Hansel and Gretel of Wrath: A Southern Gothic Fairy Tale Horror (Feral Fairy Tales) by Manon Van Daal

Two abandoned teenagers crossing a dying America. A roadside family offering food, shelter, and kindness. A smokehouse full of bodies behind the house. Route 66, 1935. The Dust Bowl has turned the road west into a graveyard. Families count their cans, count their children, and decide who can be left behind. Eighteen-year-old Gola Mae is headed for California with her mother, her stepfather, and Hansel — the stepbrother who is not her blood, not her husband, and the only boy dangerous enough to keep other men away. Then the food runs low. One night, Gola Mae drinks coffee that tastes like metal. In the morning, the caravan is gone. Left alone on the prairie with Hansel, a broken knife, and a dying country between them and California, Gola follows hunger to an isolated roadside rest stop where the bread is warm, the sheets are clean, and the woman in the apron calls her sweetheart. Read more