A teenage girl from West Virginia unravels her mom’s eerie disappearance so she can fight the ancient monster who took her and stop him from turning her tight-knit coal mining community into a nightmare. In the small coal camp of Jubilee, West Virginia, Phinnie “Skinny” Caldwell has been plagued with nightmares of the last time she ever saw her mama alive and the man responsible for stealing her away: Zell Dorsey. When Zell Dorsey returns thirteen years later, alone, Skinny is determined to find out what really happened.

As she uncovers disturbing truths about her mama’s fate and Zell’s sinister plan, she turns to Happy Walker, her school bus driver and the closest thing she has to a father. However, nothing can prepare them for what they find: Behind Zell Dorsey’s charming veneer, is a creature both older and far more evil than any devil, and he’s hellbent on turning everyone Skinny loves into oil-slicked monsters. This book is a testament to the resilience of grieving mothers and the tenacity of the beautiful people of Appalachia, a place where the accents sing rather than talk and the tea is always sweet.