Publishers Weekly
06/10/2024
The mythic Chinese figure of the nine-tailed fox spirit goes Midwestern Gothic in Pederson’s unsettling debut, which tracks the rise and fall of the Morrow family of Stag’s Crossing, a 1,000-acre farm in Nebraska. The narrative toggles between “then” and “now.” “Then” follows the three Morrow men—father Carlyle, older son Joshua, and youngest son Nick—as they hunt a deer and a fox after killing the fox’s cubs. In the sections labeled “now,” Carlyle is dying of bone cancer and hopes to reconcile with his sons, who have become estranged after Carlyle disowned Joshua for marrying Emilia, an Asian woman with a mysterious past. As Joshua is drawn back to the farm, Nick, now a jaded literary critic, develops an intense fascination with Emilia. The two timelines come together in an unexpected and clever way, leading to a supernatural and bloody denouement. The close third-person narration stays mainly on Nick, whose mind proves unpleasant and unsettling to spend so much time inside, but this will be a feature, not a bug, to readers of grisly, literary horror that isn’t afraid to show its teeth. Pedersen is sure to win fans. Agent: Paul Lucas, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Aug)
From the Publisher
"This novel presents a contemplatively paced supernatural horror tale, centering family, trauma, and revenge, with unease infused into every detail...the tightly coiled tension will eventually explode; when it does, [readers] will be left gasping in awe. Pedersen’s debut skillfully balances character and atmosphere." —Library Journal, starred review
"This incantatory debut builds menace from its opening phrase. The author is merciless. She writes with a rare acuity...few readers are likely to quit before the final chapter...An assured and bloody fable heralds the arrival of a gifted new voice." —Kirkus Reviews
"The mythic Chinese figure of the nine-tailed fox spirit goes Midwestern Gothic in Pedersen’s unsettling debut. Literary horror that isn’t afraid to show its teeth. Pedersen is sure to win fans." —Publishers Weekly
"A slow burning horror story...Pedersen provides a brilliant and unforgiving commentary on toxic masculinity and racism." —Booklist
“Kailee Pedersen explodes onto the scene with Sacrificial Animals! A weird, gorgeously written supernatural thriller about how the crimes of our fathers can cast dark and devastating shadows over innocent lives. Very highly recommended!” -Jonathan Maberry, NY Times bestselling author of Cave 13 and The Dragon in Winter
"Sacrificial Animals is distinctly observant, and distinctly unsettling. It begins with one sort of menace and ends with another entirely, so that while the book barely leaves its little patch of acres, and the souls who occupy it hardly move an inch from the traumas that shaped them long ago, it leaves you with a feeling of immense distances traveled." -Kevin Brockmeier, New York Times Bestselling author
"An incandescent study of American masculinity with an unforgettable genre-busting twist." - Alex Landragin, author of Crossings
"Brutal and mesmerizing, Kailee Pedersen's Sacrificial Animals drew me in immediately. Easily readable in one sitting, this enigmatic family saga is better savored to appreciate the rhythm of the language and the growing sense of unease. Highly recommended." - Kendare Blake, #1 NYT bestselling author of Three Dark Crowns
"A delicately braided and unflinching tale of inherited family damage and revenge that walks a careful line between the realistic and the supernatural, crossing from one into the other before you—or the hapless characters—are fully aware. Sacrificial Animals reads like what might happen if Cormac McCarthy and Lafcadio Hearn were stuck waiting out a snowstorm in Nebraska and decided to collaborate." - Brian Evenson, author of The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell
"Kailee Pedersen employs the rich prose of early Cormac McCarthy, the bracingly vivid descriptive power of Willa Cather, and the doom-heavy fatefulness of Greek tragedy to create something very much her own: a deliciously gothic horror novel. The set-up is simple: an abusive father summons his two grown sons home for a deathbed reconciliation. But before they can bury the old man, the ghost of a crime from their collective past comes calling, seeking vengeance. Sacrificial Animals' final thirty pages will leave you gasping.” - Scott Smith, New York Times Bestselling author of The Ruins
"Kailee Pedersen's terse, tense, deeply unnerving debut novel mesmerized me from beginning to end. This is a young writer to watch!" -Dan Chaon, author of Sleepwalk
Library Journal
★ 06/01/2024
DEBUT Nick Morrow is 43, living in New York City, and working as a literary critic. This life is a far cry from his childhood spent in the shadow of a cruel father on a 1,000-acre family farm in Nebraska. When his father reaches out to let Nick know he is dying, Nick encourages his estranged brother Joshua (who was disowned when he married Emilia, a woman of Chinese descent) to join him on a trip back home. Told from Nick's point of view across two timeframes, the present and when he was 13, this novel presents a contemplatively paced supernatural horror tale, centering family, trauma, and revenge, with unease infused into every detail. Readers will follow Nick as the foreboding details build, knowing full well that the tightly coiled tension will eventually explode; when it does, they will be left gasping in awe. VERDICT Pedersen's debut skillfully balances character and atmosphere. Recommend to readers who like creepy, methodically paced stories that focus on unease, such as the work of Kevin Brockmeier. Also a good pick for those who enjoy tales that use mythology in a revenge plot, like The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones.
