Horror, thriller and fantasy meet in this novel, which kept me awake through the night wanting to see how it would end. Liz, a troubled black woman, visits her nearly all-white birthplace to attend the wedding of her best friend Mel. When Mel’s young daughter disappears, it sets in motion long-forgotten memories of a creature in the woods that abducts and maims little black girls. Tense, page-turning stuff.
The violence of the abduction was swift. One moment she was there, the next she was gone, In the seconds before she was dragged into the trees, she still wasn't afraid. She'd reached past that feeling to find something more useful.
Hope.
She prayed- not that nothing bad would happen. She clung to the hope she'd see daylight again. She'd have a chance to laugh with her friends again. She'd see her family. Whispers of these desires escaped her lips. With each one that did, his grip on her grew tighter. When her shoulder gave in a painful pop, she cried out. He looked back at her. He witnessed her pain with curiosity. Like it had never occurred to him she could feel the sensation at all.
Beyond this disconnect, Morgan saw him. Sadness morphed into apathetic hate: He made his misery hers. That was when Morgan felt true fear. She didn't need to be an adult to know that sad men are the most dangerous
