Hannah’s Pick of the Week: The Unmothers by Leslie J. Anderson

“She looked back at the friendly horses and saw that one of them had those eyes—those human eyes. Not blue this time, but somehow possessing a human awareness. It did not look at her. It studied her. The horse raised its head a little and the eyes widened, as if seeing the recognition in her face and thinking, Maybe.”  

Leslie J. Anderson, The Unmothers, pg. 138

After the traumatic death of her husband leaves Carolyn Marshall unmoored, she’s sent on assignment to investigate what should be an open-and-shut tabloid piece: a family in the rural town of Raeford claims their horse gave birth to a healthy, baby boy.  

A human baby boy. 

Getting the residents of Raeford to talk, though, proves to be almost a Sisphyean task, as they harangue their own neighbors just as much as they do outsiders. But what should be a girl-meets-boy, girl-gets-pregnant, girl-leaves-boy story turns that much more intriguing when two corpses are found in a field: one human, one horse. As Marshall gets swept up in the fervor that rips through Raeford in the aftermath of the killings and grows ever closer to the families of the small, insular town, something starts to haunt her footsteps at night. Something big, something hungry, something that demands restitution for, and from, the women of Raeford.  

Anderson’s debut keeps you galloping alongside it, with twists and turns that sink their teeth into you. Switching from Marshall’s perspective to the voices of each of the townsfolk, The Unmothers is delicious deep dive into a rural American town with dark secrets of its own, exploring generational grief, female autonomy, and a desire to both find home and to burn it all to the ground. 

If you’ve read Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine and loved its exploration of motherhood and autonomy, or prefer the folk horror elements of Grey Dog by Elliot Gish, then The Unmothers is a solid next read. Or, if you’re interested in an unwinding mystery surrounding the wild beasts within and the beasts that surround us, then I recommend The Unmothers. 

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