Cowbird

by Steffen Jack

Cowbird is a novella of cosmic folk horror set deep in the countryside during the broiling summer of 1982. It is written in the third person from two POVs.

A man running from his past is doomed to repeat it. Stew knows that better than anyone; but he’ll prove to his family, this time things will be different. Then he meets a feral little boy with fairy friends at the ass-end of nowhere. That’s when he finds out bad luck has a crazy way of winning.

From the shelter of his blackberry labyrinth, Eli practices dark magic and animal sacrifice. When a young couple with a baby girl move in next door, they become intertwined in his lessons of spiritual evolution.

Content warning: 16+animal sacrifice, child abuse (nongraphic), child neglect, child threat, smoking, drinking, and foul language.

241 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 28, 2026

About the author

Steffen Jack is an author of science fiction and horror. He resides in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Reviews

[Jas Phoenix]

Wow, what a unique and fantastic read Cowbird by Steffen Jack is! The story is told from the perspectives of two characters: Stew, who is struggling to put his past behind him and become the man he wants to be for his family, and Eli, a young boy who lives next door to Stew and his family when they move into their new home. What follows is a strange and increasingly unsettling story as Stew finds himself unknowingly drawn into Eli’s world of dark magic and animal sacrifice. The atmosphere is eerie throughout, with Eli and his family being particularly strange characters who somehow manage to both intrigue and repulse. There is something deeply unsettling about their behaviour, and there is a growing sense that things are spiralling further and further out of control for Stew.

One of the things that particularly stood out to me was Steffen Jack’s writing. It is superb, with a very distinct voice that perfectly matches each character and brings the reader right into their minds. The writing feels incredibly immediate and immersive, almost as though you are experiencing the events alongside Stew and Eli rather than simply reading about them. Their thoughts, fears and reactions feel raw and natural, and the way the story moves between the two perspectives works brilliantly.

I was absolutely hooked, desperate to find out how this story was going to turn out. The tension and strangeness kept drawing me in, and I genuinely had no idea where things were heading. And that ending! I was completely stunned and definitely wasn’t expecting it. Cowbird is an excellent story with equally excellent writing. Unique, unsettling and incredibly immersive. I highly recommend.

[Jan Miklaszewicz]

I won’t be at all surprised if Cowbird ends up in my top horror reads of 2026. Sinister and gripping, it provides some very unsettling insights into folk magic, dysfunctional family life in rural America, and the mind of a deeply troubled young boy. Kudos to the author too for flouting certain conventions of punctuation to great effect, creating an authentic and stylish writing voice. Highly recommended.