Ever since her father was killed when she was just a child, Miranda Crabtree has kept her head down and her eyes up, ferrying contraband for a mad preacher and his declining band of followers to make ends meet and to protect an old witch and a secret child from harm.

But dark forces are at work in the bayou, both human and supernatural, conspiring to disrupt the rhythms of Miranda’s peculiar and precarious life. And when the preacher makes an unthinkable demand, it sets Miranda on a desperate, dangerous path, forcing her to consider what she is willing to sacrifice to keep her loved ones safe.

I really don’t pay much attention to awards when it comes to books & movies & shows. I hear about them. I register what I hear somewhere in the back of my mind. I deal with the inevitable fake stickers on books that win awards (BUT WHYYYYYY???!!?). But it’s not something I’m terribly invested in. Anyway, I was in the middle of reading The Boatman’s Daughter when the Bram Stoker Awards were announced, and it wasn’t nominated for best novel. And I was like….what…the…fuck.

And then I realized that the awards were for books published in 2019, and The Boatman’s Daughter was published in 2020. Apparently I really don’t pay much attention to calendars, either.

Andy Davidson made a pretty big splash last year with his debut novel, In the Valley of the Sun. It was this weird, grimy, emotional, and wholly unique take on a vampire story. It was a book that unsettled me in a lot of ways, but it was impressive as hell.

And I don’t think there was anything in that book that could have prepared me for how much I was going to love his follow-up novel, The Boatman’s Daughter. This book is a fucking masterpiece, and easily one of the most beautiful & emotionally impactful works of horror that I’ve ever experienced.

This is the story of Miranda Crabtree, the titular boatman’s daughter. A surreal & nightmarish incident from her childhood sets the tone for this story, and for the rest of her life. We catch up with Miranda when she is in her twenties, and part of a drug-running operation in the bayous of Arkansas. Her friends are few and far between, her life is very dangerous, and getting more so as time passes. There are a lot of old grudges in Miranda’s family’s past, and she bears the brunt of these.

A series of violent events kicks the plot into motion, and what follows is a grueling & often desperate struggle for survival. Miranda has a found family, of sorts. And an extremely unconventional one, at that. But she is the type of person who will fight to her very last breath to protect the people she cares about, all while confronting the extreme horrors of her past.

This is a tough review to write…oof. This is a book that is intensely atmospheric, and just like…swampy. If that’s a way to describe a story. At times, it reminded me a little bit of Joe R. Lansdale, but without quite so much zaniness. The Boatman’s Daughter is very, very dark. But I think Davidson does an excellent job keeping things from ever feeling too bleak. There’s this undercurrent of hope running through the whole story, and it’s just fucking beautiful & heartbreaking all at once.

I am an literal awe of this novel. I was glued to the pages from the beginning, and I just want to stand on street corners and hand out copies of this book. The Boatman’s Daughter is fucking essential reading if you’re a horror fan…hell, it’s essential reading even if you’re not. Andy Davidson’s writing is gorgeous, and his ability to draw you into this murky setting is uncanny.

Really, add this one to your TBR if it’s not already there. These characters…this story…it will fuck you up emotionally. The Boatman’s Daughter is haunting, disturbing, visceral, and grotesque. It’s also hopeful, human, and achingly beautiful. I couldn’t have loved this any harder.

Huge thanks to MCD x FSG Originals for the copy!!