THE THIRTEEN
by Susie Moloney
Harper Collins
William Morrow Paperbacks
Trade Paperback: 336 pp.
Kindle: 5 KB
March 27, 2012
Published in Canada by Random House Canada
Amazon Link for The Thirteen Through my A-Store
Harper Collins
William Morrow Paperbacks
Trade Paperback: 336 pp.
Kindle: 5 KB
March 27, 2012
Published in Canada by Random House Canada
Amazon Link for The Thirteen Through my A-Store
SYNOPSIS
Haven Woods is suburban heaven, a great place to raise a family. It's close to the city, quiet, with great schools and its own hospital right up the road. Property values are climbing, and the crime rate is practically nonexistent.
Paula Wittmore hasn't been back to Haven Woods since she left as a disgraced teenager. Now she's returning to care for her suddenly ailing mother, and she's bringing her daughter and a pile of emotional baggage. She's also bringing, unknowingly, the last chance for her mother's closest frenemies . . . twelve women bound together by a powerful secret that requires the sacrifice of a thirteenth.www.harpercollins.com
Super Creepy Inter-Generational Horror
There is a lot of talk about The Thirteen being Updike's Witches of Eastwick meets this or that. And, they certainly have a point. I would pair it up plot wise with the most recent piece of literary fiction by Chris Bohjalian, The Night Strangers. Maybe a bit of Kelley Armstrong's Dimestore Magic. For horror maybe a little Amityville.
There is a lot of talk about The Thirteen being Updike's Witches of Eastwick meets this or that. And, they certainly have a point. I would pair it up plot wise with the most recent piece of literary fiction by Chris Bohjalian, The Night Strangers. Maybe a bit of Kelley Armstrong's Dimestore Magic. For horror maybe a little Amityville.
At first, in fact, I would have sworn it was in the same town in Massachusetts where Armstrong's book is set. But the dialect is distinctly Canadian, eh? However, I think what all three books share is a central, nasty female witchy character (although in Armstrong's book there is more than one). Here that is Izzy. The witches from Bohjalian's book must have called Moloney's about blood (animal and human) sacrifice. There is no doubt there are fashionable themes and plots in writing.
Slight romance. nothing but a couple of kisses. Scary action sequences. Evil cats, and good dogs. Mostly the book is about the power of covetousness, disappointment and envy to foster evil. Want a better life? Well, then you'll have to pay. Even if you default you will pay.
This is not about Wicca, this about freely consorting with evil for personal gain. That is the opposite of Wiccan tenets.
The writing is somewhere between genre and literary fiction. The characters are a bit thinly drawn—we are most familiar with the youngest character. But she is of the least import in the story's plot. What is occurring in the book is revealed in layers. I didn't enjoy it very much, but I also didn't enjoy The Witches of Eastwick—too much darkness for me.
E-Galley from Publisher through Edelweiss. No remuneration exchanged. All opinions are my own.
