Shea Ernshaw the author of The Wicked Deep and Winterwood.At Tor.com she tagged five "YA books [that] were inspired by real world myths and legends and unexplained tales," including:
The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn HermanRead about the other entries on the list.
Forests create a perfect setting for the dark and unknown, and in Christine Lynn Herman’s debut book, The Devouring Gray, a beast and a sinister gray resides within the surrounding woods, killing off the people who live in the remote town of Four Paths.
This book gave me all the chills, and perhaps it’s because this story isn’t entirely fiction. Herman was inspired by the real-life history of upstate New York, specifically the burned-over district where in early 19th century, an influx of new religions sprouted up at the same time. The Devouring Gray imagines a town where a religion was centered around worshipping something dark and awful within the forest. This local folklore is the perfect setting for an eerie fictional tale.
--Marshal Zeringue
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