
This story definitely fits within the horror sub-genre of Southern Gothic. Set in a backwoods small Georgian community in the middle of the Great Depression, Yankee Frank Nichols and his soon hoped to be wife Eudora arrive in the community with the idea that Frank will write a history book while Eudora works as a teacher at the local school. Frank is a scarred WWI veteran that suffers nightmares from his wartime experiences. Eudora is a golden-haired beauty with striking mismatched eyes and a huge sexual appetite for her partner Frank, though she is also infertile. A past locally infamous Confederate officer and a sadistic plantation slave holder is Frank's distant relative. Frank intends to research this man to tell the story of his early heroic Civil War deeds and how following the war he was later murdered by his slaves that he would not free, even driving off Union troops who tried to step in. What is left of the old plantation is somewhere deep in the woods that are located across a river and can only be reached by a raft ferry, unless one is willing to risk the current forging across on foot in shallower areas. Frank hopes to trek into the woods in order to find the plantation remains for his book research, but those in the community never cross far into the woods and recommend that Frank keep out of them. When he does enter the woods, while getting lost and not finding the plantation, he sees and experiences something shocking that he thinks best kept to himself. The townspeople also have a strange practice of once a month driving some flower bedecked pigs into the woods and leaving them. The pigs are never heard from again. Due to the deprivation of depression times, the town holds a meeting, and with the included urging of Eudora decides to end the monthly loss of their pigs. It is this act that sets off the horror that will consume the community and personally affect Frank and Eudora.
This story definitely fits within the horror sub-genre of Southern Gothic. Set in a backwoods small Georgian community in the middle of the Great Depression, Yankee Frank Nichols and his soon hoped to be wife Eudora arrive in the community with the idea that Frank will write a history book while Eudora works as a teacher at the local school. Frank is a scarred WWI veteran that suffers nightmares from his wartime experiences. Eudora is a golden-haired beauty with striking mismatched eyes and a huge sexual appetite for her partner Frank, though she is also infertile. A past locally infamous Confederate officer and a sadistic plantation slave holder is Frank's distant relative. Frank intends to research this man to tell the story of his early heroic Civil War deeds and how following the war he was later murdered by his slaves that he would not free, even driving off Union troops who tried to step in. What is left of the old plantation is somewhere deep in the woods that are located across a river and can only be reached by a raft ferry, unless one is willing to risk the current forging across on foot in shallower areas. Frank hopes to trek into the woods in order to find the plantation remains for his book research, but those in the community never cross far into the woods and recommend that Frank keep out of them. When he does enter the woods, while getting lost and not finding the plantation, he sees and experiences something shocking that he thinks best kept to himself. The townspeople also have a strange practice of once a month driving some flower bedecked pigs into the woods and leaving them. The pigs are never heard from again. Due to the deprivation of depression times, the town holds a meeting, and with the included urging of Eudora decides to end the monthly loss of their pigs. It is this act that sets off the horror that will consume the community and personally affect Frank and Eudora.