Curdle Creek, Yvonne BattleFelton
Curdle Creek, Yvonne BattleFelton
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Curdle Creek
A Novel

Author: Yvonne Battle-Felton

Narrator: Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Unabridged: 9 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/15/2024


Synopsis

Winner of a Shirley Jackson Award

For fans of “The Lottery” and The Hunger Games, this novel set in a small town with a sinister tradition is chilling in the best possible way.

“Curdle Creek is a thoughtful, sinister tour-de-force.” ―Tananarive Due, L.A. Times Book Prize-winning author of The Reformatory

For fans of “The Lottery” and The Hunger Games, this novel set in a small town with a sinister tradition is chilling in the best possible way.

Welcome to Curdle Creek, a place just dying to make you feel at home. Osira, a forty-five-year-old widow, is an obedient follower of the strict conventions of Curdle Creek, an all-Black town in rural America stuck in the past and governed by a tradition of ominous rituals. Osira is considered blessed, but her luck changes when her children flee, she comes second to last in the Running of the Widows and her father flees when his name is called in the annual Moving On ceremony.
Forced into a test of allegiance, Osira finds herself transported back in time, then into another realm where she must answer for crimes committed by Curdle Creek. Exile forces her to jump realms again, landing Osira even farther away from home, in rural England. Safe as long as she sticks to the rules, she quickly learns there are consequences for every kindness. Each jump could lead Osira anywhere but back home.

Curdle Creek is a unique, inventive novel exploring themes of home, belonging, motherhood and what we inherit from society. This American gothic offers a mash-up of the surreal and literary horror that will appeal to fans of Ring Shout, The Underground Railroad and Lovecraft Country. Yvonne Battle-Felton’s fever dream of a tale is enthralling, layered and quite unlike anything else.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt & Company.

About Yvonne Battle-Felton

Yvonne Battle-Felton was born in Pennsylvania and raised in New Jersey before moving to Maryland. She currently lives in Yorkshire, England with her family. Yvonne holds an MA in writing from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in creative writing from Lancaster University. She is an associate teaching professor and the academic director of creative writing at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. Her debut novel, Remembered, won a Northern Writers’ Award, and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Dona's on October 17, 2024

Everyone loves a supple bride but loathes a supple widow.p7 Sadly, I did not enjoy my time in Curdle Creek, and for reasons beyond the fact that it is a patriarchal post-apocalyptic town full of horrible, self-interested people. I really struggle to stick with the plot, which for the first two-thir......more

Goodreads review by Nurse Jackie on September 26, 2024

Where do I begin? This story drug me in from the first chapter. Took me back to a settlement-like colony-esque setting that were strict with traditions and rituals, barring all sense of reason. The town of Curdle Creek maintains their barbaric traditions by threats of violence outside the city lines......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on December 15, 2024

I finished this yesterday, but I needed a while to digest it. I like to think of myself as an intelligent individual, but this book made me feel dumb af. The only good thing about this book is the cover. I'll leave it at that.......more

Goodreads review by Brad on October 22, 2024

Osira is a middle-aged widow living in the titular village of Curdle Creek under the thumb of her domineering mother: a village elder with machinations for power. Curdle Creek is steeped in tradition: the running of the widows, the culling of townsfolk by vote, and throwing undesirable elements down......more

Goodreads review by Becky on October 04, 2024

Review in the October 2024 issue of Library Journal Three Words That Describe This Book: immersive, cults, thought provoking Draft Review: It’s 1960 in Curdle Creek, an all Black community surrounded by a world filled with violence and destruction. Since the late 1800s, it has been a safe haven for it......more


Quotes

Fiction Finalist for the 2025 Zora Awards
Named one of the New York Times’ “21 New Books Coming in October”
Named one of People’s “Must-Read Books of Fall 2024”
Named one of The Root’s “October 2024 Books By Black Authors We Can't Wait to Read”
Named one of Essence’s “Top 20 Book Picks For Fall 2024”
Named one of Book Riot’s “New Horror for October Because It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”
Named one of Reactor’s “All the New Horror, Romantasy, and Other SFF Crossover Books Arriving in October 2024”
Named one of Gizmodo’s “October’s New Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Releases Are Here to Haunt Your Bookshelf”

Curdle Creek is a thoughtful, sinister tour-de-force. Yvonne Battle-Felton writes so convincingly that the reader is forced to ponder what unthinkable choices we mask behind our own quest for belonging, and what wrongs we must answer for.”
—Tananarive Due, Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning author of The Reformatory

“The nightmarish and allegorical Curdle Creek is a gorgeously written, surrealist folktale that goes bone deep. Compelling, thought-provoking, thrilling, haunting, Yvonne Battle-Felton's Curdle Creek is simply a marvel.”
—Paul Tremblay, bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and Horror Movie

“Tautly written, utterly gripping, Yvonne Battle-Felton's novel invites the reader into a world of mystery and mythology. Ultimately, Curdle Creek is about perseverance and hope, about remembering the past while boldly embracing the future and about posing the eternal question: how and where can a Black person simply be?”
—Carolyn Ferrell, author of Dear Miss Metropolitan