Reviewed by Valerie Dorsey
This is definitely a weird one! Brings together horror, dark longings, religious angst, and creatures of the night. Seems we all have fears of creepy things that come up out of the ground and the author gives us a good visual of just such a thing happening in this story.
My first time reading Kristi DeMeester and she gave me quite an introduction with Beneath. This is no good vs evil, this is all evil. Characters all have deep, darks secrets, urges and longings! Add in the reclusive mountain towns of Appalachia with their small church religion, snake handling and hidden secrets! Evil, literally erupts from the ground and spreads far and wide with no happy ending in site.
When reporter Cora Mayburn is assigned to cover a story about a snake-handling cult in rural Appalachia, she is dismayed, for the world of cruel fundamentalist stricture, repression, glossolalia, and abuse is something she has long since put behind her in favor of a more tolerant urban existence. But she accepts the assignment, dredging up long-buried memories as she seeks the truth.
As Cora begins to uncover the secrets concealed by a veneer of faith and tradition, something ancient and long concealed begins to awaken. What secrets do the townsfolk know? What might the handsome young pastor be hiding? What will happen when occulted horrors writhe to the surface, when pallid and forgotten things rise to reclaim the Earth?
Will Cora–and the earth–survive? The answers–and pure terror–can only be found in one place: Beneath.
