Cottonmouths

A Los Angeles Review Best Book of 2017From a compelling new voice in LGBTQ and Southern fiction, a gripping tale of crime and desire amid small-town America's meth epidemic.This was Drear's Bluff. Nothing bad happened here. People didn't disappear. College was supposed to be an escape for Emily Skinner. But after failing out of school, shes left with no choice but to return to her small Arkansas hometown, a place run on gossip and good Christian values. Shes not alone. Emilys former best friendand childhood crushJody Monroe is back with a baby. Emily cant resist the opportunity to reconnect, despite the uncomfortable way things ended between them and her moms disapproval of their friendship. When Emily stumbles upon a meth lab on Jodys property, she realizes just how far they've both fallen. Emily intends to keep her distance from Jody, but when shes kicked out of her house with no money and nowhere to go, a paying job as Jodys live-in babysitter is hard to pass up. As they grow closer, Emily glimpses a future for the first time since coming home. She dismisses her worries; after all, Jody is a single mom. The meth lab is a means to an end. And besides, for Emily, Jody is the real drug. But when Jodys business partner goes missing, and the lies begin to pile up, Emily will learn just how far Jody is willing to go to save her own skinand how much Emily herself has risked for the love of someone who may never truly love her back. Echoing the work of authors like Daniel Woodrell and Sarah Waters, Cottonmouths is an unflinching story about the ways in which the past pulls us back . . . despite our best efforts to leave it behind.