Sacrificial Animals

by Kailee Pedersen

Inspired by Kailee Pedersen's own journey being adopted from Nanning, China in 1996 and growing up on a farm in Nebraska, this rich and atmospheric supernatural horror debut explores an ancient Chinese mythology.

The last thing Nick Morrow expected to receive was an invitation from his father to return home. When he left rural Nebraska behind, he believed he was leaving everything there, including his abusive father, Carlyle, and the farm that loomed so large in memory, forever.

But neither Nick nor his brother Joshua, disowned for marrying Emilia, a woman of Asian descent, can ignore such summons from their father, who hopes for a deathbed reconciliation. Predictably, Joshua and Carlyle quickly warm to each other while Nick and Emilia are left to their own devices. Nick puts the time to good use and his flirtation with Emilia quickly blooms into romance. Though not long after the affair turns intimate, Nick begins to suspect that Emilia’s interest in him may have sinister, and possibly even ancient, motivations.

Punctuated by scenes from Nick’s adolescent years, when memories of a queer awakening and a shadowy presence stalking the farm altered the trajectory of his life forever, Sacrificial Animals explores the violent legacy of inherited trauma and the total collapse of a family in its wake.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Thriller, Audiobook, Fantasy

320 pages, Hardcover

First published August 20, 2024

About the author

Kailee Pedersen writes haunted, unsettling speculative fiction. She graduated with a BA in classics from Columbia University, specializing in ancient Greek. Kailee was adopted from Nanning, China and grew up in Nebraska, where her family owns a farm. She is the author of the queer poetry chapbook Pastorale and the novel Sacrificial Animals, which was named one of the New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2024 and a finalist for Best Horror at the 2025 Libby Book Awards.

When not scribbling down her next book, you can catch her studying opera performance at the Mozarteum University, playing video games, or working as a software engineer in New York City. The Minimalist is her second novel. Visit her website at kaileepedersen.com.

Photo by Garland Quek (www.garlandquek.com)

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swiftly and violently as a gunshot a scream pierces the sloped fields lying open and fallow behind the house. Sounding like a woman being murdered in the way he has seen it on television where her agony is drawn out over several breathless and voyeuristic minutes until he changes the channel. Yet he knows it is not a woman but some unnamable beast of the forest come to bewitch and maim. A mother despondent, in all her devastated keening—the fox whose children now reside in the stomachs of the hounds at Stag’s Crossing has finally returned.

--------------------------------------

The difference between wolves and foxes his father says is that wolves love to hunt and foxes love to play. A tantalizing trail of blood in the half-melted snow. Wolves only have enough foresight to kill and upon their killing they will feed ravenously and strip the bones. But foxes; they are quick-witted and brutal. When they hunt they do so with finesse stalking and pouncing then snapping the spine in their slender jaws.

What goes around comes around.

Life’s a bitch and then you die.

Carlyle Morrow is bitter widower, his third son, Christopher, buried on his land, along with his mother, who died in the attempt to birth him. Morrow is left on his thousand acres in the middle of Nebraska with two sons. Joshua is the golden boy, beautiful, attentive to Carlyle’s every wish, a loyal favorite lapdog. Nick is the second son, plain in appearance, tepid in his embrace of his father’s violent nature. He possesses a bit of his mother’s second sight, his orientation less than that of a purebred. They have both been made to endure a legacy of cruelty passed down from father to son over at least three generations. Carlyle forces him into an act, while hunting, that goes beyond wrongfulness, beyond sin, into the realm of abomination. Nick will live with the guilt the rest of his life, even though the responsibility was not all his. Now in their forties, Nick and Josh have been separated from their father for decades. (Nick still calls) But neither can refuse the summons to return home on news that their father is preparing to die.


Kailee Pederson - image from her Twitter profile

We follow Nick as he recalls his life, his struggles with Joshua and Carlyle, mostly the latter. He always found his brother’s wife, Emilia, fascinating, alluring in the mode of a siren. Carlyle is cruel, requiring complete obedience. He expects his sons to love the raw violence that marks his life. He does not raise his boys so much as train them. He even wishes that they could be as faithful and bloodthirsty as his best friends.

If Carlyle could have had dogs for sons he would have been a happy man; but when has a Morrow man ever been happy?

The structure of the novel is a back and forth, with alternating chapters, Then and Now. We learn how the boys’ treatment (Nick’s mostly) brings them to become the men they are in their forties. One would think that with chapters labeled so, there would be a clear differentiation between the internal timelines of each chapter. But no, there are transgressions within, as “Now” chapters, as well as “Then” chapters include lookbacks. Seems not cricket to me, but no biggie. The personal history is clearly a roadmap to the boys’ doom, which is referenced many times, so will not come as a shock. Pederson keeps offering glimpses of the future, a bell being rung louder and louder with each recurrence. There is an unrelenting atmosphere of dread. Awful things will be happening, although we are not let in on the specifics. For example, an early omen.

No thousand acres, no grand inheritance can ever be enough to postpone their destinies. Nick will die as bitter as he came into the world. He knows this just as well at thirteen as he will in thirty years.

Carlyle’s cruelty and monstrous control pushed them both away, Nick to New York, and a career as a cruel literary reviewer, Josh to the other coast with his wife, Emilia, whom Carlyle would not even allow into the house because of her Asian descent.

Yet in only ten years his children will betray him in their own inimitable ways—Joshua marrying out, Nick exiling himself to a foreign land. And in their absence Stag’s Crossing will lie silent and fallow as the fields surrounding it. This place: no place for young men.

or old men, for that matter. This tale displays the violence of a Cormac McCarthy tale. It is not for anyone with an aversion to scenes of death, particularly the death of animals. It comes as no surprise that

Cormac McCarthy is an all-time favorite writer for me, perhaps my favorite of favorites, and his influence is very obvious here.. – from the JamReads interview

References to animals are legion, not in a happy way, for the most part. It is clear that the Morrows fit in well. A sample:

Would he kneel before his father’s magnificence and eat oats from his hand like a wayward steer?
--------------------------------------
Now he and Joshua must return to Stag’s Crossing. Return to that grand two-story house where as children they were left alone for hours at a time savaging each other like wild dogs.
--------------------------------------
Finally, she turned to him. Only the slightest tilt of her neck, elegant as a swan’s.
--------------------------------------
Upon awakening she is languorous as a cat sunning itself in a windowsill.
--------------------------------------
Joshua sees him lying down next to him perfectly still. Breathing through his nose softly like a newborn foal.

There are only a gazillion more of these.

Pederson is masterful with sustaining tension. The reminders of doom help, but there is much more going on here. The tragedy felt very Shakespearean. (Titus Andronicus maybe? King Lear with competing sons instead of daughters?) People make choices, and suffer the results. The language is rich and diverse, from terse Cormac-McCarthy-esque declaratives to languid poetical passages.

Pederson uses much of her background to inform her tale. She was adopted by a Nebraska family, is of Asian descent and uses her experience as a gay kid coming of age to inform her portrayal of Nick’s growing sexual awareness and exploits. She weaves a Chinese myth into the story, providing some early breadcrumbs to lay a foundation for the horror to come. It does.

Given that the characters are so damaged, and so damaging, it can be tough to work up a lot of sympathy for them, even Nick, who carries forward into his writing the cruelty he was bred to in Nebraska. Carlyle is pretty much a pure monster, and Joshua is given much less coverage that the rest of his family. Emilia is mysterious and alluring whenever we see her, which is mostly at the back end.

This is Kaileen Pederson’s first novel It is an impressive debut, a smartly literary horror story. We cannot get enough of these.

Much of the novel’s setting of Stag’s Crossing, the thousand-acre farm owned by the Morrow family, is directly based on my family’s farm in Nebraska. I always found the woods that surround our farm to be a very contemplative, mystical, and mysterious place. I knew I wanted to draw on my Chinese background for Sacrificial Animals, so I started to think about different aspects of Chinese mythology that could be a good fit for this setting. Without giving anything away, I will just say the natural world plays a huge role in the mythological elements of the novel, and foxes — as featured on the cover — are one of my favorite animals.

Review posted - 11/15/24

Publication dates
----------Hardcover - 8/20/24
----------Trade Paperback - 8/26/25

I received an ARE of Sacrificial Animals from St. Martin’s Press in return for a fair review. Thanks, folks, and thanks to NetGalley for facilitating.




This review is cross-posted on my site, Coot’s Reviews. Stop by and say Hi!

=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to Pederson’s personal, Instagram, and Twitter pages

Profile – from Macmillan

Kailee Pedersen writes haunted, unsettling speculative fiction. She graduated with a B.A. in Classics from Columbia University, specializing in ancient Greek. Kailee was adopted from Nanning in 1996 and grew up in Nebraska, where her family owns a farm. Her writing on LGBTQ+ and Asian American themes was awarded an Artist Fellowship by the Nebraska Arts Council in 2015. When not scribbling down her next book, you can catch her singing opera, playing video games, or working as a software engineer in New York City. Sacrificial Animals is her first novel.

Interviews
-----B&N Reads - Poured Over: Kailee Pedersen on Sacrificial Animals By Jenna Seery / August 20, 2024 – audio
Sound quality is bad, Kailee is tough to understand.
-----JamReads - Some Thoughts with ... Kailee Pedersen - by Jamedi

Items of Interest from the author
-----American Foreign Service Association – 2012 - Burmese Days: Democratization and the U.S. – Burma Relationship
----- KAILEE PEDERSEN: IN PRAISE OF THE DIFFICULT WOMEN OF EAST ASIAN LITERATURE

[Anna Meaney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love reading horror books that deal with race, mythology, and family drama, so this should have been the perfect book for me. I ultimately feel like this book is really bogged down by its prose and structure.

The book is divided into two parts, then and now, with alternating chapters taking place while Nick is growing up at the farm and with the boys reunited following their father’s cancer diagnosis. The blurb talks about Nick’s sexuality (then) and his eventual affair with his brother’s wife (now), but I think this should have been left out as it doesn’t occur until more than halfway through the book. The structure doesn’t really work for me because both parts take place with the exact same characters in the exact same setting with the exact same dynamics. The “then” portion of the novel is about Nick fearing his father, being resentful of his brother, and trying to come to terms with the violence that surrounds him. The “now” sections of the novel are doing the same thing, but with the added character of Emilia, who is an enigma to both Nick and the reader. While very little happens in the book, the problem is more that character beats are repeated over and over in two timelines.

I love atmospheric prose, but I have to say that I think the prose in this book drags it down. The flowery phrases don’t add anything to character or to a sense of place. Because every sentence is pushed to its maximum, it has the effect of flattening everything out. When everything is “eternal,” a “mockery,” “vicious,” “violent,” a “submission,” then nothing is. These words are repeated heavily throughout the narrative, and they lose their punch pretty early on.

I think this would have been stronger as a novella, where the prose wouldn’t have dragged as much over time and where the events could have been less spread out. I would still recommend this book to those who love a dramatic and flowery writing style, but I would say go into the book knowing as little as possible about the story.

[Mai H. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me. I don't even think I hated this. It was just boring. Zana peaced out mid-buddy read, but I like to finish ARCs.

You know those stories told in two timelines where one storyline is vastly better than the other? No. Not here. I hate the past. I hate the present. Nick and Joshua grow up with their racist father, Carlyle, in bumfuck nowhere. Interesting spelling of Carlisle. r/tragedeigh?

Joshua marries Emilia, an Asian American woman. Carlyle says no. Joshua, like Zana, peaces tf out. Nick remains, because he's the youngest, and boohoo, oh so sad. Except it's not sad. It's boring.

Things are supposed to take a sinister turn when Carlyle is dying in the present day storyline. He invites Joshua and Emilia back. Nick, like every other white guy, fetishizes his sister in law. The more things are supposed to be scary, the more boring they become. The end.

🎧 Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio

[kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Sacrificial Animals opens, we meet the Morrow family: the father, Carlyle and his two sons, Joshua and Nicholas. Carlyle is domineering and brash leaving Nick, the youngest—and the inferior in Carlyle’s eyes—to take the brunt of his violent actions and sharp tongue. When the eldest—Joshua—reveals his decision to marry an Asian woman, he is disowned by his racist father and sent away from the sprawling, grand estate of Stag’s Crossing.

Shifting forward in time, Carlyle seems to be softening with his old age but not much… Only enough to grant Nick, Joshua, and Joshua’s wife—Emilia—access back to Stag’s Crossing to see to his death and burial. Nick hasn’t seen Josh or Emilia for twenty years and though Emilia is Josh’s wife, she has a curious relationship with Nick. Soon, their relationship turns intimate but quickly grows in to something more alarming.

The story shifts between past and present timelines and while I think that both hold importance in the overall story, I enjoyed the present timeline so much more. The narrative takes on a slower pace and though it bodes well for building tension, I wish that we would have gotten to the heart of the story sooner. In my honest opinion, I feel this story would have read better had it come in around 220 pages versus the 320 that it is.

What I found interesting was that Pederson chose to narrate the story with the main focus on Nick when it’s clear (to me, at least) that Emilia is the star of the show here. While the scenes from Nick’s childhood became a little monotonous after a few chapters, I was awakened when scenes of Emilia appeared; I wanted to hear more about her character.

Here, I feel it necessary to say something about the writing style too which wasn’t my favorite, at least not in the first half. Sentences tended to be structured in not the most lucid of ways—often times venturing in to purple prose—and it only served to confuse readers rather than getting to the point. The amount of times I thought “put down the thesaurus and step away” while reading was innumerable. That said, the last 30%... WOW.

Reflections on trauma, race, father-son relationships, and family obligations. And as should be obvious from the title of this book, there is animal death and violence depicted in this book.

TLDR: Worth the read if you can withstand some overzealous prose.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review. Available 08/20/2024!

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sacrificial Animals is a slow-burn literary horror that blends Chinese mythology with midwestern white America and cycles of familial abuse. It took me a bit to get into but ultimately gripped me up through the pitch perfect ending. The author drew on her experiences being adopted from China and growing up on a farm in Nebraska in the late 90's.

Alternating between past and present timelines, we follow Nick Morrow, the younger son of a racist, paranoid, and violent man who has only become worse since the death of his wife. He tries to raise his sons in his own image, pushing them into fishing and hunting. Nick is secretly queer and deeply traumatized by the violence he experiences as a child. As an adult, his father says he is dying. So he asks his children to come home. Including Nicks older brother who was disowned for marrying an Asian woman. Past and present wind together, as dread and horror slowly build. Again, it may be slow to start and it definitely leans literary, but I thought it was brilliant. The audio narration isn't my favorite but it's okay. I received a copy of this book for review via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

[Dona's Books]

DNF @ 18%

Thank you to the author Kailee Pedersen, publishers St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS. All views are mine.

I imagine the publisher was attracted to this manuscript because it comes from such a unique perspective, as the author was born in Nanking and was adopted and raised in Nebraska. Unfortunately, I can't find my way to agree that this is either a well-written book or a story told interestingly.

Reading notes (only over what I read):

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. Some really grisly animal cruelty in this book, which is a horror trope I don't like.

2. A few style issues. Hyperbole can be a great literary tool. But sometimes, it just causes clarity issues. Like here, on page 23: Without the gun he has no power in this house. His father could strike him dead where he stands. It really had not been established that this was a household where murder was a danger. At least not yet. Also, if every event in a book is described as a calamity, every meal as a feast, every feeling as a flood, it gets not only repetitious for the reader, but inauthentic. The syntax is unnecessarily complex: Years from now, when he is man enough to stand taller than his father, the garden will not rise to bloom again; it will lie fallow and barren as their family tree. p24 Also, the lack of quotation marks doesn't appear to have stylistic meaning, but does cause clarity issues. I'm finding this a miserable read. Was that the point of this curmudgeonly style? I just can't finish it.

[thevampireslibrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

An atmospheric supernatural horror with a persistant and palpable air of dread that sticks to the pages and makes you wince turning them, this is an intricately woven story about a family crumbling under their patriarch, with dense lush prose that sinks the reader into this american gothic nightmare of generational trauma, this relishes in its slowburn as we alternate between past and present which steadily builds tension, the writing was both violent and vulnerable, this is a tender terror of a book, a raw reflection on cruelty, masculinity,
race, trauma and family dynamics, not to be missed!

[Becky Spratford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading for review in the June 2024 issue of Library Journal

Three Words That Describe This Book: contemplative pacing, constant unease, great ending

Draft Review:
Nick Morrow is 43, living in NYC, working as a literary critic. It is a far cry from a childhood spent in the shadow of a cruel father on a 1,000 acre family farm in Nebraska. When his father reaches out to let Nick know he is dying, Nick encourages his estranged brother, Joshua, disowned when he married Emilia, a woman of Chinese descent, to join him in a trip back home. Told exclusively from Nick’s point of view in 2 times frames: “Then” –the year he was 13, when he was forced to kill newborn fox pups– and “Now” – as Nick, Joshua, and Emilia return– Pedersen presents a contemplatively paced, supernatural horror tale, centering family, trauma, and revenge, with unease infused into every detail. Readers will fall into the rhythm of the alternating short chapters that work in tandem both to give readers a snapshot of those two pivotal years and to foreshadow the horrors to come. Masterfully balancing character and atmosphere, readers will follow Nick as the foreboding details build, knowing full well that the tightly coiled tension will eventually explode, and when it does, they will be left gasping in awe.

Verdict: For readers who like creepy, methodically paced stories that put the unease above plot such as written by Kevin Brockmeier and for those who enjoy tales that use the mythology of non-western voices in a revenge plot like The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones.

Notes:
I cannot stress enough how this book purposefully builds tension and unease, without much technically happening, and yet so much happens. The last 50 pages are NOT TO MISS. But you have to go in knowing this is a story that is told with purpose to make you feel it, get invested, and fall into its then and now rhythm until it all comes together. Again, on purpose you can see it coming together, you suspect you know what is going on, and even if you do figure it out, it is still so much more.

Told with short chapters that alternate to "then" when Nick is 13 and "now" when he is 43 and working in tandem to both give readers a snapshot of those 2 pivotal years in the story AND work together to fill in the blanks of his entire life.

The short chapters keep you reading even though the plot moves slowly. But again, the "plot" is those 2 years and how they lead to the LAST 50 PAGES. I think the book jacket gives too much away. I am going to be careful about plot details in my review and really focus on the experience of reading this book.

But the fox on the cover is key. That is easy to understand though because the fox is the start of the "then" storyline.

This is a 5 star read for me but also for the literary reviewer in me because it is meticulously crafted with an ending that is perfectly set up by the storytelling, but I know it is not a 5 star read for every reader. This book will get a range of reviews and I think that is fine. Not every book is for every reader.

Here is an example I noticed

Nick's choice of flowery language and "big word" adjectives was off putting and noticeable early but it quickly becomes clear that Pedersen did that on purpose to add to Nick's character. First it is the literal show (don't tell) of how he has eschewed his midwest farmer roots for the life of a literary critic and writer. But also, it is there to make the reader a little wary of Nick. We have sympathy for him the entire time as he tells us his life story, but he is not perfect even though he was clearly abused as a kid, lives with terrible trauma, and more. But the way he uses language puts you off a bit as a reader. It shows some cracks. And those cracks build.

For readers who like creepy, methodically paced stories that put the unease above plot such as written by Kevin Brockmeier and for those who enjoy tales that employ the mythology of marginalized voices into a revenge plot like The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

In the Valley of the Sun is also a good readalike. by Andy Davidson.

Also here like Jones-- I appreciate that every detail matters. Every word choice, every scene, every description, it is all there for a reason.

[Queralt✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sacrificial Animals is a slowburn horror literary fiction featuring daddy issues, toxic masculinity, and Chinese folklore. In the story, we follow Nick and Joshua as they go back to their hometown after getting a call from his dying father. He wants to be forgiven for all the things he did to them. Nick, Joshua, and Emilia (Joshua’s wife) go back to seek reconciliation. (CW: child abuse, animal abuse, racism).

This is the classic ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ situation. This book gives slowburn a whole new meaning. It takes a long time until the horror starts and until then all we get is an unsettling and disgruntling literary fiction about family drama and daddy issues. Both things are stuff I don’t enjoy. It was just very slow and reflecting. I’m the kind of person who loves a good character study or character-focused books, but this was just reminiscing about one’s effed-up past and it’s just not my thing. The two timelines of then/now also made it feel slower to me.

Around the 80% the story picked up super quickly and it became AMAZING. The ending was crazy fun and it made it all worth it. (I'm team Emilia woop woop).

I don’t have much to say other than the writing is beautiful (if you enjoy literary fiction) and that I loved the ending. 3.5 stars because of that (but I can't round it up because it just was brutally slow).

* I received the ARC for free, this hasn't impacted my review.

[myreadingescapism · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did I miss something? DID ANYTHING HAPPEN? 🥱

[Jess ❈Harbinger of Blood-Soaked Rainbows❈ · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novel sounded right up my alley, but pretty quickly after starting realized it was not my cuppa.


It is being dubbed as "literary horror" which is a fancy PR way of saying that not much happens. It is based on Chinese mythology and folklore which is what originally grabbed me as I am really looking to diversify my fantasy reads and I really don't know much about Chinese folklore or mythology. However with that being said, when I say nothing happened for 80% of the book, I mean literally nothing happened. There is slow burn, and then there's this. If it hadn't been an ARC I actually probably would have DNF'd it. I did not care about one single character. I did not really even understand the point. When I say the content of this 300 page book could have been comprised into short story form I mean a story of about 10-15 pages at most. This book is not action-packed, it is not interesting, it is not thrilling nor suspenseful nor gripping. Calling it scary is laughable. What this book is is bloated. And pretentious. Trying too hard to be literary or clever or smart. It is overwritten to the point of being incomprehensible in places. It is absolutely drowning in purple prose and improper use of a thesaurus. There is hardly any characterization and barely any story. The last 20% is where 98% of the action is and it was by then way too little coming way too late. And I saw the whole unfold from about 10% in. It was not shocking or twisty. It was predictable and dull. It didn't transcend anything. Apparently it was inspired from this author's being adopted from China by a white family of farmers living in Nebraska. Well, if her adoptive family is anything like the Morrow family depicted in this book then I feel sorry for her because every last one of them is reprehensible and awful. It is supposed to be about systemic and generational trauma? Bah. It is a superficial examination of those themes at best, told through the lens of a vengeful spirit. And even then, the author is grasping at straws to even come up with a plausible reason for vengeance from that spirit. There is zero character development and a dual timeline that I also found infuriating as nothing at all seems to have changed between past and present other than the entrance of one character. I cannot stress enough that Absolutely. Nothing. Happens.

I will tack on half a star for premise. Maybe? Because this story in the hands of someone who didn't feel the need to overwrite something to make it sound clever could have been something really special. I'm not sure I will ever read anything from this author again. And I mean no disrespect, I just felt that reading this book was a waste of my time. Something that should have taken a week tops to read took 2 and a half months. And the last 50% I just pretty much forced myself to get through. Not my cuppa, but in this case I think the fault was the book's not mine.

1.5 stars

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[♡ retrovvitches ♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

the vibes were weird… but not always in a good way. i’m always into a revenge plot, but it felt like so much yet so little was happening all at once?? the no quotation marks also didn’t help at all. i did like the ending, because of course i did, but otherwise it was a bit lack lustre for me

[Zana]

DNF @ 36%

Reads like the author is being really meticulous about their sentence structure in an attempt to be 2deep4u. The writing comes off as awkward and stilted.

Example (taken from the audiobook so I'm not sure how it's written exactly):

"Here, they have committed an unforgivable transgression, leaving behind the half butchered doe, its viscera seeping into the ground.

A prodigy.

An ill omen.

A death deferred has come to Stag's Crossing. As (?) laying down in the entryway of a grand house, the obeisance of a slathering hound. And there it will stay, waiting for the interregnum, the return from exile signaling the twilight of an empire."

There might be an audience for this, but it's definitely not me. And I'm saying this as someone who likes to indulge in pretentious writing every so often.

[AN R · Rating 1 out of 5]

Many beautiful but empty phrases. Lovely words chosen without care. An incredibly purple, annoying prose style with nothing behind it to back it up. Hollow, insincere, overdone, thoughtless.

[Horror Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is a slow burning affair with the horrific revelations coming in at about the final few chapters. However, the trauma, violence, and dark family legacy leading up to it is beautifully written and I was captivated by the narrative.

This is, after all, a literary horror novel and it's gothic, bleak, and offers nary a feel good moment throughout.

The story is told in two timelines and I loved this. It really gave me a chance to realize just how dysfunctional this family is. A widowed racist father, the favored eldest son, and the second son who is treated as a possession or pet more than a family member.

While the narrative firmly focuses on Nick, the second, not quite good enough, son, the star of the book is Emelia. She is the wife of the first-born and he was disowned by the father because she is Asian and he's not having that in HIS family.... yeah, one of those.

Twenty years on and there's a reunion of sorts as the father seemingly wants to make amends for his brutish violent ways in which he raised his sons.

Of course, this is not going to end well. But when the big juicy reveal happens, the true nature of everything we've just read makes more sense.

If you like a slow burning literary horror novel with a truly despicable father figure and family trauma piled high, I recommend this book.

[Hope Hunter · Rating 1 out of 5]

The language. The punctuation. Pregnant with prose. I even attempted the audiobook in hopes that I could get past it, but I couldn’t. DNF.

[Boston · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Jamedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review originally on JamReads

Sacrificial Animals is a supernatural horror novel written by Kailee Pedersen, and which will be published by Titan Books in the UK and St Martin Press in the US. A slow-burn novel that blends together farm/midwestern horror with Chinese mythology, exploring the cycles of familiar abuse and the discovery of identity, all paired with a literary prose, almost lyrical, that enhances what becomes a superb piece.

A story that alternates between two timelines, past and present, following Nick Morrow, the youngest of the two sons of Carlyle Morrow, a racist, violent and paranoid man who tried to raise both of them in their image; as a result, Nick grew under fear and deeply traumatized. Carlyle calls his children as he's dying; both are expected to return to the farm, including Joshua, the older who got disowned for marrying Emilia, a woman of Asian descent.
The return of both to the farm is accompanied by the repetition of those patterns that we could already observe in the past. Joshua and Carlyle quickly warms to each other, letting Nick and Emilia to their own devices, a reminiscent of how Nick was always the lesser on the family; however, this time, the presence of the enigmatic Emilia will end blossoming a romance with Nick, who can't stop thinking that there might be something sinister in this interest.

Pedersen puts a great emphasis on exploring Nick's character, especially through those early year scenes that give us an excellent insight into his growth and his queer awakening, portraying how Carlyle's control over his life creates a long-lasting trauma; but not only that, but to the sharp reader, it also shows the first details of a shadowy presence that will end stalking the farm and altering his trajectory.
We can draw a parallelism between Nick's young experiences and the conduct patterns that are established in the return to the farm: Carlyle and Joshua getting along, while relegating poor Nick to a second plane, which also contributes to the poisoning of his mind. The cycle of trauma and violence will only be altered by the total collapse of the family on the verge of the presence that put its eyes on the farm many years ago.
Not for being secondary characters, Carlyle and Joshua are less fleshed than Nick, as they are necessary actors in this choral piece. In Carlyle, we have a violent and paranoid man, who also goes for isolation when his wife dies; and that violence is mainly exerted over the children, who will end developing different trauma as a consequence. Joshua was always his right eye, the favourite, even after his treason, and in his return is treated as the prodigal son, a cause of resentment for Nick.
Emilia itself is enigmatic, and steals the show at many points; even in those moments that she appears in the past, we can guess there's more than what the eyes can see. Seductive but also intelligent, her role is not an easy one to play.

Not only the story is excellent, but the prose also deserves a mention; Pedersen has taken a bold choice, opting for a heavy and almost lyrical prose that contributes to enhancing the atmosphere. This kind of prose makes the reader part of the story, allowing them to almost experience Nick's story through the pages, and in combination with the slow-burn pacing, it slowly raises the tension until we reach the inevitable conclusion.

Sacrificial Animals is a debut that can easily top the list of horror releases this year; the unsettling atmosphere, the characters and supernatural horror combined with Pedersen's prose create an experience that will be absolutely loved by literary horror fans. Kailee Pedersen is a voice to watch in the space, with a debut that remembers to a well-distilled whiskey, a memorable novel that will stay with me far after finishing it.

[Irene Well Worth A Read]

DNF @10%

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Carlyle Morrow was a young man, he left his home in South Carolina, and headed west to Omaha, Nebraska. There, he found a wife, bought land, and built a home, Stag’s Crossing. Soon, they had two sons: Joshua--the eldest--was like his father by appearance and temperament (wrathful and impatient), and Nick—three years younger--was like his mother by appearance and temperament (introverted and caring). When she died after giving birth to a stillborn son, Carlyle blamed the doctor whom he considered an outsider, and developed a decidedly aggressive dislike for Nick.

Joshua was a hunter like his father: delighting in the violence, and exhibiting a natural savagery. Nick, was a natural fisherman: patient and deliberate. Carlyle trained his eldest (and favorite) son to take over the homestead. But when Joshua defied him by bringing the home his future wife, Emilia, Carlyle disowned and banished him from Stag’s Crossing for breaking the one, solid and steadfast rule: never allow a stranger to enter the home.

The narrative is from Nick’s point-of-view with chapters alternating between Then and Now. The Now chapters occur twenty years later when Carlyle calls for his sons to come home, allowing Joshua’s wife to come as well. By breaking his own rule, is Carlyle inviting the proverbial fox into the hen house? Someone who—like the doctor attending his wife’s labor—will cause his second, fatal error?

There is an overarching feeling of the mythical in the telling of this story. First, it felt like I was reading a modern rendition of Nordic/Germanic folklore, filled with the natural world (forests and animals); huntsmen; tragedy; violence; and magic. Second, Emilia brings the magic of the huli found in Asian tales. The lack of quote marks added to the surreal nature of the narrative.

So, who are the sacrificial animals? Are they the deer, rabbits, and foxes hunted and killed by the Morrows, or are they people like Nick, Joshua, Carlyle, and Emilia? Read and find out.

I would like to thank St.. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

[Azhar · Rating 4 out of 5]

once in a while, a horror story comes around and just blows me away, and this time, it was this one. such a slay.

[Erin Clemence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.

Expected publication date: Aug. 20, 2024

“Sacrificial Animals ” is the debut novel by Kailee Pedersen. With components of the Chinese myth of the nine-tailed fox, “Animals” is a book that ended far differently than it began.

After promising himself he would never return to his abusive father and their Nebraska farmstead, that is exactly what happens when Nick receives a phone call from his father, who claims to be dying. Nick’s estranged brother, Joshua, returns reluctantly as well, after being disowned by his father years ago for marrying a woman, Emilia, outside his race. Despite the complicated family dynamics, Nick finds himself rekindled with old feelings toward the woman who is now his brother’s wife and they are reciprocated- until Nick finds out Emilia’s true intentions.

The novel itself used verbose language and, as is the most annoying (to me) trend, no quotation marks. I also had no idea what the book was supposed to be about, as nothing happened until the novel was nearly over (around the 80% remaining mark). When those final chapters hit, there was terrifying, gory and sensational, in the best way, but I wanted that from the first page, and I did not get it.

The story is told by Nick, in two timelines; his childhood and later when he returns to the farm as an adult. Both storylines focus on farming and hunting, and the verbal and physical abuse suffered by Nick and Joshua at the hands of their father. Although the hunting segment showed its importance in the final pages, I found it really difficult to endure the rest of the story, as nothing of particular interest happened.

The Chinese myth was fascinating, but I wasn’t given enough of it in “Animals”. Instead of a “supernatural horror” as it is depicted, I was left with an atmospheric novel that choked me with its prose and structure.

Pedersen is talented, and she definitely has the vocabulary, so I’m sure this novel will be a hit with some readers, but it definitely isn’t for everyone. I was intrigued enough to finish the story, but it left me wanting.

[em (lattereads) · Rating 1 out of 5]

“His suffering is rendered meaningless by the voice of his father tinny and distorted through the phone. Ordering him back to Stag’s Crossing where history must repeat until there is no more history left.”

I want to begin this review by saying that I think that the blurb spoils a lot of what happens in the second half of the book. I think the main thing that readers should know before heading into this novel is that it follows a man named Nick in past and present timelines. In the past timeline, readers see Nick as he grows up in an abusive household. In the present timeline, Nick returns to his childhood home after his father calls him and informs him that he is dying of cancer.

Both Nick and his brother Joshua return home to spend time with their dying father. Joshua brings his wife Emilia along for the visit, even though he was disowned for marrying her many years before due to the fact that she is Asian. Sacrificial Animals explores racism, abuse, and the lengths that these two sons will go to for parental approval.

The horror elements didn’t really appear until the last part of this book, but with the excessive foreshadowing I was able to predict exactly what would happen by the end. The past and present timelines felt very repetitive, rehashing the past in the present and foreshadowing the future during scenes of the past. I very rarely felt like I was learning anything new during the whole 320 pages of this book.

My biggest problem with this book was the writing style. I normally enjoy prose that leans towards poetry, however, the prose in this novel reads less like poetry and more like stream of consciousness. Every sentence runs on in a way that makes it feel clunky, and the excessive descriptive phrases used pulled me out of the story and made my eyes gloss over. With such a minimal and repetitive plot, this book relies heavily on the writing style to pull the reader into the world – unfortunately it made me want to finish the book as quickly as possible so I could be done reading it.

I really wanted to love this book, and I’m sad that I didn’t. Unfortunately, it just did not work for me.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had really high hopes for this one. The synopsis sounded really good along with the Chinese mythology added in. This book was so slow. Nothing happens until about 70% and it just fell flat. I felt like the dual timeline really didn't add much and made it slightly hard to follow. However, I did like the narrator and felt they did a good job. I think if this book was a bit longer and had some more build up it would have been great.

Thank you Macmillan audio for the gifted copy.

[Angyl · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars rounded up

This book takes slow burn to a whole other level, and by that I mean nothing happens in this book until the 70% mark. Though I enjoyed the way things progressed after that, I have to ask myself does that thirty percent make up for the rest of it? I'm not sure...

Sacrificial Animals is an atmospheric literary horror that touches on topics of generational trauma, Chinese mythology, toxic masculinity, and figuring out where one fits into this strange world. The story flips back and forth between past and present following our main character, Nick. Nick's father was harsh and abusive to both him & his brother, Joshua. As the younger son, he was seen as inferior in his father's eyes and dealt with the brunt of his father's abuse. Now in their 40s - Nick and Joshua are summoned home by their dying father. Joshua brings his wife, Emilia, home with him - despite the fact that his relationship with her is what got him disowned by his father. Tensions rise, relationships become tangled and messy, and the sense of dread slowly builds as the ending closes in on us.

First things first, the writing was exquisite *chefs kiss*. As I have read an early copy, I will refrain from using any direct quotes but there were parts of this story where I was highlighting whole paragraphs because the author does a fantastic job of digging deep into what it means to be a human, and what it means to grow up in a dysfunctional (and abusive) household. In addition, the setting of Stag's Crossing and rural Nebraska was described beautifully and really allows you to become immersed. My only complaint as far as writing was the dialogue - no quotation marks were used, which is not a problem itself, but the way conversations were formatted made it hard at times to understand who was talking and what exactly they were saying out loud vs. what was just a thought.

Unfortunately, the story itself was lackluster. I will say, I was pulled in at the beginning and was captivated learning about what Nick went through with his father all those years ago (and having his queer awakening) - but after a while, things got repetitive and I felt like we were learning the same information over and over again. I don't think the story does anything particularly surprising either - it is pretty easy to figure out early on where things are going and what the outcome will be.

There were things I loved about this book and things I really disliked. Overall, this is one that I can see having very mixed reviews - for those that hate it, I understand. For those that love it, I understand. Very torn on this one hence my right in the middle rating!

That being said, I will be on the lookout for new releases from this author 👀

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an electronic ARC of this book to review.

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sacrificial Animals by Kailee Pederden is a novel about generational trauma, Chinese mythology, and the supernatural. 🦊

The book follows Nick, who moved away from his abusive, controlling father twenty years ago. That was also the last time he saw his brother (Joshua)—who was disowned by his father when he married a woman of Asian descent named Emilia. A phone call from his father leaves him with shocking news. Nicks’s father is sick and wants the boys to come back to Stag’s Crossing.

Both brother’s hesitate at first, but wind up going. Joshua quickly falls back into the role of loyal son. Nick and Emilia are left to their own devices, which leads to an attraction. However, there’s more to Emilia than what meets the eye.
The book is told from Nick’s perspective in the past and present. In the past he’s trying to catch an elusive fox that is eating his father’s chickens.

Okay… I’ll be honest. This book didn’t do it for me. I’m going to break down this review in what I liked, and what I personally didn’t like (but might work for you). I’m a firm believer in others loving a book I did not.

Liked:
The story telling was rich. Even though the content was heavy, the story was detailed beautifully. Even the brief gore near the end was elegantly penned.
I liked the atmosphere of creeping dread. The whole story you know something bad is going to happen but you’re not sure when.

Did not work for me:
The story took awhile to get going. I love a good slow burn.
The ending definitely was rewarding, but I can’t help but feel I dragged my feet to get there. Not much happens until the 70-75%. It’s mainly character build up and slow burn dread.
While the title is Sacrificial Animals, there was a lot of cruelty to animals—so please be forewarned. The book starts out with killing baby foxes and it was hard to read.

No quotation marks. This is definitely a style choice—and I know of a few other books that do this as well. I found myself having to read sentences again sometimes because I didn’t realize it was someone talking. I’m a big fan of having them. Again that’s just my preference!

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another instance where the pacing and writing style do not match the horror/thriller vibes the author was going for. You know what will happen if you are familiar with the kitsune myths. Emilia’s painting might have been mysterious to Nick, but if Wilde taught us anything... it’s that predictable. I didn’t hate it, I just would not recommend it.

[Lata · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.
The murder of two fox pups at the novel’s opening sets the tone for this novel: dark, visceral, vicious.

The Morrow men are repellent: one by design (the father Carlyle), taking anything he wants and beating and killing anything that defies him, the sons, Joshua and Nick, abused into pale copies of their father, though the younger Nick retains a little softness despite his father’s years of cruelty.


Carlyle calls his sons back to Stag's Crossing, the name of the rural Nebraska farm he established through hard work, and a financially useful marriage. Nick has been living and working in New York as a literary critic, while the older Joshua, and former golden boy, has been living far from home and working at a bank since he was driven away and disowned by Carlyle for marrying Emilia, an unacceptable woman, i.e., a Chinese American.

The family congregate at Stag's Crossing, with Carlyle on good behaviour, Nick's intense fascination for Emilia rekindled, and Joshua is brought back into the fold by a magnanimous patriarch. Each family interaction, however, is filled with tension, which only builds as Nick finds himself pushed back into a less important role while Carlyle and Joshua reconnect, with Joshua beginning to revert to his pre-Emilia levels of intolerance, dominance, and dismissiveness, of Nick and increasingly Emilia. Nick and Emilia also begin a clandestine, intense and intimate relationship. At the same time, author Kailee Pedersen goes back and forth in time to when Nick was a child to moments that would make him the adult he now is, and show us the constant cruelty that Carlyle dispensed to his growing children and to any and all wildlife in the area.

Pedersen lays little clues, right from the beginning of the novel, that hint at terrible things to come for the Morrows, while also touching on themes of child abuse, animal cruelty, sexuality, identity and racism. Foxes, and the eradication of them from Stag's Crossing, open the novel, and runs throughout as we see Carlyle and Nick in constant conflict about the creatures, while allusions of impending danger abound, and only escalate with the family reunited after years of isolation.

And even though I knew from the beginning what was likely to happen, I still felt a bit of a thrill when it did, and all the pain and horror that Carlyle had meted out over years came back, big time. Vicious and implacable.

This is a satisfying story, but one that is often difficult to read because of the depicted cruelty and a tendency for the author to repeat some things. The narrative, however, rewards the reader with well-drawn characters, really dysfunctional family dynamics, and much brutality. This won't be for everyone, but if you stick with it, oh that ending is delicious.

Thank you to Netgalley and to St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

[Kristy Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is told in third person in a now and then format. It follows Nick as he returns to the family farm in Nebraska at his father’s request since he is dying from cancer. Nick also calls his older brother Josh and convinces him to visit as well since their father insists that he wants to reconcile. While I thought the story was well done in parts, it really wasn’t a read that I enjoyed all that much and yet I kept going to the end. The audiobook was expertly narrated by Yung-I Chang. He did a fantastic job telling this story of two brothers caught up in their desire to please an abusive father. I primarily listened to this read, only checking the text to verify a few things.

Carlyle pitted his two sons against each other from a young age, telling Josh that he would inherit the farm and Nick that he was weak. He was a bitter about the hand life had dealt him and abusive in many ways, both physically and emotionally. When Josh marries a Chinese woman, Carlyle disowns him and Josh leaves with his new wife. Nick was also fascinated with the wife, Emilia, and the fascination continues into more in the now timeline. The now and then format was a little muddled. I often couldn’t tell which section I was in due to Nick’s reminisces in the now timeline.

There is a secondary subplot about a huli jing, a nine-tailed fox from Chinese mythology. I thought the concept was fascinating, but I didn’t like the way it was incorporated into the story. I felt like it justified Carlyle’s derogatory thoughts and actions. Also, despite the fact that I had no particular love for Josh or Nick, I also felt like they were abuse victims and while the story did a good job of showing perpetuating cycles of abuse, there was a sins of the father visited against the sons theme here that I wasn’t comfortable with given the situation. While the abuse story was well done, the mythological part didn’t work for me in context though I would love to know more about it.

Recommended to horror lovers that enjoy dysfunctional family dynamics and Chinese mythology. Watch any trigger warnings about abuse, including animals.

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for a copy provided for an honest review.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐Thank you goodreads for sending me this book in a giveaway⭐

That was hella weird. But i fuck with it. This didnt have to be the most perfectly crafted piece of literature, i had a good time and I support womens wrongs.