Author: Cat Winters
Genre: fantasy
Similar books: Jackaby by William Ritter
The Diviners by Libba Bray
Rating:
 |
| it will keep you guessing |
Summary (provided by publisher): Trudchen grew up hearing Odette’s stories of their monster-slaying mother and a magician’s curse. But now that Tru’s older, she’s starting to wonder if her older sister’s tales were just comforting lies, especially because there’s nothing fantastic about her own life—permanently disabled and in constant pain from childhood polio.
In 1909, after a two-year absence, Od reappears with a suitcase supposedly full of weapons and a promise to rescue Tru from the monsters on their way to attack her. But it’s Od who seems haunted by something. And when the sisters’ search for their mother leads them to a face-off with the Leeds Devil, a nightmarish beast that’s wreaking havoc in the Mid-Atlantic states, Tru discovers the peculiar possibility that she and her sister—despite their dark pasts and ordinary appearances—might, indeed, have magic after all.
My opinion: Initially, I was on the fence about this book. As I read, though, my appreciation increased. I started out certain that their link to the supernatural was pure fiction, the product of covering up their pain. As the plot progressed, though that certainty was weakened. And that's the brilliance of this novel. Winters is quite skilled at making us question everything that the characters experience. While the closing chapters were a touch tidier than I generally prefer, the bulk of the novel was thrilling and well paced, exploring the influence of both the supernatural and the mundane on the lives of two sisters.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.
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