Leah Sottile

When the Moon Turns to Blood Leah Sottile

Inspired by Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven and Jess Walter's Every Knee Shall Bow, WHEN THE MOON TURNS TO BLOOD explores modern-day survivalism and end-times extremism through the story of Lori Vallow and her husband, grave digger turned doomsday novelist, Chad Daybell. When police in Rexburg, Idaho perform a wellness check on seven J. J. Vallow and his sister, sixteen-year-old Tylee Ryan, both children are nowhere to be found. Their mother, Lori, gives a phony explanation, and when officers return the following day with a search warrant, she, too, is gone. As the police begin to close in, Vallow and Daybell's larger web begins to unravel. Vallow's case is sinuously complex, and the accused Black Widow turns out to have had bodies piling up around her. WHEN THE MOON TURNS TO BLOOD tells a fascinating story of murder, paranoia, and disinformation, and explores the such increasingly relevant question: What happens when believing the world is ending goes too far?