Slewfoot

Slewfoot is a novel by the American writer and illustrator Brom, published in 2021 by Tor Nightfire. It is set in colonial New England and combines historical fiction with folk horror.

The book takes place in Connecticut in 1666, in a settlement where the Puritan authorities govern both the land and the behaviour of the people on it. Abitha is a young widow from England who has inherited her husband's farm and who is being pushed out by neighbours who covet it, and she has no protector and no standing in the community. Meanwhile a spirit wakes in the forest, and the colonists call him Slewfoot and consider him a devil, while the wildfolk who live outside the settlement call him Father and Protector. Brom has worked as a fantasy illustrator, and the book is illustrated with his own paintings and drawings, which are part of how the two worlds are presented.

Brom has written several novels, most of them dark fantasy and horror, and this one is built on the history of the witch trials in New England as much as on the supernatural.