Girls from the County

Award-winning poet and novelist Lynch’s (Choking Back the Devil) latest unyielding, horror-filled poetry collection is unsettling and impossible to put down. She employs a unique approach in the writing of this collection. Rather than focusing on women encountering monsters in the city or the countryside, she tells of young women she calls “county girls.” These young women live in the in-between places, in rural towns that often escape notice. As Lynch points out, women here have their own awful but relatable tales marked by trauma, fear, and horrors that lurk nearby. Lynch mixes folk horror and free-flowing poetry together, relaying stories of predators, murderers, bodies in freezers, witches, grief, rage, and empty old houses. Short but lyrical, this poetry collection sounds almost like a confessional or a diary. The audio is narrated by Lynch herself, whose eerily calm demeanor pairs well with the ominous music that runs throughout.