No one cares when Lila Carson's ten-year-old brother Beau disappears. He can't speak. He throws tantrums. He's a useless Carson, one of those kids in a broken-shuttered house that lost its glory when his father died. When the sheriff and his good ol' boy deputies show up to investigate, they eye up Lila and call her twin brother, Quentin, names. A closeted bisexual girl in the South, she's terrified.

Lower Congaree recites it like an eleventh commandment: Don't go in that swamp. But as the long night drags on, it's clear Beau disappeared behind those ancient trees. The sheriff's deputies won't risk going back there.

Lila might not have a choice.

Advance Praise

"With echoes of Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Eliza Broadbent's southern gothic, Blood Cypress, seethes with swamp-rot and small-town prejudice. Dark and lush and deeply, deeply disturbing, it's an exquisite tale of grief and trauma, solidifying Broadbent's place as a champion for the outsider. A revelation."

-Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Award(R)-winning author of Grotesque: Monster Stories

"Elizabeth Broadbent discovers a creek that connects directly to Michael McDowell's Blackwater mythos, leading readers through this beautiful backwater novella. This missing child manhunt is steeped in so much southern gothic, it feels like Faulkner, O'Connor, and Sheperd have all joined the search party."-Clay McLeod Chapman, author Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

"Mesmerizing! Broadbent weaves a tale about the pain of growing up 'different' and the desperation of a failing family legacy. Much like the swamp at its center, this story is filled with southern heat, twists and turns, and insidious monsters waiting to swallow you whole."-Aimee Hardy, author Pocket Full of Teeth

"Like the dark swamp at its heart, this book melds Southern Gothic with folk horror in a delightful way. A bold, assured narrative voice that will lure readers into its fetid darkness."-Tim McGregor, author of Eynhallow

"...equal parts captivating and unnerving... Her carefully crafted words grip you by the throat and squeeze."-L. Marie Wood, award-winning author of The Promise Keeper