by Jasmine Holmes
First sentence: “Lucas Fulton was Marah’s least favorite client.”
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Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: June 9, 2026
Content: There is a lot of Black trauma in this one – lynchings, abuse, racism, general violence – and a lot of violence against women, both overt and passive. It will be in the Horror section of the bookstore.

On the surface, East Cobb, Mississippi, sounds like heaven. It’s a Black town where everything is perfect: men have good jobs, there are good homes, and best of all, there isn’t any violence. It should be the perfect place for newlyweds Thea and Kidd Elliott to make their home. Except, once they get there, Thea starts to realize that not everything is as it seems. There is a patriarchal order that she is uncomfortable with; everyone in town, both men and women alike, looks down on her for wanting to be like Ida Wells and make a living writing and reporting. She’s supposed to be supporting her husband and having babies, right? And then, when she starts to see and hear things – women screaming, lynchings, echoes of crimes past – the women in town start gaslighting her: there are no ghosts. There isn’t anything wrong. You’re just going crazy, dear.

Marah, on the other hand, is trapped as a carrier in East Cobb – a woman to takes away, literally, the burdens of the men in town. She – and the other carriers – are “experiments” of a white doctor, and of the Black mistress who runs the house. Then, after a couple of the girls die under suspicious circumstances, Marah starts trying to figure out how she got to be a carrier and how to break out of the prison she is in.

There was so much anger baked into this book. Anger at the way Black people are treated. Anger at the way women are treated. But there is also a lot of hope: the community of Black women who band together (instead of hiding and giving into the patriarchy) is Strong, and not only are they survivors, they will Flourish despite all that has been done to them. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I felt like I was witnessing the anger of Black women and the retribution that will (eventually) come.

I was thinking when I started that this would be Mexican Gothic-like, but as I went on, I found it was less Horror and more speculative fiction. The “magic” of the carriers was never really explained, which I didn’t mind, but I also wasn’t terrified by it all. It’s a good work of historical fiction, and I appreciated looking at what an all-black town could be like. It’s also a warning, though: if we don’t heal from the past, there is no way to have a good future.

All this to say: it wasn’t what I expected, but I am glad I read it.