Read This Book: BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE HERE by Autumn Krause

Catalina lives with her father and brother in the woods of Wisconsin. Life is hard for them, and it’s been especially hardscrabble since Mama died, and her father’s mind isn’t always rooted in the present. One day, a series of apples are left on their stoop, and Catalina’s father begins raving about poisoned apples. When he falls ill, he warns them about the Man of Sap…who appears soon after her father succumbs to his illness and steals Catalina’s brother away. Frightened and alone in the world, Catalina goes after this Man of Sap, determined to save her brother. Along the way, she encounters a lumberjack with his own reasons for wanting to find the Man of Sap and must rely on the stories passed down to her if she’s to survive the journey.

This is such a lovely, dark gem of a novel that infuses American folklore with a dark twist. It’s a slim volume at just over 200 pages, but each of those pages is so entrancing. Catalina has a poet’s soul and is inspired by the poetry beloved by her Mexican mother, but life has turned her hard out of necessity. As a result, she understands the darkness that lurks in the world and isn’t frightened by it, but she has to dig deep within herself to find the strength to face it. Her alliance with Paul, the lumberjack, is really lovely, and their slowly blossoming romance provides some sweetness to this darker story. Interspersed throughout the chapters are pages from the Man of Sap’s point of view, and readers learn that he is not the traditional villain and there’s so much more to this story than anyone thinks. This is a really satisfying read, and I enjoyed that it borrowed from 19th-century tall tales and folklore without ignoring the more problematic issues of American history.