Hemlock

“Hemlock is a beautiful poison, lush and wondrous in its descriptions of the natural world…The novel’s portrayal of addiction – one of the best I’ve read in a while and indeed up there in the ranks of greatest literature steeped in addiction alongside The Shining – embodies this well.”–Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, Autostraddle
“All the trappings of a gothic novel are here from the beginning, from a crumbling residence to strange sights and sounds in the surroundings to Sam’s own fragile state of mind. But what makes Hemlock special goes beyond its employment of genre conventions. What makes it land, thoroughly and from the beginning, is how Faliveno’s assured, graceful prose captures Sam’s mind as she comes to grips with what she’s going through. There are moments in this book that will send chills down your spine–including those as simple as a stranger’s boot landing on the porch step–but none of it would work without Faliveno’s grasp of her protagonist’s inner life. In Faliveno’s hands, we experience Sam’s transformation from within, and that makes Hemlock so thoroughly engrossing you’ll start to feel the trees closing in around you.”–Bookpage
“Moody… Satisfying… There’s much to enjoy in this gothic family drama.”–Publishers Weekly
“Faliveno brings readers to the edge of their seats and keeps them there…a haunting story about generational legacies, both good and bad.”–LIbrary Journal
“Hemlock is a propulsive, atmospheric story of ghosts, monsters, and transformation, with a sharp eye for gender dynamics and the queer experience in rural places. This tension-filled exploration of an inescapable haunting is a nuanced story of addiction and inheritance.”–Booklist (starred review)
“Faliveno has written the gothic midwestern mystery we’ve all been waiting for–I devoured this eerie, sexy parable of addiction and becoming. A delight from beginning to end.”–Melissa Febos, author of Girlhood and The Dry Season
“Gorgeous and surprising, Hemlock’s propulsive plot is fueled by equal parts Midwestern dread and Midwestern love, a combination my own Midwestern heart recognizes as home. Faliveno sets her exploration of the complicated, compelling legacies of family and place amid a great and beautiful landscape I’ve loved all my life, but that I’ve maybe never seen as vividly as I do right now, after having been shown it anew through Faliveno’s evocative prose. A spectacular debut.”–Matt Bell, author of Appleseed
“Hauntingly visceral and utterly mesmerizing, Hemlock plunges into the shadowed and swirling terrain of dependence and its many faces. Melissa Faliveno weaves addiction as metamorphosis, desire as wilderness, in prose that pulses like a heartbeat. A debut of startling originality that reads like a fever dream and burrows beneath the skin. Hemlock is urgent, unapologetic, and utterly unforgettable.”–Chelsea Bieker, bestselling author of Madwoman and Godshot
“Melissa Faliveno’s Hemlock is a terrific Midwestern ghost story. A novel that knows a northwoods late at night, an old cabin, and a lonely soul can all be equally as haunted.” –Megan Giddings, author of Lakewood
“Utterly entrancing, Hemlock captures the insularity and expansiveness of the psyche in isolation, not unlike the teeming abundance of the forest kingdom. Here in the Northwoods, the trees close in sounding more and more like water; animals speak in words; what is human might become earthly–the earthly, supernatural. With stunning and gothic prose, in the vein of Carson McCullers, Melissa Faliveno’s debut novel reveals the world anew and, in doing so, summons within readers a revelatory sense of presence, myth, and haunting.”–T Kira Madden, author of Whidbey and Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls

Melissa Faliveno is the author of the debut essay collection Tomboyland. The collection was named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR, New York Public Library, Oprah Magazine, Electric Literature, and Debutiful, and received a 2021 Award for Outstanding Literary Achievement from the Wisconsin Library Association.

Faliveno’s writing has appeared in Esquire, Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Literary Hub, Ms. magazine, Bitch magazine, and Brooklyn Rail, among others. Her work is also included in the anthologies Sex and the Single Woman and the forthcoming Hit Repeat Until I Hate Music.

Born and raised in small-town Wisconsin, Faliveno is a longtime resident of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. She teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina and lives in the woods outside Chapel Hill.

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