Book Review | The Boatman's Daughter by Andy Davidson

The Boatman's Daughter is a southern novel of horror fiction by Andy Davidson.

A "lush nightmare" (Paul Tremblay) of a supernatural thriller about a young woman facing down ancient forces in the depths of the bayou

Ever since her father was killed when she was just a child, Miranda Crabtree has kept her head down and her eyes up, ferrying contraband for a mad preacher and his declining band of followers to make ends meet and to protect an old witch and a secret child from harm.

But dark forces are at work in the bayou, both human and supernatural, conspiring to disrupt the rhythms of Miranda's peculiar and precarious life. And when the preacher makes an unthinkable demand, it sets Miranda on a desperate, dangerous path, forcing her to consider what she is willing to sacrifice to keep her loved ones safe.

With the heady mythmaking of Neil Gaiman and the heartrending pacing of Joe Hill, Andy Davidson spins a thrilling tale of love and duty, of loss and discovery. The Boatman's Daughter is a gorgeous, horrifying novel, a journey into the dark corners of human nature, drawing our worst fears and temptations out into the light.

I mentioned in my review of Where the Crawdads Sing earlier this year that five star reviews can be so hard for me to write sometimes. I don't always have the words to capture the "feeling" of what I'm reading. And that feeling is what I seek when I lose myself in a book. When I tagged The Boatman's Daughter as read on Goodreads, I posted in my review space "Eeek. This feels impossible to review right now." It still feels that way.

After loving In the Valley of Sun so much, I was really looking forward to reading The Boatman's Daughter and entering one of Davidson's worlds again. This time I was a more experienced reader and knew to slow down and savor what was inside.

Davidson's books are an amazing mix of prose, setting, and character, and I highly recommend that you lose yourself in one of them.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Recent Updates and Currently Reading | July 9

What a great bookish weekend this has turned out to be! Yesterday my husband and I went to one of Andy Davidson's book signings. {See my review of In the Valley of the Sun}

Andy Davidson and me

Andy did a Q&A, and then we were treated to a reading from In the Valley of the Sun. (It made me want to read it all over again.) I also got to meet Andy's wife Crystal (she's absolutely adorable and a great champion of Andy's work), Bob Pastorella who is also a horror author and a co-host of the This is Horror podcast, and Kenneth DeVille, a local author.

Posted Last Week

Who knew July was going to be such a huge month for horror releases? Last week I posted all of the horror books releasing in July. Go check them out!

Read Last Week

After reading Edith Wharton's Summer, I was still in the mood for a classic so I read The Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

I also read Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids. Guys, it was worse than Little Heaven for me. I need a quick slump busting read stat!

Current Distractions

• I finished season one of Game of Thrones. I knew not to get attached to anyone, but wow, that was fast!!
• I finally watched John Wick: Chapter 2.
• I watched the first couple of episodes of The Mist. The characters are annoying (classic Stephen King TV, amirite?), but the show is getting scary and I dig that.
• We've had a couple additions to the summer of board games recently with Tsuro (a tile laying strategy game) and Forbidden Island (our first co-op game). They are both gorgeous games and so far a lot of fun, too!
• Wimbledon! Wimbledon is my super bowl so these two weeks are always a favorite of my summer. The first week has been a big disappointment as far as sportsmanship goes, but I'm going to shake it off and enjoy every minute of week 2 tennis.

So what about you? Let me know what you're reading (or watching) this week or leave me some links!

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This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Book Review | In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson

In the Valley of the Sun is Andy Davidson's debut horror novel.

For readers of Joe Hill, Cormac McCarthy, and classic Anne Rice, a chilling tale of suspense and horror set deep in the Texas desert.

Travis Stillwell spends his nights searching out women in West Texas honky-tonks. What he does with them doesn’t make him proud, just quiets the demons for a little while. But his nights soon take a terrifying turn in a desert cantina, where Travis crosses paths with a mysterious pale-skinned girl in red boots. Come the morning, he wakes weak and bloodied in his cabover camper, no sign of a girl, no memory of the night before.

Annabelle Gaskin spies the camper parked behind her rundown motel and offers the disheveled cowboy inside a few odd jobs to pay his board. Travis takes her up on the offer, if only to buy time, to lay low, to heal. By day, he mends the old motel, insinuating himself into the lives of Annabelle and her ten-year-old son. By night, in the cave of his camper, he fights an unspeakable hunger. Before long, Annabelle and her boy come to realize that this strange cowboy they’ve taken in is not what he seems.

Half a state away, a grizzled Texas ranger is hunting Travis down for his past misdeeds, but what he finds will lead him to a revelation far more monstrous than he could ever imagine. A man of the law, he’ll have to decide how far into the darkness he’ll go for the sake of justice.

When these lives converge on a dusty autumn night, an old evil will find new life—and new blood.

Deftly written and utterly compelling, this is an atmospheric literary fiction debut perfect for fans of horror, psychological suspense, and Western fiction.

In the Valley of the Sun reminds me of my experience with The Girl with All the Gifts. I went into it not knowing what kind of horror book it was, and my experience was much better for it. In the Valley of the Sun never actually names the horror so I'm not going to either. My hope is that you will give it a chance without finding out too much about it. It's a really great book, but it's a great experience, too. One of my favorite things about In the Valley of the Sun was the slow unveiling of what was really going on.

In the Valley of the Sun is scary, too. I was so nervous for everyone, even the villains. Only the best of horror novels can make you love the villains, and In the Valley of the Sun is one of those books.

As much as I love the horrors in In the Valley of the Sun, every bit of the credit goes to Andy Davidson's writing. This book is so well written and so well crafted. He has given us a really beautiful addition to an old horror myth, and I could not be more excited about it.

This has been an amazing year for horror releases, and you will definitely see In the Valley of the Sun on my best of list for the year (maybe even in the top spot).

9/10: Highly Recommended

Review copy provided by publisher