Fifteen-year-old Leo is watching the world crumble. His father is missing and his mother is slipping into madness as she cares for Leo, his sick sister Goldfish, and two useless brothers. Relatives are no help and the church folk have turned their backs in the middle of the Great Depression.

When he discovers an enchanted wulver from ancient folklore that will do his bidding, he decides to settle old scores. Revenge is sweet, but Leo soon learns he can’t control what he’s unleashed. It takes his spitfire best friend Lilyfax to help Leo overcome his anger and try to escape the wulver’s evil. As they search for his father, Leo, Lilyfax, and friends are pursued by dark forces and pulled into a rescue effort to find and save trafficked girls rumored to have been taken by the mysterious Blue Man.

Featuring elements of horror, folklore, and magical realism, Where Dark Things Grow is a dark bildungsroman set squarely in the place and culture of the 1930s Southern Appalachian Mountains.