Strange Folk

 Tell me a story... about the dark side of magic

Strange Folk by Alli Dyer

Publication date: August 6, 2024

Date read: November 10, 2024

Audiobook read by Megan Tusing, Suehyla El Attar-Young, and Kitty Hendrix

Lee left Craw Valley at eighteen without a backward glance. She wanted no part of the generations of her family who tapped into the power of the land to heal and help their community. But when she abandons her new life in California and has nowhere else to go, Lee returns to Craw Valley with her children in tow to live with her grandmother, Belva. Lee vows to stay far away from Belva’s world of magic, but when the target of one of her grandmother’s spells is discovered dead, Lee fears that Belva’s magic may have summoned something dark.

Another tough one for me to rate. I actually had this as an ebook, and found it to be very slow going. I kept putting it down to read something else, but I was intrigued enough by the plot that I wasn't about to DNF. I wanted to know what happened. In the end, I switched to audiobook and found that a much easier go and am glad I finished it. 

This book is full of unlikable characters, including our narrators, which I think is why I had such a hard time at the beginning. The majority of the book is from Lee's POV, and she just honestly wasn't that fun to read. The plot, however, kept me coming back. 

I liked the question about whether or not Belva's magic was real, as well as the mystery of why people kept ending up dead. I obviously won't give anything away, but I liked the way it ended. 

This book is hard for me to recommend, because I did enjoy it and thought the ending was worth the slow start. But at the same time, it's hard to recommend a book to someone and say that the last 25% is great, but the first 75% is kind of a slog. So I do recommend it to someone who's looking for a slow burn mystery with a good payout, but definitely not to those who want their mysteries action packed. 

Content warning: animal death, pedophilia (adult with teenager), drug use/overdose, alcoholism, murder, child physical abuse

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.