Stay Buried Review — Is It Worth Reading?

Verdict: A dread-soaked Vermont folk horror with a genuinely affecting secret love between two women in 1919, let down by a sagging middle and an ending that leaves too many of its own questions unanswered.

Best for: Readers who want atmospheric small-town horror with a queer heart, who can take a tragic love story and graphic animal death, and who do not need every mystery explained.

Heat level: ★☆☆☆☆ (1/5 — no romance.io entry, and no reviewer documents on-page sex)

Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.6/5 — a 3.88 Goodreads average, pulled down by a slow middle and loose ends that dominate the low-star reviews)

Tropes: Folk horror, dual timeline, forbidden love, secret relationship, small-town cult, mysterious illness, class difference, inherited house, grief, standalone.

Stay Buried by Jennifer McMahon is a standalone queer folk horror novel from Gallery Books, split between Boone’s Ferry, Vermont in 1919 and the same town in 2016 — and between Frankie O’Massey, a doctor’s niece in borrowed trousers trying to explain an epidemic with science while loving a woman she cannot be seen with, and a grieving pair of siblings who inherit a house in a town that still leaves offerings for something it will not name.

It has a 3.88 Goodreads average across roughly 2,160 ratings, positive notices from Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Library Journal, and the highest average of any McMahon novel on her Goodreads page. The low-star reviews, though, agree with each other to an unusual degree. Both halves of that split are worth understanding before you start — and so is how little of this book is a romance.

What Is Stay Buried About?

Stay Buried is horror first and historical fiction second, and it is not a romance at all in the genre sense. Amazon files it under monster, occult and ghost-thriller horror, with no romance or LGBTQ+ shelf; Folk horror means the threat is communal — ritual, superstition, a town that agrees on something terrible — with Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” as McMahon’s named touchstone.

Frankie is the 1919 narrator: an outsider apprenticed to her uncle, the town doctor, regularly mistaken for a boy and unbothered by it, and carrying on a secret relationship with Pearl Stoddard, the daughter of the family that owns the town’s factory. In 2016, Ashley and her brother Malcolm arrive two years after their mother’s death to claim their grandmother’s property. The alternating timelines feed the past into the present piece by piece.

What Makes This Queer Folk Horror Work

The atmosphere: “Atmospheric” is the single most repeated word in the reviews, positive and negative alike. Even readers who gave it two stars concede that Boone’s Ferry is genuinely creepy.
The 1919 timeline: Readers who prefer one strand overwhelmingly prefer Frankie’s. The epidemic, the knackerman and the town’s slide into panic are the parts people describe as gripping.
Frankie and Pearl: The forbidden love thread is the emotional anchor. Several readers name it as the part that hit hardest, and one says it moved them to tears.
The structure: Short chapters and alternating timelines keep it moving for most readers, and Publishers Weekly calls it “a satisfying page-turner.”
The ending, for some: More than one five-star reviewer says the final chapters lifted the whole book. That same ending is also the loudest complaint — see below.

Book Synopsis

In the winter of 1919, Boone’s Ferry is the kind of Vermont town where everyone’s grandparents knew each other and nobody new stays long. Frankie O’Massey has stayed anyway. She keeps her uncle’s surgery tidy, learns medicine at his elbow, wears his old boots, and spends every stolen hour she can with Pearl in a ruined house the two of them have quietly decided belongs to them.

Then the animals start to sicken, and after them the people. The first person anyone can trace it to is the knackerman, the solitary figure who hauls away dead and dying livestock from the farms. Frankie and her uncle go looking for a cause they can put under a microscope. The town, frightened and grieving, goes looking for something older, and its version of an answer does not involve medicine.

Almost a century later, Ashley and Malcolm drive north after their grandmother’s death to settle an inheritance in a town they barely know. Their mother died two years earlier, in circumstances that never made sense to Ashley, and her connection to Boone’s Ferry is the thread she cannot leave alone. Four times a year, they leave offerings for a spirit they treat as real. And the closer Ashley gets to the town’s history, the clearer it becomes that whatever happened in 1919 was never finished — and that someone still wants it kept in the ground.

My Review

Frankie O’Massey is the reason to read this book, and I want to say that first because the rest of this section is qualified. A gender-nonconforming young woman in 1919, half-trained in medicine, outside every structure the town runs on and quietly in love with the factory owner’s daughter, is a terrific horror protagonist. One blog reviewer calls her the best character McMahon has written.

The second real strength is the dread. McMahon builds the epidemic the way a good outbreak story should, so the illness feels like a real pathogen while the true horror comes from what frightened neighbours decide to do about it. The communal violence lands because it is reasonable from inside the town’s logic, which is what earns the Jackson comparison. StoryGraph readers tag it dark (96%), mysterious and tense, and that matches the experience.

Where it struggles is structure, and this is not my gripe alone — it is the most repeated criticism in the low-star reviews. The middle runs long and repeats itself, and the ending answers less than the book has trained you to expect. In the 2-star reviews I read, ten readers named pacing or repetition and nine named loose ends — the illness’s origin, key 1919 events, the supernatural question itself — with two admitting they did not finish. The 2016 strand is the other weak point: Ashley and Malcolm are thinner than Frankie, and several readers say they simply waited for the next 1919 chapter.

One expectation to reset. This is listed on sapphic release lists, including ours, because its emotional core is a queer love story — but it is a horror novel, the romance lives in one of two timelines, it is conducted entirely in secret, and Booklist accurately calls it a “tragic queer romance.” There is no happy ending for Frankie and Pearl. If the love story is what drew you, calibrate: it is a strand, not the spine. If the horror is what worried you, the animal death and gore are real.

My honest note: A memorable heroine and real dread, wrapped around a middle that drags and an ending that withholds. If you need your horror to resolve, this will frustrate you; if you can live with ambiguity and want a sapphic love story that genuinely costs something, Frankie and Pearl are worth the trip.

Element	In Stay Buried
Central relationship	Frankie O’Massey & Pearl Stoddard — doctor’s niece and factory owner’s daughter, a secret love in 1919
Core tropes	Folk horror, dual timeline, forbidden love, secret relationship, small-town cult, mysterious illness
Setting	Boone’s Ferry, Vermont — an isolated town in 1919 and again in 2016
Heat level	1/5 — no romance.io entry; no on-page sex documented
Series	Standalone — no HEA; tragic ending for the central couple
Content notes	Graphic animal death, gore and body horror, epidemic deaths including children, mob violence, lesbophobia and homophobia, suicide by firearm, infidelity, addiction, miscarriage, religious bigotry

How Dark and Spicy Is Stay Buried?

Not spicy at all — a 1/5, and that is a description rather than a criticism. romance.io has no entry for the book, which tells you it is not being catalogued as romance anywhere, and none of the reviews I read documents a sex scene. The relationship between Frankie and Pearl is conveyed through secrecy, longing and stolen time in their abandoned house; the one blog review that addresses the romance directly calls it minimal, as you would expect from a horror novel.

The darkness is a different matter. StoryGraph readers flag animal death, gore and death as graphic, and the single 1-star review I found that explains a DNF stops at the animal killings within a few chapters. Horses are shot and torn apart and there is body horror; the communal violence is on-page. If you want a similarly low-heat, high-atmosphere book where the sapphic thread is real but secondary, White is for Witching sits at the same 1/5.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you read horror for atmosphere and dread, you want a queer historical heroine at the centre of a genre novel, you can carry a tragic love story without needing it softened, and you enjoy endings that leave room for argument.

You may want to skip it if: you want horror that explains itself, a slow middle will lose you, you came to this site for a romance with an HEA, or on-page animal death is a hard line for you.

In short: a creepy, well-built folk horror with a heartbreaking queer thread, asking for patience it does not always repay.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)

Stay Buried is finding readers through traditional machinery — trade reviews, an author-blurb wall and an established fanbase — rather than social media. Publishers Weekly praises the cast and the prose; Library Journal calls it “well-paced” and recommends it to fans of The Sun Down Motel and Hex; Booklist puts it alongside T. Kingfisher and Catriona Ward. None of those three is marked as a starred review, and I found no Kirkus review. I found no BookTok footprint, no Reddit threads and no sapphic-specialist blog coverage. In about two months it has gathered roughly 2,160 Goodreads ratings at 3.88, which is higher than any of her earlier novels — including The Winter People, at 3.81 across more than 105,000 ratings — though early averages usually drift down as a book reaches beyond its first readers. Amazon shows 4.2 across 218 ratings.

The audiobook is a real option here rather than an afterthought. Simon & Schuster Audio released it on publication day, narrated by Cassandra Campbell, Jeremy Carlisle Parker and Jennifer Pickens across 13 hours 11 minutes,. The one reader who comments on the narration recommends it.

Prefer audio? Listen to Stay Buried on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): Atmosphere, first and by a distance — “atmospheric,” “eerie” and “creepy” recur across almost every positive review, and plenty of negative ones. Then the dual timeline and the short chapters. Frankie and Pearl are the emotional draw: readers single out the secrecy and danger around them, and one reviewer praises a sensitive portrayal of gender dysphoria in Frankie. The ending earns a passionate minority — several five-star reviewers say it was the thing that lifted the book from four stars, and the word they use is devastating. Notably, one first-time McMahon reader calls it well plotted and well edited — the exact opposite of the loudest complaint.

What readers argue about and complain about: Pacing, above everything. Readers describe a strong opening and a middle that circles and repeats itself; ten of the 2-star reviews I read say so, along with seven of the most popular reviews. The second theme is loose ends — the origin of the illness, what exactly happened to people in 1919, and whether the supernatural element is real are all left open, and to many readers that feels unfinished. Library Journal’s praise for the pacing and the absence of any trade mention of the open threads are the clearest gap between the professional and reader verdicts on this book. Third: the 2016 timeline, which readers find thinner and more familiar than 1919. Beyond that, a cluster of longtime fans say it falls short of her best, a few call it derivative of The Village, and a handful find it not very scary. Two readers dismiss the queer relationship as unnecessary — a small minority, but worth knowing about. Opinions divide on the ending: the same open final act is “devastating” to one reader and “nothing” to another.

The standalone question worth asking first: it is a single novel with no sequel announced, and it requires nothing further — but “complete” and “resolved” are not the same thing here, so go in expecting questions to stay open. If you finish wanting more McMahon, The Children on the Hill (3.84 across 40,000-plus Goodreads ratings) is her best-rated earlier book and The Winter People her most read.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Stay Buried a lesbian romance?

No — it is a horror novel with a queer love story at its emotional centre. The 1919 narrator, Frankie, is in a secret relationship with Pearl Stoddard, and the publisher bills the book as queer folk horror. The romance is one strand of two timelines, not the main plot.

Does Stay Buried have a happy ending?

Not for the central couple. Booklist calls it a tragic queer romance, and readers describe the Frankie and Pearl thread as heartbreaking. There is no HEA.

How spicy is Stay Buried?

A 1/5. romance.io has no entry for it, and no reviewer documents an on-page sex scene. The relationship is conveyed through secrecy and longing rather than explicit content.

How scary or graphic is Stay Buried?

Graphic in places. StoryGraph readers flag animal death, gore and death as graphic content, and there is body horror and mob violence on the page. A minority of readers say it is atmospheric rather than frightening.

Does Stay Buried explain everything at the end?

No. The origin of the illness, parts of what happened in 1919 and the supernatural question are left open. Some readers find that haunting; it is also the most common complaint in the low-star reviews.

Is there a Stay Buried audiobook?

Yes. Simon & Schuster Audio released it on 11 August 2026, narrated by Cassandra Campbell, Jeremy Carlisle Parker and Jennifer Pickens, running 13 hours 11 minutes.

If You Loved Stay Buried, Read These Next

The closest match on this site is White is for Witching, a literary haunted-house novel where the sapphic relationship is real, secondary and denied a happy ending — the same shape, with stranger prose. If it was the gothic dread and the cost of wanting something forbidden that held you, An Education in Malice brings that appetite to a darker, much steamier academy. And if Frankie and Pearl left you wanting a historical love between two women that is allowed to end well, The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics is the antidote.

For more in this register, browse our guide to lesbian historical fiction books or the full Book Reviews collection.

The Bottom Line

Stay Buried wants to be a folk horror classic with a queer love story at its heart, and it gets closer than most. Frankie is a heroine worth meeting, the town’s slide from fear into violence is genuinely chilling, and the love between Frankie and Pearl is given real weight and real cost. It is also slow through the middle, thinner in its modern timeline, and content to leave the questions it raises unanswered. This is a tragedy with a love story inside it, not a love story with horror around it. Go in for the dread and for Frankie, and it is worth your time. Check Stay Buried on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, Stay Buried ranks as a traditionally published queer folk horror with a tragic sapphic core — atmospheric and genuinely affecting, held back by a sagging middle and an unresolved ending, and best approached for Frankie and the dread rather than the romance.