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I think I liked this. Not too certain. It was weird and
unnerving but I think that was the point.

https://wildwoodreads.com/2025/08/18/the-bog-wife-review/

Well. That was strange. I just finished up The Bog Wife and I‘m going to have to wrap my head around this story before I review it. I don‘t know if I loved it or hated it, but I do know I‘m terribly unsettled. 😂😂😂

Dark, disturbing, graphic at times. A family in rural Appalachia lives a different kind of life. A life hunting, but not animals. Once a beautiful girl working at the record store enters Micheal‘s life, he has no idea just how much she will change the trajectory of his life. Some reviewers said they saw the twist coming, I didn‘t and thought it was well played out. I will definitely check out more from this author.

This book intertwines the POVs of the five Haddesley siblings, latest in a family that has an ancient compact with a bog, in which they give the bog the body of their patriarch and it gives them a wife for the new patriarch. I absolutely loved it. Magrat isn‘t a huge fan of being used as a book rest, but it didn‘t scare her off my lap.

Wonderful.

“Her siblings were not… just the same as they had been ten years ago. They were worse. They had spent the decade of her absence growing around one another like roots in the same crowded patch of earth, contorting themselves so everyone could fit.”

15 year old Wren lives in the West Virginia mountains. She is cut off from the world by her snake handling preacher father. Her mother‘s true soul mate is her best friend who has pledged to always stay close and protect her. As a series of tragedies occur Wren starts to unravel all of the secrets of her family and emerge from her seclusion. I really liked this. Vivid characters and the story unwound in ways that surprised me. #14books14weeks book4

I still have mixed feelings about this book, I liked it, and then it fell flat for me towards the end. But I still liked it. It can be a tough read, but sometimes you need a book that just doesn‘t end the way you want it to. Just like how real life can be sometimes. Dark, unforgiving, unpredictable, and with a side of sometimes being painfully predictable. Most certainly not a comfort read.

One of my little pleasures, waking up early on a Sunday to make it to my favorite coffee/breakfast place to read before the crowds show up

This slow-paced novel is set mostly in the Ohio Appalachian Mountains. Growing up literally dirt poor and basically abandoned by her parents, Jodi grows up with her grandmother on Bethlehem Mountain. Jodi gets involved with a woman & makes some tragic decisions. Life gives her another chance, but will Jodi fall back into old habits? 4/5⭐️