What the Tooth Fairy Left Behind in Belle Morte

Belle Morte Remembers What You Forgot

So Belle Morte means "beautiful death" in Cajun French, which honestly tells you everything you need to know about this town lol. It's one of those tiny coastal Louisiana towns with one road in and one road out, and if you've ever been to one you already know the vibe. The marsh is gorgeous, but it'll also swallow you whole and nobody's going to ask a lot of questions about it.

Last month I introduced y'all to Belle Morte, and this month I want to get into what's actually wrong with it.

Peyton Thibodeaux grew up there and she left, and when she finally comes back she swears up and down it's only for a few days. She is not staying. Spoiler alert, if you're from a small Southern town you already know how that goes.

Down there everybody knows everybody, everybody's got a saint on the dashboard and a grandmother who knows which plants fix what, and there's a whole list of things you just don't talk about. Church and folklore kind of blend together and nobody thinks twice about it.

The scariest part of this book for me isn't anything jumping out of the dark, it's memory. Going home and realizing the version of your childhood you've been carrying around your whole life might not be the real one. That one gets under my skin.

The Tooth Fairy Drowns Here is in progress right now and I'm going to keep sharing pieces of Belle Morte as I write it, so make sure you're following @BayouBoundBooks everywhere so you don't miss anything. And if you're in your spooky era this month, the new Porch Stories Halloween collection is up now at bayouboundbooks.com.

See y'all on the porch.