Wendy N. Wagner, Girl in the Creek (2025)
Content warning:
Body horror, death, murder, serious injury, sexual assault, suicide, violence
Synopsis
Erin, a freelance writer determined to discover the truth about her brother’s disappearance, travels deep into the forests of Mount Hood following whatever leads she can find about the missing townsfolk of the rural town Faraday, Oregon. Working with a group of new-found friends she makes in town, she unknowingly winds up in the middle of a situation bigger and more dangerous than any of them could have ever anticipated. This eco-horror novel blends body and botanical horror with true crime in order to explore the dynamics of a rural Oregon town, the (mostly marginalized) people that continue to disappear, and a forest ravaged by climate disaster relentlessly trying to keep its secrets.
Essay
It is easy for readers to see how Wagner’s experiences growing up and living in different parts of Oregon may have influenced the creation of Girl in the Creek. The story features vivid imagery and descriptions familiar to any who have spent time exploring the nature and forests of the Pacific Northwest. Frequent mentions of landmarks such as Mount Hood, Faraday, and Clackamas County help to give the reader concrete examples of where the text is placed and taking inspiration from. Having the text set in the small and rural town of Faraday, Oregon also means that it engages with themes of rural culture and life. These elements of small-town living are apparent, for instance, in characters’ interactions with law enforcement; the townspeople often know the police officers personally, and these interactions are altered because of these personal relationships. As an Oregon native from an incredibly tiny town herself, Wagner is able to truly put the reader in the setting through her descriptions. She sets the scene of an Oregon Spring and its “endless damp days when green saturated the air” creating forests “where the trees sang a chorus of green as if their lives depended on it” (5). Alongside this, she blends descriptions of grim and disturbing images like “[r]ed leak[ing] out from the thing she’d stepped on” as “a chunk of something gristly and gooey plopped back onto the dirt” (9-10). This combination helps her to establish an atmosphere that considers beauty and horror as intensely interrelated and connected to one another. It is her continued expansion on this imagery that plays a huge part in making the story so visceral, compelling, and undeniably Oregon.
Working in tandem with the beauty and brutality of the setting, the novel explores themes ever-present in the Oregon consciousness. In particular, it asks readers to think about issues such as the consequences of climate change, humanity’s relationship to nature, and the ease with which systemic problems can and will be neglected. The small town of Faraday ignores impending environmental catastrophe and the disappearances of marginalized people all too easily, with this being a major catalyst for the consequences later in the novel. Despite frequent missing persons reports (of mostly non-white women), those with power in the town, like the police, are quick to stop investigating. People will continue to hike, hunt, and explore the woods, making it easy to write off these cases as the inherent dangers out in nature. New missing persons posters are added to billboards around town, even as the old ones right next to them remain constant reminders of unresolved trauma. In fact, it takes the work and dedication of Erin, a non-local freelance writer, before the town seeks any answers for the disappearances all too common in their community. It is because of neglect like this that so much was able to develop and become dire right under the noses of a town that had every reason to be knowledgeable and committed to finding the people who walk into the forest and don’t return.
Oregon has the third highest rate of missing people per 100,000 residents, behind only Alaska and Arizona. Nationwide, non-white (and in particular Black and Native) people experience these rates disproportionately. Wagner examines this situation as a way for readers to reckon with the danger of ignoring systemic issues, and she stresses the potential for harm, detailing the consequences of letting willful ignorance build unchecked.
Author Bio
Wendy N. Wagner is a renowned writer and editor born in a tiny town in Southwest Oregon and currently living in Portland, Oregon. Girl in the Creek, nominated for the Stoker Award, is one of many works, with her portfolio ranging from horror fiction to nature writing, essays, poems, and short stories. Other recognitions include the Shirley Jackson and Theodore Sturgeon awards for her short fiction, as well as a Hugo award-winning and Locus award-nominations for editing of short fiction. Wagner currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Nightmare Magazine and the managing/senior editor of Lightspeed Magazine, having previously served as the guest editor of Queers Destroy Horror! and as the nonfiction editor of both Women Destroy Science Fiction! and Women Destroy Fantasy! Outside of work, she can more than likely be found outside hiking, trail running, or walking her dog.
Further Reading
Wendy N. Wagner, The Deer Kings (2021)
- Another Wagner horror novel set in Oregon
Jennie Bricker, Thirsty Creek (2025)
- Similar themes of environmental disaster and mystery in Oregon wilderness