Four women investigating the haunting murder of their friend discover more than they ever imagined in a terrifying novel about good and evil, love and death, and the spaces between.

Five years after Sofia Lyon disappeared, her remains are found stuffed into the hollow of a tree bursting through the floorboards of an abandoned house in the woods. The women who loved her flock home to the North Carolina hills to face their grief.

Frankie, Sofia’s twin, is in furious mourning. Poppy is heartbroken. Cass has never felt more homesick. And Marya knows something the rest of them don’t. Determined to find Sofia’s murderer, they share more than a need to see justice done for their friend. Each woman is haunted, bound to the next by something both cruel and kind, and now stalked by a shadowy presence they’ve yet to understand. Only to question, and to fear.

As Sofia’s secrets unravel, so do those of the woods, and the women soon realize that Sofia might not be who they thought she was at all. And that whoever—or whatever—killed her is coming after them.

“We Ate the Dark is a gripping tale of friendship and grief and the real and imagined ghosts from the past that come to haunt us. Deliciously queer and wildly Southern, this book had me turning pages fast, lost in its poetic language, immersed in the lush landscape, holding my breath in anticipation. Mallory Pearson has written a stunning debut filled with sentences that continued to surprise me with their beauty and generosity until the very last page.” —Genevieve Hudson, author of Boys of Alabama and Pretend We Live Here

“Written with gorgeous, hypnotic prose, We Ate the Dark is a piece of uncategorizable beauty and a masterclass in suspense: a ghost story inside a mystery inside a story of queer love, friendship, and family. Pearson has added to the queer horror canon with a deeply felt, deeply human masterpiece about grief, magic, connection, and all the things that keep us coming back to one another. Spooky, tender, and heartbreaking, it’ll have you turning the pages like an incantation.” —Marisa Crane, author of I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself