In this mosaic of Southwestern Gothic Horror tales, a primordial goddess
awakens deep within the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The mountain hungers
for revenge as invaders leave her emaciated with their greed and
brutality. She cries out for blood, infusing the minds of those who do
not belong-twisting them outwardly into the dark forms of their true
intentions.
An Under Sheriff struggles to grasp brittle threads of hope within the
valley and mountains, his soul tormented by the unanswered questions of
crimes he can't explain and the dead and missing he could not help. The
demented Red Women fracture the meaning of being maiden, mother, and
crone within the shadows of twisted belief systems. Men and women
devolve into the grotesque, drowning in their greed and violence
transmuting into creatures too hideous to name. Others find seduction on
her rocky hips and release within the baptism of her blood. The valley
steeped in cults and crime hides something dark, where mirage plays with
the senses, disappearances go unexplained, UFOs and creatures await
watching in hunger.
This composite of interwoven stories and brief vignettes invites the
reader to hear the hypnotic call of the Blood Mountain. Will she ask you
into her vortex or swallow you whole?
What They're Saying
"...a bloody mosaic novel that brings together smart writing and pure
horror with beautiful prose and important topics. At once a powerful
chant about Earth and womanhood, a shapeshifting narrative packed with
blood that centers Otherness, and a strange literary creature that
slides into your flesh..." -Gabino Iglesias, Coyote Songs
"A blood-beating, ancient survival song from Tolian and one hell of a
first novel. Blood Mountain unearths the voices long-buried, many of
whom should have stayed put in their graves. Still, Tolian doesn't allow
for pardons in this brutal landscape with characters carrying the
burdens of beauty and grief, heartbreak and sins. Tolian never falters
when the dead demand to be heard and the living is forced to reckon with
the land and the mountain-just as alive as the people that claim
her-watching, waiting."-Hillary Leftwich, Ghosts Are Just Strangers Who
Know How to Knock and Aura
"Brenda Sue Tolian never flinches at staring into the abyss and
reporting precisely what she finds in the darkness. Her stark,
provocative prose sticks in your memory like a fish hook into your
eye."-Stanley Wiater, host of Dark Dreamers
"Along the face of Tolian's mountain: real horrors exist beside sudden,
lavish declarations. Angsts and awes, polished and raw. A mosaic of
mountain songs that penetrate all the way to the beating, blood heart. A
tremendous knotting of setting, mood, and mind."-Josh Malerman, New
York Times best selling author of Bird Box and Goblin
