The Red Tree, by Caitlín R. Kiernan ★★★★

[mithriltabby]

The story is presented as the posthumous publication of the journal of a writer, Sarah Crowe, who moves to a small town in Rhode Island and becomes embroiled in an investigation of eerie events surrounding an ancient red oak dating back to pre-colonial times, which gradually grows into psychological horror. Kiernan puts a lot of herself into the character of Crowe (from following her on greygirlbeast, it’s clear that she’s drawing on personal experience), and grounding Crowe’s personal traumas makes her more mysterious ones seem all the more real. The story particularly appealed to my Fortean sensibilities, with the narrator being skeptical but refusing to deny the evidence of her own senses, and the author having done a good job of delving into Fortean background material.