Old Country

In their debut novel, brothers Matt and Harrison Query offer a slight variation of the haunted house story by adding a generous pinch of folk horror. The property just purchased by former U.S. Marine Harry and his wife Sasha is not haunted by a traditional ghost, but by a mountain spirit that presents itself differently with each season. The couple soon learn the specific rituals that appease this spirit and keep them safe, but the ghost’s manifestations become even more dangerous and disturbing as the seasons change. What was to be Harry and Sasha’s dream home, a place to be a family, becomes an inescapable nightmare. The story itself begins as a slow, uphill climb, but the terror gets turned up later, especially as the story nears its climax. Alternating between Harry’s and Sasha’s points of view, narrators Kiff VandenHuevel and Juliette Goglia lay bare Harry’s struggles with PTSD and Sasha’s inner strength.