Hemlock

In this moody debut novel from essayist Faliveno (Tomboyland), a disillusioned woman returns from New York City to rural Wisconsin. Exhausted by the hustle, Sam leaves behind her boyfriend, her Brooklyn apartment, and her job as a magazine editor for Hemlock, her family’s dilapidated cabin, to fix it up so her father can sell it. While there alone, Sam reflects on her family’s history of alcoholism and her mother’s disappearance into the nearby woods during a mental breakdown a few years earlier. Sam herself struggles with alcohol and succumbs to the temptation after almost a year without drinking. She then starts to sense a malevolent presence in the cabin, has conversations with a doe, and wakes up in the woods on a few occasions after blackouts. She also stops trying to appear feminine, embraces her androgynous nature, and flirts with a local girl named Gina. Faliveno keeps the reader guessing as to whether supernatural forces or Sam’s drinking are responsible for the sinister goings-on, and she delivers an ending that’s both satisfying and open to interpretation. There’s much to enjoy in this gothic family drama. Agent: Marya Spence, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Jan.)