The Eyes of the Gyre
Are Red Like Blood

Daisy Blackwater is on the cusp of breaking out of her sleepy hometown of Barlow with her band—a queer family unit functioning as the alternative rock band Socio Turmoil and the Dynamic Brain. With their first major tour scheduled, Daisy has big plans to dominate the southeast and return home to marry her fiancée, Gray Alice Damour.But when Gray Alice disappears, those plans are trashed. Daisy spends one hundred and one days leading search efforts, researching similar disappearances, and being interrogated by the police only for Gray Alice to emerge from the woods behind their home as a screaming amnesiac.With no foul play suspected, the case is closed, and Daisy is determined to return to the status quo. Gray continues her daily life working at the morgue and avoiding a simmering confrontation with her mother, but something has changed; her appetite has vanished, and her tongue begins craving something not quite in line with her vegetarian lifestyle.Meanwhile, in lieu of merchandise sales, Daisy lands a summer job working as a gardener at a private greenhouse. Daisy is oddly drawn to her new boss—a recluse by the name of Swanhilda—who has a few secrets of her own.As Daisy’s relationship with Swanhilda deepens, Gray is left to seek out the answers that just might solve the mystery of her disappearance, all the while reckoning with her warping engagement, unspeakable cravings, visceral dreams, and a voice beckoning her to return to the forest.

genre

mystery thriller, light horror, supernatural fiction, dark romanticism, LGBTQ+ fiction

• Erica Kitch
• Email