Beautifully told, thematically rich, and quietly devastating; a stunner.
A soul-hungry spider-spirit stalks the forests of Gitlu’quam Island in Tocher’s elegant, elemental dark fable. A group of children, orphaned by the monstrous T’lejhánkha, a creature who feeds not only on flesh but on the souls of the dying, find refuge beneath Three Brothers Mountain. There, aided by animal guides, they are entrusted with a ritual older than memory. But the spider has risen once more, and the cost of forgetting may be everything.
Tocher creates a fictional world that honors the values and aesthetics of oral storytelling while remaining wholly original. His prose is lyrical but restrained, charged with symbolism and moral clarity. The horror, in the book, is quiet but devastating. The psychological stakes are high, and the spiritual teachings—voiced through the mountain—bring sobering clarity amid the chaos. Andrea Acosta’s illustrations add quiet elegance, deepening the story’s emotional pull without ever overshadowing it. The novel is not just about dark forces, but about the conditions that let them thrive, and what it takes to keep them contained. For readers who don’t mind a chill in their fairy tales and a lesson in their fears, this one delivers.
Andrea Acosta (Illustrator)
Rose Valley Press
Pub date
ASIN B0F7G8JTFH
Price $7.24 (USD) Paperback, $3.61 Kindle edition, $0.00 Kindle Unlimited
