After reading Cherie's most recent work, Boneshaker, I was completely caught up in the north Pacific coast.
So I picked up her first book about Eden Moore and was completely blindsided that it was set in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Ha, I hear my friend Joe groaning.)
Eden was raised by her sister and brother in law on Signal Mountain (which I still count as a been-there, even if it was only a disastrous date with that guy who brought me pop-tarts in lieu of flowers). As she grows up, she is haunted by a trio of dead sisters, who give her parts of their story through dreams and visions - and they turn out to be her ancestors. Eden's family is about as open as a bridal shop in downtown Detroit, so she has to dig up what she can about the trio from an estranged, archaic great-aunt, who just happens to be harboring a homicidal nephew bent on wiping out Eden to end a family curse. (Say that sentence two times fast.)
Two foremost thoughts while reading:
"Hey, I've been there!"
"Hey, I think I just wet myself."
Seriously, these had some of the creepiest scenes I've ever read. Bet you $5 you won't read that campground bathroom scene without getting seriously paranoid about semi-reflective surfaces.
Compared to what, you say? Uh, everything I've read in the last decade. Yeah, it got me that good.
Here's the whole trilogy:
Book 1 - Four and Twenty Blackbirds
Book 2 - Wings to The Kingdom
Book 3 - Not Flesh Nor Feathers
I do plan to review the other books separately, but for the love of big words and small, difficult words, please don't wait on me!
One last thing: I can't shut up without praising this writer about the language she never chose to use. At least a dozen times this year I've put a book down disgusted. Now, I'm pretty sure you guys know I'm not a featherweight. I'm hard to offend. But I get tired of hearing characters talk about women's bodies like we're whores, and there goes my foot while I punt said book towards the window. I was ecstatic to find someone this good who didn't resort to vulgarity and call it verissimilitude.
That is all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment