North, to Hell!

by Burke De Boer

Oregon, 1906. Buck Appleyard has been hired as a Forest Guard for the newly-founded United States Forest Service. He's posted to a cabin in the Western Blue Mountain Forest Reserve. When the mushrooms begin to fruit with the springtime rainfall, Buck discovers there is something sinister lurking within the soils and spores.

"North, To Hell! is a western gothic fever dream written with confidence and caliber. From shadows moving in the forest, to dire warnings carved on mineshaft walls, De Boer gives us a stylized story rich with mystery and rife with tension. Fans of Stephen Graham Jones and Nick Cutter will feel right at home."
-- James Wade, two-time Spur Award-winning author of Beasts of the Earth


A collage-style horror weaves storylines together like interconnected mycelium. Science-driven natural resource managers, religious fanatics, and lumberjacks all succumb to a force beyond their reasoning, more fearsome than their gods, and vengeful for the trees they fell.

Experience the new novel from Third Eye Sockeye Press, North, to Hell!


"Much has been said about the capacity for nature to evoke a sense of wonder. However, it can also inspire horror out of untamed wilderness and monsters we mere mortals cannot imagine, let alone understand. In North, to Hell!, Burke De Boer ensnares the reader in just such a world through a vivid, collage style that captures different voices and moments with deft skill and frank prose. It’s an offbeat, immersive adventure that leaves plenty to ponder well after the final page."
-- Michael Chin, author of My Grandfather’s an Immigrant, and So Is Yours

245 pages, Paperback

Published September 12, 2023

Reviews

[Dustin Burch · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has spent a great deal of time researching the history of the region De Boer writes so meticulously about, I enjoyed this very much. The horror came secondary to the quality of research and craft, and I'd read a 600 page tomb of Central Oregon History by him if given the opportunity.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not going to tell you what the monstrous mystery at the heart of this novel is, partly because the author doesn't want you to know until you, the reader, are fairly well along in the book. Thankfully by then you'll be enjoying the quirky characters who populate this strange but engaging tale. Chances are you, like me, have never read a "Forest Service Horror Novel," as this one bills itself, but no matter: the forest rangers, gunslingers, and small-time loggers you'll meet here are odd, funny, and quickly relatable. As bullets fly and censorious reports are filed, our cast of heroes drifts closer to encountering the nasty menace that threatens to engulf this remote and beautiful corner of the American Northwest. De Boer knows how to write terror, botany, and rugged beauty, and he ties all these seemingly random threads together in a fiery and frightening climax--one that promises to leave its spores germinating in your head for a good long while to come.