Episode Details

When Sylvie Singer’s father dies, she’s left with more than grief—she’s inherited his secrets and a crumbling railway station in the woods, where carnivorous deer and a dying horned god named Illican await. In Melinda Salisbury’s haunting new YA folk horror, Local Gods, the line between myth and reality blurs as Sylvie grapples with isolation, identity, and the eerie magic of her new home. Drawing from her own childhood wanderings in the woods, Salisbury crafts a world that feels both deeply personal and eerily real, rooted in the American Northeast’s vast, lonely landscapes. The story began with a single image—a forest god—and grew through relentless “what if” questions, proving that magic often blooms from lived experience. And while she dives into the supernatural, Salisbury writes with the grit of someone who trusts instinct over research, letting her first draft breathe before filling in the gaps. This is folk horror reborn, raw, real, and rooted in the quiet terror of being an outsider.

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