Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery

Slewfoot is set in a Puritan New England colony where a young Englishwoman named Abitha has arrived as a bride to a stranger and quickly found herself widowed and vulnerable in a community built on patriarchal piety. When Slewfoot — an ancient spirit of the forest, confused about his own nature — awakens near her farm, the two form an unlikely alliance against the forces trying to destroy her. Brom writes dark fantasy infused with authentic colonial American mythology and his own illustrations, and constructs the story as a genuine tragedy of misunderstanding and persecution.

Barrie Kreinik narrates with the atmospheric intensity Brom's work demands, finding the menace and tenderness in a story where the monster is sympathetic and the community is the threat. At just under fifteen hours the audiobook honors the novel's careful construction. The combination of supernatural horror and historical realism plays particularly well in audio.