Pearl

Josh Malerman, the author of Bird Box and Malorie, wrote this horror story, which was first published as On This, the Day of the Pig. Its focus is Pearl, a pig whose legend draws the reader into a rural nightmare.

Trouble has settled over Walter Kopple's farm. On the surface, the problem seems to be his grandson, who kills one of Walter's pigs in a brutal act that makes no obvious sense. Soon the town is buzzing with a stranger explanation: the boy says a voice ordered him to commit the killing, and the townspeople believe that voice belonged to Pearl, an odd pig on the farm.

Walter does not know what to make of it. He has long been uneasy around Pearl and senses something hostile in her. As unease and paranoia spread through the town, residents turn on the farm with violent fury, and the story keeps asking where the real menace lies.