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Girl in the Creek

Erin searches the forests near Mount Hood for her missing brother. Finding a woman’s body in a creek draws the attention of forces determined to keep their secrets buried.

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Girl in the Creek is a pulse-pounding story about the horrors growing all around us, and how buried secrets only spread, perfect for fans of Jeff VanderMeer and T. Kingfisher.

"Unflinching eco-horror, steeped in the pitch-perfect setting of the rainswept Pacific Northwest."—Keith Rosson, author of Crone

A finalist for the 2025 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel • A finalist for the 2025 Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel

Erin's brother has been missing for five years.

It was as if he simply walked into the forests of the Pacific Northwest and vanished. Determined to uncover the truth, Erin heads to the foothills of Mount Hood, where Bryan was last seen alive. He isn’t the first hiker to go missing in this area, and their cases go unsolved.

When she discovers the corpse of a local woman in a creek, Erin unknowingly puts herself in the crosshairs of very powerful forces—from this world and beyond—hell-bent on keeping their secrets buried.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

First published: 2025
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Amazon reviews: Read reviews on Amazon

Book tags

Content warnings

No content warnings are recorded. Missing warnings do not mean the book is warning-free.

Horror profile

Scary: Not rated
Creepy: Not rated
Gore: Not rated
Disturbing: Not rated
Weird: Not rated

How we calculate this

These are editorial estimates of intensity, informed by reading and review evidence, then checked before publication. They aren't star ratings, reader-vote averages or a measure of quality.

Each dimension runs from 1 (low) to 5 (exceptionally intense). A 5 is reserved for strongly consistent evidence. People experience horror differently.

Scary: Fear, tension and immediate threat.
Creepy: Unease, dread and an uncanny atmosphere.
Gore: Graphic injury, blood and bodily detail.
Disturbing: Upsetting ideas and lingering psychological impact.
Weird: Surreal, strange and reality-bending elements.

We draw a filled profile only when all five scores have been reviewed. Unrated does not mean mild. Missing scores are not estimated from genre tags or your saved taste. This profile isn't a complete content-warning guide.