narration stays mainly on Nick, whose mind proves unpleasant and unsettling to spend so much time inside, but this will be a feature, not a bug, to readers of grisly, literary horror that isn’t afraid to show its teeth. Pedersen is sure to win fans. Agent: Paul Lucas, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. -
December 1, 2024
At the behest of his abusive father, Carlyle, Nick Morrow has been called home to Stag's Crossing, a broken place he thought he escaped long ago. Carlyle is dying, and he has tasked Nick with bringing home Joshua, his older brother, who was disowned after marrying Emilia, a woman of Chinese descent. Nick's infatuation with Emilia and the anger and bitterness at the heart of the Morrow family might prove to be the family's undoing. Though Pedersen's debut takes place in rural Nebraska and features Chinese mythology and supernatural horror, it evokes the Southern gothic, with the flat Nebraska landscape, the entwined toxic relationships, and the characters' simmering emotions all contributing to an oppressive atmosphere. These emotions are skillfully portrayed by narrator Yung-I Chang, who navigates seamlessly from Nick's reedy intellectual tone to Carlyle's angry growl. Readers of tragedies may suspect that Nick and his family are headed for a spectacular fall, but Pedersen seeds the story with subtle foreshadowing so that the conclusion feels more like karma and less like a random assault by supernatural forces. VERDICT Readers of Southern gothic writers like Andy Davidson and William Gay will want to visit Stag's Crossing and experience its fall.--James Gardner
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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