Fawn - C.N. Vair

Tess Wynne keeps mostly to herself in the hills of Appalachia. Her wildlife sanctuary is a refuge for the wounded and unwanted - and the only home she has left. She has built it carefully, with old rituals and even older bargains with the ominous visitor that comes each year. Then she finds a doe split open on the road. Beside it is the fawn who survived. Red-mouthed. Full set of teeth. Hungry. From the moment Tess brings it home, whispers gather in town. A new pastor starts asking questions. And inside Tess, something primal begins to wake: anger, appetite, the slow understanding that prey is only prey for so long. Dark, tender and eerie, Fawn is a slow-burning folk horror of nature, ritual and feverish femininity - a story about what a woman must become to protect what is hers.