The Legend of the Albino Farm is a horror story turned inside out. What if a thriving family were saddled with an unshakable spook tale? And what if that lore cursed them with an unending whirlwind of destruction from thrill seekers, partiers, bikers, and Goths? Hettienne Sheehy is about to inherit this devouring legacy. Last child to bear a once golden name, she is heiress to a sprawling farm in the Missouri Ozarks. During summer, childhood idylls in the late 1940s, Hettienne has foreseen all this apocalyptic fury in frightening, mystifying visions. Haunted by a whirling augury, by a hurtful spook tale, and by a property that seems to doom all who would dare own it, in the end, Hettienne will risk everything to save the family she truly loves.
The Legend of the Albino Farm has haunted two generations of Sheehys and marred all memory of the family’s glory days. Worse, this spooky lore now draws revelers, druggies, motorcycle gangs, hippies, and later Goths to trample the land, set bonfires, and vandalize its structures, all while Hettienne’s aged aunts cling to privacy, sanity, and a rapidly deteriorating thirteen-room mansion..
From her youth, throughout her marriage and her rearing of her children, the Legend of the Albino Farm and the curse of the Sheehys drag at her and her family like a vortex. Haunted by a whirling augury, by a hurtful spook tale, and by a relentlessly judgmental Ozarks city, in the end, Hettienne believes she must make decisions that might compromise her family’s financial security but will severe them from an ever more dangerous legacy.
NOTE: This novel is based upon an actual legend and folktale that apparently lives on today surrounding a particular farm on the outskirts of Springfield, Mo and borrows from newspaper accounts and the author’s research into additional historic documents (including legal documents) spanning the decades following WWII to now.
Industry Reviews
"A dazzling cautionary tale of the dangers of a self-fulfilling prophecy. In beautiful, hauntingly atmospheric prose, Steve Yates tells of the legends and myths that surround the slow fall into decrepitude of a once-magnificent family estate. The boundaries of fact and fiction, superstition and belief blur together in this complex and gripping novel, which suggests, ultimately, that perhaps families are the most unknowable mysteries of all." -Alex George
"In the same way Faulkner built of his "postage stamp of earth" so Steve Yates returns to the haunted, haunting land of his childhood, the usually overlooked Missouri Ozarks. The Legend of the Albino Farm is about myths and legends, about inheritance and free will. Its compelling saga, rendered with lush and sometimes startling language, takes its readers deeply into itself and does not let them go." --Beth Ann Fennelly
"If the border state setting of Missouri might call into question The Legend of the Albino Farm's southernness, the style and quality of Yates' writing do not. In its attention to the details of domestic and family life, Albino Farm echoes the work of Katherine Ann Porter and Eudora Welty; the obduracy of the grown and estranged Hettienne calls to mind Ron Rash's Serena. The quality of Yates' prose merits such comparisons." -Matthew Guinn, The Clarion Ledger
"Yates' vision seems as much Shakespearean as Southern in this beautifully written blend of family saga and fantastical tale. He seems able to merge, as in a long strange dream, current times with the ever-present past. This world is put before us, inscrutably real." --Brad Watson
"A rollicking tale of inherited demons, apocalyptic visions, loss, longing, and love-in other words, the story of a family, although told through the cracked lens of Yates' wild, unblinking eye. This unconventional saga is a gripping, joyful read." --Sabina Murray
"The Legend of the Albino Farm drew me in from the first page. An enthralling and tragic tale, beautifully rendered." -Laura McHugh
Family myth and superstition mingle in the Ozarks in the talented new novel The Legend of the Albino Farm. One part Bridge to Terabithia, one part Bag of Bones, Steve Yates's novel is full of haunting scenes and stories that blur the line between reality and nightmare...Yates's writing is confident and controlled. The lingo of the 1950s, as well as historic details, makes The Albino Farm almost disturbingly believable. Alternately wholesome and spine-tingling, the novel is full of surprises. Yates isn't afraid to take risks, and the reward is an unusual, smart paranormal fantasy that effortlessly blends elements of the midcentury Midwest with classic ghost-story imagery. The Legend of the Albino Farm is satisfying, suspenseful, and full of good old-fashioned scares. - Foreword Review
