What do you think?
Rate this book
Who Lost, I Found: Stories
Who Lost, I Found is a collection of stories by Eden Royce.
In these Black Southern speculative fiction tales, the author weaves together several subgenres like a sweetgrass Southern Gothic, weird fiction, dark fantasy, and folk horror. All inspired by her Gullah Geechee heritage and its cautionary stories, and the hoodoo that runs throughout, whether everyone acknowledges it or not.
Includes the Shirley Jackson Award finalist story, “Room and Board Included, Demonology Extra” (from the anthology Cooties Shot Required ).
BLACK SOUTHERN HORROR
An old woman can wake the dead, for a time, bringing families peace when they’ve been denied justice. An elder on death row chooses her last meal, and it isn’t on the menu. A witch learns the real reason behind her ex-husband’s death and decides to do a little hexing of her own. A girl gets more than she bargained for when she sneaks into a room at a historic property...
These are stories written like the South beautiful, dangerous, haunting. Giving the South its due in speculative fiction for reaching further than many realize and for leaving an indelible stain.
PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR
“Eden Royce is among the most vital and vibrant voices working in the horror and fantasy genres today. Now with her latest collection, Who Lost, I Found , she once again delves into the haunted lives of women and girls in ways that are by turns surprising, heartbreaking, horrifying, and utterly empowering. Needless to say, every tale in this table of contents is a knockout. Read this incredible book, and then be sure to recommend it to all your friends.” ( Gwendolyn Kiste , Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens , Pretty Marys All in a Row , and Reluctant Immortals )
“In Who Lost, I Found , Eden Royce treats readers to a Southern Gothic literary feast. Prose that sings and stories that pluck on all the right heartstrings. This collection is a beautifully nuanced blend of Gothic horror and folklore, the kind of tales that will linger long after you’ve read the last line.” ( Veronica G. Henry , author of Bacchanal , The Quarter Storm , and The Foreign Exchange )
“Endlessly absorbing. A charismatic, ensnaring collection of haunted locales and legacies, with a magic both bloody and wondrous. I couldn’t tear myself away. Royce deftly navigates her sea of stories to enchant your imagination, make your skin crawl, and even break your heart.” ( Hailey Piper , Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth )
“In Who Lost, I Found , Eden Royce’s lyrical prose invites readers into the lives of Southern conjure women, haints, sentient houses, Mami Watas, and caterers of the dead. A house gets up and moves inland when it senses a hurricane brewing. A death row inmate makes an unusual request for her last meal from a BBQ joint that offers more than meets the eye. A graverobbing rootworker uses tea magic to bring home the lost bodies of lynching victims. A djinn braids hair and changes lives at a salon. And a weaver guards the veil between worlds. Skirting the lines between the surreal, horror, and fantasy, Who Lost, I Found is a triumph of a collection by a supremely gifted writer that deserves nothing but the highest praise.” ( Yvette Lisa Ndlovu , author of Drinking from Graveyard Wells )
In these Black Southern speculative fiction tales, the author weaves together several subgenres like a sweetgrass Southern Gothic, weird fiction, dark fantasy, and folk horror. All inspired by her Gullah Geechee heritage and its cautionary stories, and the hoodoo that runs throughout, whether everyone acknowledges it or not.
Includes the Shirley Jackson Award finalist story, “Room and Board Included, Demonology Extra” (from the anthology Cooties Shot Required ).
BLACK SOUTHERN HORROR
An old woman can wake the dead, for a time, bringing families peace when they’ve been denied justice. An elder on death row chooses her last meal, and it isn’t on the menu. A witch learns the real reason behind her ex-husband’s death and decides to do a little hexing of her own. A girl gets more than she bargained for when she sneaks into a room at a historic property...
These are stories written like the South beautiful, dangerous, haunting. Giving the South its due in speculative fiction for reaching further than many realize and for leaving an indelible stain.
PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR
“Eden Royce is among the most vital and vibrant voices working in the horror and fantasy genres today. Now with her latest collection, Who Lost, I Found , she once again delves into the haunted lives of women and girls in ways that are by turns surprising, heartbreaking, horrifying, and utterly empowering. Needless to say, every tale in this table of contents is a knockout. Read this incredible book, and then be sure to recommend it to all your friends.” ( Gwendolyn Kiste , Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens , Pretty Marys All in a Row , and Reluctant Immortals )
“In Who Lost, I Found , Eden Royce treats readers to a Southern Gothic literary feast. Prose that sings and stories that pluck on all the right heartstrings. This collection is a beautifully nuanced blend of Gothic horror and folklore, the kind of tales that will linger long after you’ve read the last line.” ( Veronica G. Henry , author of Bacchanal , The Quarter Storm , and The Foreign Exchange )
“Endlessly absorbing. A charismatic, ensnaring collection of haunted locales and legacies, with a magic both bloody and wondrous. I couldn’t tear myself away. Royce deftly navigates her sea of stories to enchant your imagination, make your skin crawl, and even break your heart.” ( Hailey Piper , Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth )
“In Who Lost, I Found , Eden Royce’s lyrical prose invites readers into the lives of Southern conjure women, haints, sentient houses, Mami Watas, and caterers of the dead. A house gets up and moves inland when it senses a hurricane brewing. A death row inmate makes an unusual request for her last meal from a BBQ joint that offers more than meets the eye. A graverobbing rootworker uses tea magic to bring home the lost bodies of lynching victims. A djinn braids hair and changes lives at a salon. And a weaver guards the veil between worlds. Skirting the lines between the surreal, horror, and fantasy, Who Lost, I Found is a triumph of a collection by a supremely gifted writer that deserves nothing but the highest praise.” ( Yvette Lisa Ndlovu , author of Drinking from Graveyard Wells )
- GenresShort StoriesHorror
213 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 10, 2023
4 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
Eden Royce
60 books382 followersEden Royce is a writer from Charleston, South Carolina now living in Southeast England. She’s a Shirley Jackson Award winner and a Bram Stoker Award finalist for her adult fiction, which has appeared in a variety of print and online publications.
Her books for young readers have received Walter Dean Myers Award Honors, and been recognized as a Bram Stoker Award winner, an Andre Norton Nebula Award Finalist, an Ignyte Award winner, and a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award winner for outstanding children’s literature.
Find her on social media via her LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/edenroyce.
Sign up for her newsletter: https://edenroyce.eo.page/sbtyt
Her books for young readers have received Walter Dean Myers Award Honors, and been recognized as a Bram Stoker Award winner, an Andre Norton Nebula Award Finalist, an Ignyte Award winner, and a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award winner for outstanding children’s literature.
Find her on social media via her LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/edenroyce.
Sign up for her newsletter: https://edenroyce.eo.page/sbtyt
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 13, 2024
Eden Royce is one of those authors who will never release a book I won't read. I am five for five with her two middle grade titles and three adult short story collections of which Who Lost, I Found from Broken Eye Books is the latest.
If Royce's MG fiction centres girls and women in sync with the other worldly, her adult stories cedes ground to the monsters. These are the women tentacled who breathe underwater, who strip skin, whose wails are a call to be answered. Well, that sounds nice (I love monstrous women) but the truer word is that there is no real dividing line between the two. They are sisters of the same womb, often kin in the same body.
The reader can't tag them as good or bad and predict how they will act accordingly. The only surety is that they have power. The power to love, heal and protect; the power to weave and destroy; the power to command and the power to weather hurricanes; the power to party to the dead; the power to be vulnerable and to seek purpose, with the earth their companion, always.
The stories are set in Charleston, South Carolina and inhabit land and sea as part of the same realm in Gulla Geechee soil. They operate at different levels of myth (not as lie but truths told) from the awe-filling Mami Wata stepping on shore to claim her own, to a djinn who grants wishes via hair braiding patterns, to the ride or bestie who will help you to bury that body.
I can't name a favourite but the most unexpected story for me was "Don't You Weep" about a woman prison guard and her relationship with an elder inmate on death row for killing her abusive husband. Everything about what they were to each other was wrenching but there's a BBQ restaurant scene that raised the hair off my skin and reminded me of Myriam J A Chancy stating in an interview that evidence suggests the word "barbecue" might have African origins.
From hurricanes to grapefruit vines better than any guard dog it's all here in stories woven in sweetgrass slick with blood. It's the horror and beauty of life with the dead only a favorite food offering away.
If Royce's MG fiction centres girls and women in sync with the other worldly, her adult stories cedes ground to the monsters. These are the women tentacled who breathe underwater, who strip skin, whose wails are a call to be answered. Well, that sounds nice (I love monstrous women) but the truer word is that there is no real dividing line between the two. They are sisters of the same womb, often kin in the same body.
The reader can't tag them as good or bad and predict how they will act accordingly. The only surety is that they have power. The power to love, heal and protect; the power to weave and destroy; the power to command and the power to weather hurricanes; the power to party to the dead; the power to be vulnerable and to seek purpose, with the earth their companion, always.
The stories are set in Charleston, South Carolina and inhabit land and sea as part of the same realm in Gulla Geechee soil. They operate at different levels of myth (not as lie but truths told) from the awe-filling Mami Wata stepping on shore to claim her own, to a djinn who grants wishes via hair braiding patterns, to the ride or bestie who will help you to bury that body.
I can't name a favourite but the most unexpected story for me was "Don't You Weep" about a woman prison guard and her relationship with an elder inmate on death row for killing her abusive husband. Everything about what they were to each other was wrenching but there's a BBQ restaurant scene that raised the hair off my skin and reminded me of Myriam J A Chancy stating in an interview that evidence suggests the word "barbecue" might have African origins.
From hurricanes to grapefruit vines better than any guard dog it's all here in stories woven in sweetgrass slick with blood. It's the horror and beauty of life with the dead only a favorite food offering away.
December 26, 2023
This was easily a five star read! I can't say that I've enjoyed a short story collection this much in a long time. I started to make a list of favorites, but honestly, I don't think that I can give a single story in this collection less than 4 stars. That is a rarity in collections, for me as a reader anyway. I live in North Carolina but Charleston is one of my favorite cities in the U.S. I'm happy that these stories were set there and describe the food and culture so vividly. It brought me back to Charleston!
This collection is a mix of magical realism, fantasy, and satire (realism). I absolutely loved the idea of a seaside house that grew crab legs and moved away from the sea during a hurricane. I loved the ghost stories and humor and sadness that many of these stories brought. It's like Eden Royce created her own southern mythology with these stories. I'm listing the ones that I gave 5 stars below but the rest were 4 stars:
"Every Good-Bye Ain't Gone"
"Sweetgrass Blood"
"Folk"
"The Stringer of Wiltsburg Farm"
"Room and Board Included, Demonolgy Extra"
"Hands Made for Weaving, with Nails Sharp as Claws"
"Miss Beulah's Braiding and Life Changing Salon"
"Don't You Weep"
"The Salt Cure"
"For Southern Girls when the Zodiac Signs Ain't Near Enough"
Even though my only child is an adult now, I might read some of her kid's books. I really hope that some time in the future Royce will write novels or novellas for adults, because I would read them all.
This collection is a mix of magical realism, fantasy, and satire (realism). I absolutely loved the idea of a seaside house that grew crab legs and moved away from the sea during a hurricane. I loved the ghost stories and humor and sadness that many of these stories brought. It's like Eden Royce created her own southern mythology with these stories. I'm listing the ones that I gave 5 stars below but the rest were 4 stars:
"Every Good-Bye Ain't Gone"
"Sweetgrass Blood"
"Folk"
"The Stringer of Wiltsburg Farm"
"Room and Board Included, Demonolgy Extra"
"Hands Made for Weaving, with Nails Sharp as Claws"
"Miss Beulah's Braiding and Life Changing Salon"
"Don't You Weep"
"The Salt Cure"
"For Southern Girls when the Zodiac Signs Ain't Near Enough"
Even though my only child is an adult now, I might read some of her kid's books. I really hope that some time in the future Royce will write novels or novellas for adults, because I would read them all.
November 20, 2023
A necessary voice
This collection of stores was very fulfilling, like a kaleidoscope of spirit, Gullah, indigo & water. I fell so satisfied after reading this collection. I can't wait for more from Eden.
This collection of stores was very fulfilling, like a kaleidoscope of spirit, Gullah, indigo & water. I fell so satisfied after reading this collection. I can't wait for more from Eden.
January 6, 2024
All of the major SFF and horror awards need to just stop in their tracks now and give Eden Royce all of the prizes. This collection had a huge impact on me as a huge, huge fan of Eden Royce, whose prose is like no other. "Who Lost, I Found" is also a love letter to Eden's Gullah Geechee heritage, to Hoodoo, and something that her adult readership has been waiting for. She takes the Hoodoo here and cranks it up to ten. The stories were so satisfying that I wanted to swim in them and luxuriate in her prose.
The stories hit hard, especially the ones that centered on women achieving well-deserved revenge for wrongs done to them or their loved ones. I can't express more about how much this collection is just one of the absolute best, so I'm going to urge folks to run to the bookstore or online and buy a copy to support this marvellous author whose works I cannot get enough of!
The stories hit hard, especially the ones that centered on women achieving well-deserved revenge for wrongs done to them or their loved ones. I can't express more about how much this collection is just one of the absolute best, so I'm going to urge folks to run to the bookstore or online and buy a copy to support this marvellous author whose works I cannot get enough of!
January 26, 2024
Absolutely amazing. Every story had me hooked. Royce has done brilliantly in crafting stories and characters that hold their own hoodoo and strength, even if they don't know or understand how, using her Gullah background and the rich ancestral history that will forever keep giving. From the soil to the sea, with spirits, life, and death indelibly intertwined, these stories are captivating and moving.
January 20, 2026
Powerful & varied collection of short stories that resonate with black spiritual practices even if you aren’t Gullah. Once I got over the different voices and writing style from the first few stories the rest weren’t as jarring in their nuance & narrative shifts.
March 16, 2024
Loved it!
July 2, 2024
Royce does it again!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews