by Joseph Citro
1990 Warner Books
The titular gore is a surveying term for a slice of land which goes unclaimed due to surveying mistakes. We start off with what I remember most from one of Citro's other books, a depiction of depressed rural Vermont and miserable men drinking themselves to death. Some stones are brought to the attention of the university, there are a some mysterious deaths, and finally bigfoot sightings around an abandoned hotel.
Pretty early in the process the bigfoots are revealed to be...
Black people. Not Black people in bigfoot outfits. Escaped slaves who have lived for generations in the woods, who have reverted back to their "tribal" ways with a hate and fear of White people. The book then takes its time explaining how this wasn't a horror novel after all. The deaths weren't their fault (suicide, natural causes, accidents, etc) and they just want to be left alone, and we end going full Harry and the Hendersons.
There are maroon communities in the world that have gone uncontacted through the 90s, so this isn't complete madness, and I think Citro's heart was in the right place, but the subject matter would be difficult to navigate and this book doesn't manage.
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