THE WRETCHED AND UNDONE, dark and spooky Texas-set immigrant family saga

THE WRETCHED AND UNDONE
J.E. WEINER
HtF Publishing (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$9.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A sweeping Southern Gothic saga unfolds in the Texas Hill Country, where history's silenced voices rise amidst an astonishing tale that defies expectations.

A sinister specter is hell-bent on revenge, and an ethereal woman in white is desperate to repel the menacing force. A battle rages for the hearts, minds, and souls of the Anderwalds and their extended family of immigrant outcasts, Arab camel wranglers, wounded warriors, and a songstress on the verge of madness. A sweeping Southern Gothic saga unfolds in the Texas Hill Country, where history's silenced voices rise amidst an astonishing tale that defies expectations.

On the eve of the Civil War, Polish immigrants Marcin and Agnieszka Anderwald arrive in Bandera, Texas, seeking a new beginning. But when Marcin crosses paths with a vengeful ghost known as the Shadow, their dream quickly turns into a nightmare. The Anderwalds' baby drowns, and Agnieszka is convinced she is to blame. She starves herself to death, returning from the grave as a ghostly Woman in White, determined to protect her family. Marcin and Agnieszka's son, Zacharias, burdened by grief, becomes entangled in a quest for vengeance that threatens his very soul. As he and his wife Liza clash with the relentless Shadow, they cling to hope when blessed with a child, John Marcin Anderwald.

But the curse of the Anderwalds is unyielding. John Marcin grows up amidst murder trials, haunting executions, and the ever-present Shadow that seeks to destroy his family. His love for the troubled singer Anna Schulte leads to further heartache, and his sons, Luke and Junior, inherit a legacy of sorrow and secrets that could tear them apart.

As the Anderwald legacy unfolds, each generation faces its own harrowing ordeal, where love and sacrifice are pitted against an unrelenting evil. Will they break free from the Shadow's curse, or will they remain forever wretched and undone?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Bandera! Good goddle mitey, y'all, that's just down the road a piece from my home town, Austin. What a surprise to find it in a novel of a cursèd family of Polish immigrants who are purported to be based on real people.

Dunno about all that, but it's cool to read about people I actually know. Or knew...most of the ones I met are bound to be dead by now, they all smoked like chimneys. But a thing most people don't seem to know is just how much the aftermath of the 1848 revolutions affected inbound migration into Texas. The repressions that followed the PTB returning to uncontested power in the Prussian, Austrian, and Russian Empires led to many, many people making their way to Galveston and Indianola to escape repression and reprisals from Bohemia, Poland, and Silesia...most especially Catholics from Poland and Bohemia, Anabaptists from Silesia.

So here's a superstitious Polish family arriving to start a freer, better life in Texas...they'd be so ashamed of their thrice-great grands and the awfulness they're inflicting on those who are seeking the same...and they get tangled up in a curse that travels the generations. Is that because "The Shadow" is supernatural, or because the family's passed it down like a blood feud with the world?

So yes indeed, it's dark, and violent, and misogynistic abuse is rife. Is it a cheery way to wile away a weekend? No. Is it fun? hmmm not all the way sure I'd call it "fun" but I was not about to put it down. Any family as haunted and afflicted as the Anderwalds that somehow staggers from the Civil War of 1860 all the way to the present is, well, tough, stubborn and full of that intangible thing I call "grit." It made me feel invested in the succeeding generations as they succumbed to...whatever "The Shadow" really is.

I'll only give it four stars because I found it so curiously compelling and oddly propulsive. I think many of y'all won't be so tolerant. If historical fiction about the ugly life challenges od immigrant clans that quite literally pull no punches don't send you sprinting for the exit, this read will scratch your dark fiction need. It's borderline supernatural horror without feeling silly to me. That tells you a lot about how deftly Author Weiner handles "The Shadow."

I liked the experience of reading about my old homeplace as well. It's funny...I don't want to live there now, but it's still a weird unwelcoming home to me. Definitely a spooky one to read.

DIRTY LITTLE ANGELS, a bitter draft of honest and unflinching observation

DIRTY LITTLE ANGELS
CHRIS TUSA
Livingston Press
$8.00 trade paper, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Set in the slums of New Orleans, among crack houses and abandoned buildings, Dirty Little Angels is the story of 16-year-old Hailey Trosclair. When the Trosclair family suffers financial hardship and a miscarriage, Hailey finds herself looking to God to save her family. When her prayers go unanswered, Hailey puts her faith in Moses Watkins, a failed preacher and ex-con.

Fascinated by Moses' lopsided view of religion, Hailey and her brother Cyrus begin spending time at an abandoned bank that Moses plans to convert into a drive-through church. Gradually, Moses' twisted religious beliefs become increasingly more violent, and Hailey and Cyrus find themselves trapped in a world of danger and fear from which there may be no escape.

I RECEIVED AN ARC FROM THE PUBLISHER. THANK YOU.

My Review: The thing about receiving author-supplied DRCs is that one never knows whether they're the author's own files or the typeset and formatted files the publisher sells on ebook sites. Luckily for me, I'm acquainted with this publisher so I asked for and received a tree book copy of it.

When you start reading this bitter, sour-faced story of a family's complete collapse, you're expecting more Southern Gothic. Failed fathers, hate-stuffed mothers, frail, failing children, all the usual trappings...set in New Orleans, a place that (to me) reeks of failure on a generational time-scale...and what more fertile ground can there be for a teenage girl to discover the nasty, brutish, short nature of most of humanity's lives.

Hailey is desperate. She's trapped in a web of emotional blackmail and the sticky sap of rage and blame in a marriage that failed the test of character. She's savvy, sensing the sap is slowly turning into amber as pressure and heat build in her parents. Not very surprisingly, she opts to try putting her faith in the christian god. She's from the South, and it's a space hag-ridden by the manifold evils of that religion's ripeness for exploitive behavior. Of course Hailey falls in with an abusive, evil preacher called "Moses" (how original that alias is!) whose plans are just loopy enough to seem visionary to a desperate girl.

The problems that the adult reader sees instantly Hailey sees as positives...the idea of a drive-through church is simply ludicrous...but only long enough to discover that Moses is not there to help her but to use her. It's a horrible realization and it's an angry world that popped Hailey up, so it's no surprise how she ends up behaving in the end.

It's not a long story, and it's not a cheery one, but it's very tellingly presented as a slice of life. Hailey's growing into her full power of womanhood doesn't, in the end, break the mold set by her unhappy family.

It takes a fucking sledghammer to the whole structure.

If you're up for a bracingly told, frankly and honestly observed coming-of-age story set in an iconic if still catatonic since Katrina location, this is a story you'll love. I did.