Jenny Kiefer Books In Order

Publication Order of J.L. Kiefer Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Jenny Kiefer is an accomplished American author.

She has won awards for her writing and she also owns and runs Butcher Cabin Books, a book store that features only horror novels.

Jenny resides in Louisville, Kentucky. Her first book came out in 2024 from Quirk Books and is titled The Wretched Valley. She has also had her writing featured in publications such as Pseudopod, Cosmic Horror Monthly, and Howls from the Dark Ages.

Jenny Kiefer attended Western Kentucky University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. She also graduated from the University of Louisville with a master’s degree in English.

She has received awards for her work in journalism and creative writing. She received the Miracle Monocle Editor’s Award for Emerging Writers in 2017. She has also been the recipient of the Society of Professional Journalism Award four times. Jenny also served as a 2021 PitchWars mentee, mentored by Cynthia Pelayo.

The Wretched Valley is the first fictional novel from author Jenny Kiefer. This 2024 debut is a horror novel that you will not want to put down! Inspired by the Dyatlov Pass incident, this is a story of survival that might just have you staying up a little later at night before you finally fall asleep. With that in mind, read on for a brief description of the book!

Four climbers decide to make their way into the wilderness of Kentucky. Three bodies are discovered seven months later, completely mangled. Was the way that they died the result of an accident or was it caused by something else?

It was supposed to be a huge moment for Dylan. Clay is a geology student and a friend of hers who let her know when he found a cliff face that had been totally untouched deep in the wild of Kentucky. Dylan immediately comes up with a plan where she is going to be the first ever to go and climb it.

Dylan prepares and gets together with Clay, Sylvia (his research assistant), and Luke, her boyfriend. With this group by her side, she is completely prepared to document everything that she has done on social media and be able to show the world that she is the next up and coming rock climber to watch.

But things are about to go much more badly than they could have ever anticipated. What should have just been a simple outing to climb has turned into something out of a horror movie. This is a fate that no one would ever want.

There is no word for a long time. But seven months after the group headed out for their big climb, their bodies are finally found located off the highway in the trees. It’s like something out of the movie Predator. All of the corpses have been decaying in different ways. One body is just a skeleton made entirely out of white. The second has had all of its organs removed. The third has been mutilated everywhere, with the fingers, the ears, the eyes, and the tongue all gone.

The only thing is, Dylan is gone still. No one knows what could have happened to her. Those that follow her Instagram have said that they’ve witnessed odd live streams. Some of them even thought that they’ve seen her going into the woods. However, to this day there is no evidence of her and no sign of her has been found.

No one knows what happened to the climbers, whether this was an act of an animal or a person or some supernatural force. Maybe they descended into cannibalism after being stranded among each other. Maybe something out there got to them that has been lurking in the Kentucky forests.

Could Dylan still be out there, still alive, with the answers? Pick up a copy of this novel and find out along the way for yourself!