Dust Bowl Children

By: Wile E. Young, Emily Young

Narrated by: Aven Shore, Christopher James Mayer

Times are hard for folks and it’s even harder for siblings Calvin and Abigail Shepherd after the untimely death of their mother at the height of the Great Depression. With dust storms ravaging their home in Ross, Oklahoma, they wonder how they are going to make ends meet.

Already ostracized due to being children of an unwed and unusual mother, suspicion only grows when strange happenings begin to plague the town. Missing children, deformed animals, and strange deaths are only the beginning of this storm of the natural and supernatural.

As the dust blows, the Shepherd siblings find themselves stalked by an ancient evil that will stop at nothing to get what belongs to it, and that their mother might have had more secrets than they ever could’ve imagined in this dark retelling of Hansel and Gretel.

©2022 Wile E. Young (P)2022 Encyclopocalypse Publications

Supernatural Western

DUST BOWL CHILDREN by Wile E. Young (author of the Splatter Western, MAGPIE COFFIN) and his wife, Emily Young is not quite a splatter western but a western with definite supernatural elements. This story had excellent characterization and made for a very entertaining listen.

Grapes of Wrath with ancient evil

A bleak world unfolds as chapters switch perceptions from siblings Calvin and Abigail, each lends us their fears of life during the Great Depression in the dust bowl of Oklahoma. If we only had to worry about starving and dehydration then things wouldn’t be bad, instead odd occurrences are happening all over town, deformed animals, missing children, strange noises and sightings, these make going without food and water feel acceptable.
In the eerie dimness of dust storms and sweat, blood is muddied with grit and so are the characters that bring this wonderful story to life. Fear is palpable in this story and the writing is as beautiful as this story is horrific. Something evil has come to claim it’s due.