Three of Russell's stories, “ The Dredgeman’s Revelation,' “ Accident Brief,” and “ Haunting Olivia,” have appeared in the magazine, and she was recently named one of our 20 Under 40. As Hitchcock would say, “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” The physical descriptions of the swamp-a fictionalized version of the Florida Russell grew up in-and the wonder and the terror of the Bigtree family’s adventures, make for a deliciously spooky read.

It is narrated partially in the first person, by Ava Bigtree, who is on a mission to stop her sister Osceola from marrying a ghost and partially in the third person, by Kiwi, Ava and Osceola's brother, who is on a mission to save Swamplandia! by taking a job at the World of Darkness, a rival park. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.” It is set in an ailing alligator theme park (called Swamplandia!) in the Florida Everglades and concerns the proprietors of that park, the Bigtree family. The novel grew out of “Ava Wrestles the Alligator,” a short story first published in Zoetrope, and included in Russell's collection “St.

Karen Russell once described her work as “Hitchcock meets the swamp.” Her début novel, “ Swamplandia!,” certainly fits the bill.

Swamplandia book