A dark, misty forest scene with a cabin, a crescent moon, and five eerie, gnarled figures. Text reads 'ASHWOOD HOLLOW' and 'ELENA GRAVES'.

Back Cover Blurb (Sales Hook): When struggling journalist Elena Graves accepts an assignment in the forgotten Appalachian town of Ashwood Hollow, she expects a puff piece on rural decline. Instead, she finds a community gripped by a chilling superstition: every autumn, the townsfolk carve crude wooden effigies and leave them at the edge of the forest. They call them The Hollow Ones. The locals insist the figures aren’t decorations but barricades—wards to keep something unspeakable from crossing out of the trees. At first, Elena dismisses it as folklore. But when her interviews reveal strange disappearances, old police reports vanish from county records, and her rental cabin begins showing signs of intrusion, she realizes the effigies aren’t keeping something out. They’re keeping something in. And now, it knows her name. See more