Strange Folk by Alli Dyer

Strange Folk by Alli Dyer

Published by Atria Books on August 6, 2024

Genres:  Fantasy, Fiction, Magical Realism, Mystery, Magic, Paranormal, Witches, Thriller

Pages:  320

Format:  ARC

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★★★.5

A woman returns to her estranged, magical family in Appalachia but when a man is found dead in the woods nearby, it seems the family has conjured something sinister in this lush, shimmering, and wildly imaginative debut novel that is perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman, Deborah Harkness, and Sarah Addison Allen.

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.

As she and her family search for answers, Lee travels down a rabbit hole of strange phenomena and family secrets that force her to reckon with herself and rediscover her power in order to protect her family and the town she couldn’t leave behind.

I love a good witchy read in the fall. The setting being a small town in rural Appalachia with a history of folk magic and trouble gave me the perfect atmosphere. We get to see several of the women's perspectives over the course of this book and they are all woven together.

This is one of those books that you can just picture in your head as it's going on. The magic system was very easy to grasp but I wished we would have gotten to explore it a little more. We get glimpses here and there of them actually performing but mostly it's just talk about having magic in general.

The plot did take me a minute to fully get into but once the mystery aspect of it really amped up I was hooked. Dyer throws in twists in a slow way that gives you time to really absorb them. There was one point where I though the book was about to be over and then we slowly get thrown back in to another mystery. I really liked that we got to spend a little more time with this family and seeing them connect. Huge found family vibes going on.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. This was a good read and I did enjoy listening to it but it did just feel a little slow and longer than it needed to be. There was a lot to follow along with at times and many characters are introduced so it took a minute to remember who was who. The setting and mystery were the main things I connected with but the characters fell a little flat.