Recommendation Tuesday: Beware the Wild by Natalie C. Parker

Recommendation Tuesday started as a joke and is now an official thing. Basically, this is my way of making Tuesday a little more awesome. If you've got a book to recommend on this or any Tuesday, tweet me at @FullShelves and I'll help spread the word.

View all of the past recommendations over here. 

Today's recommendation comes from Sandra, who loved Natalie C. Parker's much-buzzed debut, Beware the Wild.

Beware the swampy places, child,
Beware the dark and wild,
Many a soul has wandered there,
And many a soul has died.

Beware the Wild, southern gothic at its best, makes Natalie C. Parker’s debut novel a standout novel. Even better it satisfies a love of the creepy embedded into a story of love, family and friendship in the small town of Sticks, Louisiana where life moves placidly, slowly and uneventfully.

Or, so it seems to its residents who literally suffer from collective memory loss.

Swamps are not welcoming places. They’re the home of dangerous creatures and brackish waters. Alligators wait to snap a person with rocket-like speed, nasty plants sting, black bears abound and cottonmouths and other dastardly reptiles appear like they’re part of the ground.

But the swamp surrounding Sticks, Louisiana is worse than any imagination or reality can create. That swamp has a life of its own. It’s a place made of mud where dangerous creatures and slime abound in a substance that beguiles like glittering fireflies and beckons with a metaphorical siren song.

Sterling thrusts aside her fears to answer the call of the swamp. Her brother Phim has disappeared into its depths. Worse yet, a sister has replaced him and no one remembers the brother she adored. Phim must be rescued from the claws of the darkly disturbing and dangerous depths of the killer swamp and the sister returned to wherever she came from.

Parker’s novel rivals any gothic I’ve read.

Its unique story captivated me. Her writing creates characters who grow, learn and explore what lies beneath the surface in both the swamp and in their hearts. I highly recommend Beware the Wild for its carefully woven tale and its finely detailed characters--both human and swamp.

Find it at Amazon | Powell's | Goodreads

Disclosure: Review copy provided by the publisher.