Nate Holbrook had put his past behind him. When his friends went missing all those years ago at Lake Swart, it had been nothing more than a tragic mystery. No matter what stories they’d told each other about the “Forest Man,” there was no primeval menace lingering in that cave they found deep in the woods.
But when Nate meets up with Jennifer, a fellow Lake Swart survivor and his first love, everything changes. Finding her scarred and broken by the weight of the past, he proposes a daring remedy for their shared trauma—to return to their old summer haunt and prove the thing in the cave nothing more than a delusion and a myth.
But what if Nate is wrong?
What if the Forest Man is still waiting, after all this time, for a new friend to sing his song… to take his hand and disappear?
“A relentlessly paced, shining example of how well folklore can work in horror. Cornetto pulls the reader in immediately, seamlessly weaving two timelines and building up to a nail-biting climax. A swift read that will leave you breathless.”
—Laurel Hightower, author of CROSSROADS and BELOW
About Holley Cornetto
Holley Cornetto is a writer, librarian, professor, book reviewer, and transplanted southerner who now calls New Jersey home.
Her debut novella, WE HAUNT THESE WOODS, is available from Bleeding Edge Books. Her short fiction has appeared in magazines such as Daily Science Fiction, Flame Tree Press Newsletter, Dark Recesses Press, and anthologies from Cemetery Gates Media, Eerie River Publishing, Dark Ink, and several others. In 2020, she was awarded a grant from the Ladies of Horror Fiction.
In addition to writing The Horror Tree’s weekly newsletter, she regularly reviews for Booklist, Ginger Nuts of Horror, and The Horror Tree. She teaches creative writing in the online MFA program at Southern New Hampshire University. Find her on Twitter @HLCornetto.
About Bleeding Edge Books
Bleeding Edge Books is a small publisher of horror and dark fiction of all permutations with a focus on anthologies and novellas. Our goal is to bring you meticulously crafted books that feature popular and established authors as well as new and emerging voices. We believe fiction should be a visceral experience. We seek to engage you, unsettle you, amaze you, break your heart, and piece it back together, leaving you forever changed.
