First published 2025
The Mansfield sisters have always drawn whispers in Little Nettlebed. The villagers find them odd, perhaps too proud for their station. Then the barking starts. Someone claims to witness the sisters actually changing into dogs before his eyes. The rumors spread like wildfire through the small English village, where strange creatures already wash up on the riverbed and ravens gather on rooftops before deaths occur. Five different villagers tell their versions of what happens next. Each narrator brings their own suspicions and prejudices to the story. The sisters become targets of growing fear and fascination. Local belief in witchcraft may be fading in this eighteenth century community, but hatred of anything different remains strong. All the conflicting accounts point toward the same outcome. The Mansfield girls will pay the price for whatever darkness the villagers believe has infected their home. The question becomes whether it might be safer to live as a dog than as young women who refuse to conform.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, mystery, horror, dark-fantasy, gothic
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, eerie, suspenseful, thought-provoking, tragic
Tropes: mob-mentality, multiple-perspectives, scapegoating, transformation, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Little Nettlebed, England
Period: 18th century
240 pages · Paperback · Holt Paperbacks
Content warnings: death, sexism, violence