In the House in the Dark of the Woods

Having explored the dark realities of American history, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner Hunt (Kind One) goes fantastical in this beautifully delivered example of literary horror, set in colonial New England. A Puritan woman walks into the woods to pick berries for her husband and son and, after falling asleep, awakes to a strange new world she cannot escape. She's helped fleetingly by Captain Jane, who returns later to rescue her after cackling Granny Someone shoves her down a filthy well to rescue a precious object. Meanwhile, the woman spends time with Circe-like Eliza, who enchants her with kindness, well-stocked larder, and spooky games. Eliza has increasingly disturbing visions—looking through a bit of bark, she sees not golden-haired Eliza but a sunken-eyed hag. Yet much as she desires to leave, the real world she recalls—unkind parents and a pious, abusive husband—isn't promising either. If the women she encounters are indeed witches, evoking witchcraft's place in America's past, they're also guides of sorts—or perhaps projections of our innermost memories, desires, and fears.