Nestled in a little scooped out valley in the Appalachian Mountains and surrounded by the National Forest like a giant maw waiting to snap closed and swallow us whole, Caball Hollow, West Virginia is a hard town to get to and, with the switchback that washes out every time it rains, an even harder town to leave.
We have one stoplight and two restaurants. The Pub and Grub, is primarily a bar, complete with sticky floors and a menu that tastes mostly like old fryer grease. And I’m not just saying that because the other restaurant is my family’s diner.
The Harvest Moon serves breakfast and lunch six days a week, from fried green tomatoes and grits, to cathead biscuits and red-eye gravy. Each recipe was perfected by the generations of James women who came before and faithfully recorded in our family books of mountain wisdom, alongside the best places to find paw paws and what to plant by the phases of the moon. And these days, my younger sister, Linden, has taken to supplementing our menu with a selection of baked goods that make use of her special talents, like lavender shortbread to ease conversation and chess cake for softening hearts.
But family recipes are the least of the secrets in Caball Hollow. I know that better than most, because for as long as anyone can remember, we James women have been born with certain abilities. Sorrel, my older sister can charm bees to do her bidding. Linden can taste the emotions of others. And Juniper, my youngest sister, sees beyond this world and into the next. As for me, I can smell lies.
And this town is full of them. Some folks prop up the bar at the Pub and Grub telling tall tales, one after the other, like the human equivalent of rollin’ coal. They belch out huge stacks of thick, acrid smoke, thinking it makes them look cool, but having the opposite effect on anyone with a lick of sense. Others are more insidious. Talented liars who base their falsehoods in the truth, embellishing it around the edges to suit their purposes. But the stench of it can’t be hidden, it stains their teeth and taints their breath. Everybody lies. That’s why I prefer a long walk, foraging in the woods with my mushroom knife in hand, to the forced politeness of waiting tables at the diner.
Especially because, after the events of this summer, so-called monster hunters have found their way to Caball Hollow in search of fame and the Moth-Winged Man, a creature with the body of a man and the wings of a moth said to be a harbinger of misfortune. Caball Hollow’s single claim to fame, legend says this folklore monster haunts our Forest. A common feature in the stories of the glory days of old men or the cautionary tales of young mothers, it was completely fictionally. Until this summer, when suddenly it wasn’t.
But now, something else is stalking the Forest. Maybe another monster straight out of Appalachian folklore come to life. Or maybe something else, something even more sinister. So, if ever you find yourself walking alone in the woods and you hear someone call your name, no you didn’t.
Welcome to the Hollow, y’all.
In this haunting companion to Bittersweet in the Hollow, a girl who can smell the lies of others uncovers the incendiary mysteries of her small Appalachian town.
Everybody lies. And in knowing their lies, I become the keeper of their secrets.
As Caball Hollow slowly recovers from a tumultuous summer, the James family must also come to terms with their own newly revealed secrets.
18-year-old Rowan James has spent her whole life harboring unpleasant truths—that’s what happens when you can smell lies on the teller’s breath—and building walls around herself to block them out. Like her younger sister, Linden, who can taste the feelings of others, Rowan has long struggled with her gift, which has taught her that everyone distorts the truth, and no one is who they seem to be. So when her old rival Hadrian Fitch shows up on her front porch—bloodied and bruised and asking for the kind of help only she can provide—her first instinct is distrust.
Except Hadrian’s attack isn’t the only strange occurrence. Now small items are disappearing, but rather than report the losses the owners act as if their missing things never existed. Rumors of a new monster prowling the Hollow begin to swirl. But how can Rowan smoke out the culprit in a town full of secrets? And worse, how can Rowan trust beautiful, solemn Hadrian when every other word he speaks has the distinct burnt smell of a lie?
Young Adult Suspense | Young Adult [G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, On Sale: January 7, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9780593531051 / eISBN: 9780593531068]
Kate Pearsall developed a love for storytelling at a young age, often spinning tales of magical worlds and exciting adventures with her sisters. When she’s not writing, she can be found willfully indulging her curiosity by disappearing into museums, exploring new places, and becoming deeply submerged into obscure topics that inevitably make their way into future work.
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