Stay Buried
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Author: Jennifer McMahon
Published: 2026
Genre: Horror
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IBC Editorial Rating: 4/5
This book is handpicked by the IBC Editorial Team. If you are an author, publisher, or reader and would like to have a book reviewed by IBC, you may reach us at editorial@indianbookclub.com — we’ll be happy to review it.
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Editorial Review:
Some towns stay isolated for a reason. In 1919, Frankie O'Massey has always been the black sheep of Boone's Ferry, Vermont, learning the science of medicine from her uncle in a community deeply suspicious of it. When a mysterious illness sweeps through town, seemingly tied to the reclusive knackerman who deals in the town's dead livestock, Frankie and her uncle race to find a rational explanation before superstition takes hold. Nearly a century later, siblings Ashley and Malcolm inherit a Boone's Ferry property from the grandmother who never once spoke of it, and what should be a straightforward inheritance trip instead leads them into a town of picturesque charm and deeply unsettling tradition. As both timelines edge closer to the truth, Jennifer McMahon builds a haunting story about the secrets small towns keep, and the price of finally asking the wrong questions.
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Book Summary:
In 1919, Boone's Ferry is the kind of isolated Vermont town where everyone knows everyone, strangers are met with suspicion, and modern medicine is regarded as something close to heresy. Frankie O'Massey, an orphan already treated as an outsider, has spent years training under her uncle, a doctor determined to bring real science into a community that trusts folklore far more readily. When a mysterious illness begins spreading through town, its origins traced back to the reclusive knackerman who handles the community's sick and dying animals, Frankie and her uncle find themselves fighting not just the disease itself, but the rising tide of fear and superstition it unleashes among their neighbours. Nearly a century later, siblings Ashley and Malcolm are still processing the loss of their mother when their grandmother's death leaves them an unexpected inheritance: a property in Boone's Ferry, a town their grandmother spent her whole life refusing to discuss. What begins as a simple trip to settle the estate quickly reveals a town that looks idyllic on the surface, all autumnal charm and small-town warmth, but conceals unsettling rituals beneath it, including offerings made four times a year to appease a vengeful spirit. As McMahon moves between Frankie's 1919 struggle to explain the inexplicable and Ashley and Malcolm's growing unease in the present, the two timelines slowly draw closer together, each one illuminating just how long Boone's Ferry has been keeping its secrets, and what it has cost the families who have tried to leave.
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Key Takeaways:
- “Fear that outpaces reason”: Across both timelines, the novel examines how quickly a frightened community can abandon logic in favor of superstition, and how dangerous that shift can become for anyone standing in the way. McMahon uses this pattern to suggest that human panic is often more destructive than whatever originally caused it. - “Secrets that outlive the people who kept them”: Boone's Ferry has spent a century burying its history, quite literally, and the novel is deeply interested in how long a town's silence can hold before descendants like Ashley and Malcolm arrive and start asking questions no one wants answered. - “Outsider status as both burden and clarity”: Frankie's position as an orphan, a queer woman, and a believer in science in a town resistant to all three gives her a vantage point the rest of Boone's Ferry lacks. McMahon uses her outsider perspective to cut through the town's collective denial with real clarity. - “Inherited history as inescapable inheritance”: Ashley and Malcolm's connection to Boone's Ferry through their grandmother's silence suggests that the past does not stay buried simply because a family refuses to speak of it. The novel treats generational secrecy as its own kind of haunting, independent of anything supernatural.
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Iconic Lines, Scenes & Characters:
- Frankie O'Massey. An orphaned, queer woman training in medicine in a town wary of both, Frankie emerges as the emotional heart of the 1919 timeline. Her determination to find rational answers in an increasingly irrational community makes her one of the novel's most compelling and sympathetic figures. - The knackerman. The reclusive figure at the centre of Boone's Ferry's mysterious illness becomes one of the novel's most unsettling presences, his role in the town's folklore growing more disturbing as both timelines unfold. His story lingers well past the chapters that introduce him. - The offerings to a vengeful spirit. The unsettling present-day tradition of leaving quarterly offerings gives Boone's Ferry its most immediate sense of dread, a ritual that makes clear this town's relationship with its past is far from resolved. It is one of the novel's most effective slow-building details. - Boone's Ferry itself. Rendered with a deceptive, autumnal charm that slowly curdles into something far more sinister, the town functions almost as its own character throughout the novel. Its idyllic surface makes the unease McMahon builds beneath it all the more effective.
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Who Should Read This:
Readers who love atmospheric folk horror steeped in small-town dread will find Boone's Ferry a genuinely unsettling setting, one that rewards patience as its layers of history and superstition slowly come into focus. Anyone drawn to dual-timeline mysteries that connect past and present through family history will appreciate how carefully McMahon ties Frankie's 1919 struggle to Ashley and Malcolm's present-day discoveries, letting each timeline deepen the other. Fans of character-driven horror with genuine emotional stakes, particularly stories featuring queer protagonists and complicated family legacies, will connect with Frankie's journey as much as the mystery surrounding her. A note for readers: the pacing slows in places, particularly as both timelines build toward their eventual convergence. Readers who enjoy a patient, atmospheric build should find that investment pays off well by the novel's final chapters.
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IBC Editorial Note:
This review is part of the Indian Book Club’s editorial initiative to spotlight books that inspire, inform, and leave a lasting impact on readers. Every title featured is carefully handpicked and reviewed by the IBC Editorial Team to maintain quality, authenticity, and literary value. If you are an author, publisher, or reader and would like to submit a book for review, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Please write to us at: editorial@indianbookclub.com Our team personally evaluates each submission, and selected books are featured as official IBC Editorial Reviews on our platform.