Black Moon Rising - Aleksandar Tešić

 The world's largest mining company came to search for gold in Homolje...

They found something else!

While a series of mysterious deaths shakes the small town of Homolj, horror, raw passions and dangerous secrets are looming behind the scenes of tradition and strict lore.

Inspector Uroš Stanojević was transferred from Belgrade to an unfamiliar environment where he is suddenly faced with brutal murders that the locals turn their heads to.

Angelija Kerčulj is an archaeologist who excavates the site of Belovode from the Neolithic period and discovers traces of a cult that is millennia old and has survived to the present day.

A black moon is an astronomical phenomenon in which the new moon appears twice in the same month and repeats every 29 months. He is traditionally associated with the Great Forest Mother... Muma Paduri

Black Moon Rising is an original and beautiful mix of horror and folklore with a touch of history and archaeology. With this novel, Tešić repeated his art of telling horror stories that freezes the blood in the veins. Unlike The Curse of Cain, which is set in the past and has much more similarities with the Kosingas series, Black Moon Rising is set in modern times, but imbued with folk beliefs, legends and "grandmother's tales".

Although the story is set in the second half of May, although the sun is scorching as if it were the middle of summer, the dark atmosphere is felt in every letter. All the time I was reading, I had the impression that the wrath of all known and unknown deities would fall on Malva and the novel's protagonist. The sword of Damocles hangs dangerously over their heads and swings so much that it could come loose at any moment. This is exactly what happens, but only when necessary. The gruesome deaths of the mine workers and CEOs from the mining company only reinforce the impression of horror with which the pages of this book are covered. The fear is intensified by the protagonists because all of them are closely related to Malva, the mine that is dug in the mountain, the deities who have lived there since ancient times and protect Homolje, and to whom, for the sake of peace, something must always be given in return or a sacrifice must be made. With this interesting story, Tešić sends us a message that no matter how technologically advanced, smart and arrogantly great we are, nature is not our toy, and that we must take the Gods who protect it seriously.

In addition to the chills it causes with every page, The Black Moon Rising depicts the sad reality of small towns in Serbia and the current political situation. There are powerful politicians in it who won't hesitate to do anything to protect their arsses. Such as the respected minister who's son-in-law is a successful inspector who caught a notorious criminal, but he deposes him and sends him to Malva as punishment in order to save his position and wash his crime partner (Familiar?). All the corrupt and rotten layers of society are represented, which for the sake of personal gain are determined to turn a blind eye while the mining company destroys the most beautiful forests, the cleanest rivers, buries and covers up the sites of ancient artifacts. Those who are supposed to take care of children, apparently do not pay attention to disappearances and sudden adoptions. They are even ready to forge documents and extracts from registers, because they are trying to please the Great Goddess and the tradition that has its roots in folk beliefs and ancient magic that still lives in Homolje.

In addition to the story of mine excavation, research at archeological sites, we also follow the intertwined life stories of inspector Uroš Stanojević, Anđelija Kerčulj, her daughter Letica and the waitress from the local tavern Jovana Šušković. Each of them experienced a tragedy that brought them closer to the ancient and traditional. Each one individually and all together, unknowingly, "work" for the Forest Mother to preserve the nature of Homolje.

In this novel, Tešić phenomenally combines the modern and the traditional and intertwines the old beliefs of Vlaška region with Rome, the Celts, Peru and the Spanish stories of the blind grandmother of one of the characters. He equated Muma Paduri with the beliefs of various peoples in the Forest Mother and forest spirits, with the goddess Diana, and even with Lilith herself. With that, he snapped off my psychosis in the form of OCD and anxiety to search the Internet looking for all the mentioned links and legends about Muma Padura, the Mother of the Forest.

Finally, in addition to the praises I have written, I have one complaint. In my opinion, the proofreader and editor did a very sloppy job. In several places, I came across mistakes that bothered me and spoiled the pleasure of reading, but not so much that I didn't fall in love with Black Moon, as I did with Tešić's previous novels.

You can get the novel Black Moon Rising through the website of the publishing house Strahor