The Hungry and the Lost

by Bethany W Pope

Edwardian Florida. The swamplands of Tampa provide a tough but good living for those men hardy enough to brave the weather and the wildness. There are ripe pickings to be had in bird hunting; egret feathers plucked by the sack-full and sent away to adorn rich city-women’s hats. Wives for these rough hunters are ordered from catalogues, attractiveness graded by cooking skills and hip-width. When illness sweeps the area and the local minister dies, his widow, his beloved Rose, succumbs to madness. His daughter Joy must struggle to keep them both alive in what has become a skeleton town, rotting into the swamp and abandoned by all but the most ruthless. Rich with visceral imagery, The Hungry and the Lost is a novel in true Southern Gothic style, pitting the worlds of myth and innocence against the rational grip of progress and modernity.

350 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2021

About the author

Bethany W Pope is an LBA winning author, and a finalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom Awards, the Cinnamon Press Novel competition, and the Ink, Sweat and Tears poetry commission, with many other prize listings for prose and poetry. She received her PhD from Aberystwyth University’s Creative Writing programme, and her MA from the University of Wales Trinity St David. She has published several collections of poetry: A Radiance (Cultured Llama, 2012) Crown of Thorns, (Oneiros Books, 2013), The Gospel of Flies (Writing Knights Press 2014), and Undisturbed Circles (Lapwing, 2014). Her latest collection, The Rag and Boneyard, was released by Indigo Dreams in 2016 and her chapbook, Among the White Roots, will be released by Three Drops Press this Autumn. Her work has appeared in many literary magazines across Europe, and in several anthologies including The Poet’s Quest for God (Eyewear), A Flock of Shadows (Parthian Books), and Hallelujah for 50ft Women (Bloodaxe Books).

Reviews

[Sam Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was at a book fair in Pontypridd's Storyville Books there were stacks of these books behind my stall. Now I had some contact with Bethany when she was still living in Swindon and when I was still editor of The Journal. I liked her writing from the start, even more enjoyed her detailed descriptions of her adapting to life in China. I was confident therefore that I would enjoy her Hungry and the Lost.
As expected all began well. Luscious, highly detailed descriptions of turn-of-the-century life in the swamps of lowest Florida as a preacher, his wife and daughter took up life amongst the mangroves and the wet. So well described, the ambient feel of it, the mould on everything, paper damp, every aspect of a warm moist climate captured. But then, I remind myself, Bethany had gone to college in Aberystwyth, in wet west Wales.
The sodden village, fear of 'gaters and snakes, the Gothic closeness of it all was building towards tragedy... And that's when I hit my first snag, her off-hand mention of a boab tree. As author of the novel Trees – https://books2read.com/u/49JLEw – I knew, thought that I knew, that boaboa trees belonged to only arid lands, not the clammy southern wet of the USA alongside coastal mangroves. So I did an online search for the trees of Tampa, the nearest town to the parish. No mention there of boabs. Oaks yes, even so boab could have been a local name for a tree similar to a boab.
Disconcerted, suspension of disbelief slightly punctured, I read on. Because this is sensuous writing that has one wrapped within the watery quietness of the place, damp to the touch. Except that every new mention of a boab had me mentally wince.
The writing is such that the tale did carry me along. But with the boab figuring more and more, and bothering me more, I did another online search, and this time for the whole of Florida. And this time there was the boab tree, apparently a regular feature of southern Florida. No history I could find of who had introduced the boab to the Americas: it is not native so far as I am aware. Nevertheless my mental apologies to Bethany.
A further consequence of this fixation on the boab though was that, instead of having happily allowed myself to be wholly immersed in the writing, I had taken a step back and, having adopted a critical stance, began spotting typos and mistakes – 'flower' for instance instead of 'flour' – which had me wondering why the editors at publisher Parthian hadn't picked up on them. I could see why Bethany, in the gush of her writing had let them slip by, but there was no excuse for the editors. Bethany's writing deserves better.
The force of the writing is such that Bethany did have me read on – and it's a big book – right to the very gory Gothic end, where she brings all the characters together and the soggy landscape, weather even – in dare I say a pathetic fallacy – worthy of Jane Eyre in its OTT madness.
For all my diversions over boabs and editorial misgivings, if sodden Gothic is your bag, Hungry and the Lost is still well worth the reading.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy Southern Gothic, you will enjoy this prime example of it: if you don’t, then not so much perhaps. Set in Edwardian times in a small unnamed town in the Florida swamplands, a community thrives on hunting birds for their feathers for hats. But hunted almost to extinction, the birds are gone and there is no other way to earn a living. Gradually the inhabitants leave and only a ghost town remains. Left behind are Rose and her daughter Joy. When her minister husband dies a grisly death from tuberculosis, Rose loses her mind and refuses to move away, leaving Joy, just a child, to somehow find a way for them to survive. Then one day arrives the supremely villainous, almost cartoonish in their villainy, Johnson family, and Joy’s life starts to change. In poetic, overwrought prose, with sometimes over-the-top imagery, this is an atmospheric and vivid evocation of the murky swampland, which, although only 30 miles from Tampa seems like somewhere left over from the dawn of time. Naturally the supernatural is here too – after all this is Southern Gothic at its most extreme - and the boundary between the real and the unreal is porous. Myth and fairy tale with no happy ending guaranteed. I found the book a mesmerising and compelling read, visceral with its descriptions of decay and creeping damp and illness, and although overwritten at times, I have to admit, I sank down and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard one to review. The author created a great sense of atmosphere...I could almost feel the pervasive damp and smell the fetid air. The language, overall, was lovely...only occasionally slipping into overwrought ostentatiousness. The supernatural aspect seemed almost an afterthought...something not quite coalescing with the rest of the storyline, but thrown in as a desperate measure to solve the dilemma and wrap up the story. I would have enjoyed a believable resolution much more.

[Tracy Metcalf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't understand why the other reviewers are commenting on the author's use of language. I found their prose to be poetic, vivid, and at times horrific (in a good way) but never overwrought or purple. I enjoyed the book, and the unique characters!

[Terrence Folz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Flowery in it's descriptions of everything to the point of obfuscation. The novel seemed to have little direction. While the characters probably could have been made sympathetic in the hands of a more skillful author, I was left cold more often than not.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just okay. I felt like the author was trying to impress me with her vocabulary the whole time. While she did a great job in setting the scene (I could almost feel the dampness and smell the decay), the pacing of the story was off for me. It dragged on, teasing, giving you glimpses of resolution and then pulling them away and retreating back to more descriptions and wordy paragraphs. The magic aspect of the story is almost brought in as an after-thought. It isn’t explained well and it doesn't really integrate with the main story. It's almost like it was written in as a way to resolve the conflict. I did like the ending, though, which is why this got a 3 star from me rather than the 2 I had been set to give. Maybe this is just not my type of novel?

Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

[Mark Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the setting, and the characters were great. There's something really fascinating about a swamp. The ending was a little bit rushed, but I enjoyed it anyway.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book at my local bookstore and got it on a whim. The language is a bit flowery and it took my a couple of chapters to get used to it. But once I did, I was hooked. The story was tragic and compelling, and every chapter had me wanting more. I usually re-give books after I purchase them, but I'm going to hang on to this one so I can read it again in the future!