For Avery, running is the most natural thing in the world. It’s a way for her to exist outside the complexities of her life, to temporarily forget about her mother’s struggles as a newly single parent, to numb the pain of slowly losing her beloved Great-Aunt Lily, her only connection to her Kanyen’kehá:ka heritage, to cognitive decline, and to ignore her growing feelings for her best friend Key. Running away from her problems has always worked, but when Avery steps off the forest trail and accidentally awakens an ancient sinister force, she suddenly faces a crisis she can no longer outrun. The suffocatingly thick black water invades her dreams and robs her of sleep, while methodically dragging the residents of Crook’s Falls into its murky depths, replacing them with legions of zombies without faces. What’s worse, Avery is the only one who sees the Unfinished, and notices the women and children disappearing in a town that does not seem to care. When the person she loves the most is taken, Avery faces the impossible challenge of ending the generational curse of the black water, and must confront her family trauma head-on in order to do so.

Cheryl Isaacs’s The Unfinished is a cinematically eerie debut that seamlessly adapts the Haudenosaunee creation story of Sky Woman into a modern retelling. Isaacs masterfully builds up tension in the story, dragging readers away from the falsely idyllic small-town atmosphere into the claustrophobic, skin-crawling horror of the ancient and menacing unknown. Avery’s struggles to adjust to a newly divided home, her shame of being estranged from her culture, and the apathy and lack of due justice that many minority families face when their loved ones go missing, ring true to the experiences of many. Most surprisingly, Issacs subverts the purpose of horror stories as cautionary tales to encourage readers to avoid danger. Instead, The Unfinished delivers the powerful message that sometimes, to overcome danger, one must run directly toward it and address the roots of the problem, and that even during one’s darkest period of suffering, opportunities to grow and find love and belonging can be found. Although the book’s ending feels rushed, and many of the characters’ fates are left open to interpretation, readers know that Avery and her loved ones have the strength and community to dive headfirst into the future that lies beyond the black water.