Together We Rot by Skyla Arndt

A teen girl looking for the truth about her missing mother forms a reluctant alliance with her former best friend…in exchange for hiding him from his cult-leading family.

Wil Greene’s mom has been missing for over a year, and the police are ready to call the case closed–they claim she skipped town and you can’t find a woman who wants to disappear. But she knows her mom wouldn’t just leave…and she knows the family of her former best friend, Elwood Clarke, has something to do with it.

Elwood has been counting down the days until his 18th birthday–in dread. It marks leaving school and joining his pastor father in dedicating his life to their congregation, the Garden of Adam. But when he comes home after one night of after a final goodbye with his friends, already self-flagellating for the sins of drinking and disobeying his father, he discovers his path is not as virtuous as he thought. He’s not his father’s successor, but his sacrifice. For the woods he’s grown up with are thirsty, and must be paid in blood.

Now on the run from a family that wants him dead, he turns to the only one who will believe him: Wil. Together, they form a reluctant partnership; she’ll help him hide if he helps her find evidence that his family killed her mother. But in the end they dig up more secrets than they bargained for, unraveling decades of dark cult dealings in their town, led by the Clarke family.

And there’s a reason they need Elwood’s blood for their satanic rituals. Something inhuman is growing inside of him. Everywhere he goes, the plants come alive and the forest calls to him, and Wil isn’t sure if she can save the boy she can’t help but love.

Published by Viking Books for Young Readers
on August 29, 2023

Review:

I received an advance copy of this book courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This book had a very similar feel to another book that I read earlier this year titled Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah. Both were small towns with secrets built on land that craved human blood. You can hear my review of Where Darkness Blooms on episode one.

While they had similar vibes, they had very different outcomes. Together We Rot begins with a bang. Wilhelmina (Wil to her friends – Minnie to her dad) is certain that the local church – eh who are we kidding? They’re a cult – is responsible for her mother’s disappearance. Her mother has run off before, and local law enforcement is certain she’s done it again, but Wil knows better. She’s been staking out the house of her former best friend’s father and leader of the Church of Adam. She has proof that he has been sacrificing animals, and she is certain he did the same to her mother. The police are having none of it, though, and Wil’s father is too drunk and despondent to help, so she’s on her own.

The book is told from dual points of view, so not only do we hear Wil’s side of the story, but we also hear from Elwood Clarke, the son of the Church of Adam leader and Wil’s former best friend. When Elwood refused to believe that his father had something to do with the disappearance of Wil’s mother, the two grew apart. This really hurt Elwood, but he has other things on his mind – namely, his commitment to the church. He just turned 18 and while his friends will all be going off to college, Elwood will be prepping to take over the church for his father – or so he thinks. But then one night he discovers that his duty to the church isn’t to take over. His father and some of the other congregants intend to sacrifice Elwood to ensure the longevity of the church and it’s not long before Elwood and Wil are reunited to try to bring the church down.

This was a really fast read. It starts with a bang and never lets up. I always appreciate dual points of view – especially in this case because it gave us the full story by showing both perspectives. The book clocks in just under 300 pages, so it’s one you can easily read in one sitting. The voice is strong, the writing fluid and descriptive and the story is captivating. While I liked it, it left me wanting a little more.
The church/cult had a really creepy history and I really would have liked a chapter or three focusing on the early days of the church. We got a few pages on the history, but I would have loved a deeper dive. I felt like there was a lot of good stuff that could have really added to the creepiness and the dangerousness of the cult. I also feel that this would have given the author an opportunity to really dive into and flesh out the backstory of the character of Cherry – an older woman who works at Wil’s dad’s motel and a friend of Wil’s mom. It’s hinted that she may have a little insight into what’s been going down, or even if she didn’t, she definitely suspected something and I would have loved to find out what it was.

In the end, I enjoyed the book – I finished it in roughly 3 hours or less – but it left me wanting a little more. I would definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for a creepy young adult book with a hint of magic.