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This is one of a series of interlocking novels by the author, in which Welsh myth (with more than a touch of Tolkien) fuses with Native American legend & myth. As our young protagonist begins to experience timeslips, he (and we) get tantalizing glimpses of a rich fantasy world of American pre-history, one which has never been recorded. Slowly we begin to realize that this simple family, which many might dismiss as nothing more than hillbillies, is actually descended from forgotten Welsh mariners, perhaps with a touch of Faerie at one time ... and that even though they themselves have forgotten their purpose for remaining in their green backwater, something ancient & evil is buried beneath the land they own & guard. And that evil is waking ...

In this & several other novels, Jane Louise Curry creates a unique mythic world, one which deserves to be much better known. I've always hoped she would one day write a longer novel set firmly & completely in the fascinating past of these novels, all of which deserve reprinting in a uniform edition, perhaps even a boxed set. Highly recommended!

On the surface, this story is about 13-year-old Ray Siler rebelling against his father's remarriage and being sent to live with Uncle Dream and Aunt Star and what he terms "a bunch of superstitious hicks" in a rural mountain hollow called Twillys' Green. Ray's relatives welcome him kindly into their extended family community and share what little they have with him. Despite their poverty, the family's unexpected warmth disarms Ray and he grows to feel at home with them.

Moving deeper into the story was a little like reading about the town of Stepford in 'The Stepford Wives' or Bendo from Zenna Henderson's 'Pottage' (made into the TV movie 'The People' with Kim Darby and William Shatner). There was so much more going on that is gradually revealed, although what unfolds leans more towards sinister Stepford than alien People.

Spoilers...

This is one of Jane Curry's Abaloc series, a legendary realm with Welsh and Native American overtones. Atop the beautiful but forbidding hollow stands a ruined castle that does not belong in the mountains of West Virginia, along with a chest of books written in an unknown language. Twillys' Green translates as the 'Dark Shrine' and beneath it is an old coal mine wherein is chained a great stone snake. At times, Ray timeslips "inside some other skin" and becomes the slave Ruan to the Lady whose group is seeking the power of the shrine. Ray's family are the Watchers, guardians of the shrine and the evil inside. Under its influence, Arbie Moar will not rest until he has "sucked the marrow" out of the hills with his coal mining company. Ray and his many relatives work with water and fire to prevent their hollow from being taken over by strip mining and letting loose a great evil.