Some interesting ideas in terms of the setting and speculative elements. Unfortunately, revenge fantasy doesn't really do it for me, and there's not a lot of other narrative interest to be found in this book. Character development is particularly neglected: Leslie (and indeed most other characters) are exactly the same at the beginning of the story as they are at the end. I find myself wishing that Stevie was the protagonist instead--his semblance of an arc and close connection to the setting are the most compelling part of the book, and both are muted by being filtered through Leslie's outsider perspective. ( )

A bag of mixed feelings, full review to come but it was an experience! I’m teetering on feeling like this was a lot in such few pages and needed more pages or fewer storylines. ( )

Great for when you need a rage-inducing and releasing cathartic read. Unfortunately you have to get through the fundamentalist rage inducing part first, but it certainly pulls no punches in the end and there's a beauty in the unapologetic fierceness of the characters, even if we only get a taste of them. I'm not sure I enjoyed it, per se, but it's certainly a powerfully vivid story.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss. ( )

Woods All Black is a beautifully written novella about Leslie Bruins, a WW2 nurse who has been assigned to a small, rural Appalachian town through the Frontier Nursing Services to take a post there.
Leslie prefers to see themselves as a man but in Spar Creek in 1929 that is very much not acceptable behavior. When Leslie arrives to the small town, he finds that the hellfire and brimstone minister of the town already has the town against them due to another young woman, Stephanie (Stevie) who also prefers to be known as a man and has brought down the wrath of his family and congregation.
Little do they know that Stevie has called upon the dark ancient magic living in the woods to bring his vengeance upon the town.
I really enjoyed this story and most likely because of the time period the story takes place in. It's a fascinating tale that explores reproductive rights and the terrors that small town fanatics can bring upon everyone. ( )