“The Unmothers is a triumph of folk horror that will gratify lovers of Midsommar and The Handmaid’s Tale.”—Library Journal, starred review

“Debut author Anderson crafts a truly unsettling gothic horror story. Horror fans will be rattled.”—Publishers Weekly

“Desolate, heartrending, and genuinely scary.”—Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt

“The Unmothers is exquisite and haunting in equal measure. . . . Nauseatingly tense and crushingly insightful. This book represents an absolutely vital entry into the horror canon.”—Sarah Gailey, nationally best-selling author of The Echo Wife and Just Like Home

“At the crossroads of True Detective and Emma Donoghue’s The Wonder, this equine Wicker Man manifests a mood equal parts majestic and terrifying, tragic and sublime. A rust belt gothic of Lynchian proportions, The Unmothers will linger long after you’re done riding—I mean reading.”—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters

“Leslie Anderson writes with searing honesty and a palpable compassion for her characters in this story about the terrifying ways people cling to—and weaponize—belief systems. The Unmothers is riveting; the evil it depicts is insidious and real. You will easily fall captive to the eerie town of Raeford and its monsters.”—Anne Heltzel, author of Just Like Mother

“The Unmothers is a grimly beautiful novel about the terrifying collective power of women’s sublimated hope, grief, and rage. Leslie J. Anderson deftly balances poetic horror and unflinching realism in a powerful debut. This is folk horror for a forgotten America.”—Emily C. Hughes, author of Horror for Weenies and former editor of TorNightfire.com

“The Unmothers is brilliant. It is beautiful, heartbreaking, terrifying, and sharply intelligent. This book reminds me why I fell in love with folk horror in the first place. It also made me respect and love horses in a way I never have before! Anderson has such a pure sense of character and place, this might be the most perfectly nuanced book I’ve read in a long time. You won’t want to leave Raeford behind.”—Sam Rebelein, author of Edenville

“Terrifying in its beauty, horror, and power, this is a breathless read and a groundbreaking debut. You will never forget its dark spell.”—Alison Stine, Philip K. Dick Award–winning author of Road Out of Winter and Trashlands

“Haunting. Anderson’s deft debut fuses intriguing small-town mystery, disturbing horror, and a supernatural horse cult into an urgent and original tale.”—James Kennedy, author of Bride of the Tornado and Dare to Know

Mare of Easttown meets horse girl horror in this gripping, atmospheric tale of female rage and bodily autonomy. 

In her lyrical and evocative voice, Leslie J. Anderson emerges with her debut novel, The Unmothers, an emotionally raw and propulsive folk horror that weaves together a murder investigation, commentary on abortion, and generational trauma. Combining her own lifelong experience with horses and the rage from a difficult pregnancy during the fall of Roe v. Wade, Anderson creates a tense, gritty, one-of-a-kind mystery in The Unmothers that will grip fans of Jessamine Chan’s School for Good Mothers and Mona Awad’s Bunny.

Marshall, a stoic journalist, is still trying to put the pieces together after the death of her husband. Her editor sends her to Raeford—a small town that is kinder to the horses it is famous for breeding than to its own people—to investigate a clearly ridiculous rumor: that a horse has given birth to a healthy, human baby boy. Marshall believes it’s a pity assignment, something fluffy to get her back on her feet. But when two mangled bodies are discovered in a field—one a horse, one human—Marshall realizes there’s a darkness to Raeford. As she finds herself pulled deeper into the lives of Raeford’s guarded, insular people, she starts to think that there might be a real story to investigate in this strange town, where the townspeople are afraid to walk through fog and the priest leaves out milk and brown sugar for the monstrous creature that roams the woods.

The more Marshall gets to know the people of Raeford—from Roswell, the father of the horse’s human baby; to the weary police officer set on saving his drug-addicted best friend; to the young girl who worships the strong, beastly horses Roswell’s mother raises—the more secrets spill into her hands. Stories of rituals and sacrifice passed down from woman to woman, all saying the same thing: if a Raeford woman doesn’t want to be pregnant, there’s a way to stop being pregnant . . . but it comes with a price.

With singular, compelling prose, Anderson weaves together an emotionally complex, hauntingly unique, and socially relevant story about the impossible choices a pregnant person is forced to make—or is denied—during pregnancy.