Summary: Clem gets a call that is every mother’s worst nightmare. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Erin is unconscious in the hospital after a hiking trip with her friends on the remote Orkney Islands that met a horrifying end, leaving her boyfriend dead and her best friend missing. When Erin wakes, she doesn’t recognize her mother. And she doesn’t answer to her name, but insists she is someone named Nyx.
Clem travels the site of her daughter’s accident, determined to find out what happened to her. The answer may lie in a dark secret in the history of the Orkneys: a woman wrongly accused of witchcraft and murder four centuries ago. Clem begins to wonder if Erin’s strange behavior is a symptom of a broken mind, or the effects of an ancient curse? (Summary and pic from goodreads.com)
Ashley’s Review: There is no Halloween season without reading about witches, AmIRight? You must cover all the bases for a spooky season by reading different sorts of characters that are Halloweeny, and the witch is arguably the most classic of it all.
This is a time hop book, and I usually enjoy those styles of book when they’re well done. This book was organized so that I knew when the time hops happened, and that matters to me. I like being able to know where I’m at. Because time hop books are often very much like two books in one, it is really important to be consistent about what is happening and when and where. I appreciated that Cooke did a great job with this, and I was always very aware of where we were and that helped move me in and out of the story quickly and be able to just move with the differing stories.
I really enjoyed both of the stories in this book. The historical fiction story, which was actually based on some true historical facts, took place in the Orkney Islands in Scotland, and I have a weakness for Scotland, especially when there is a great creation of the atmosphere. I know many of you have probably been to Scotland, and I think you can agree with me that it feels old. There is so much history and lives that have been lived and you can just feel it there. I thought Cooke was able to create a feeling of ancientness and cultural richness. Plus, I always love a good story about witches, even though I get so incensed when women are accused of witchcraft.
The second story was also good in this book, and made for an interesting whodunit with high stakes and mysteries everywhere. There are some interesting crossovers between the two stories, which was interesting. It just tickled that magic itch that I want to read about, especially during Halloween.
The Book of Witching has lots of great magical elements that make for a very spooky read. There are parts that are genuinely scary, and I think it earns its horror genre well. Sometimes the horrors are ones created by other humans, which are definitely in this book, but sometimes horrors come from those elements that exist out of our normal mortal realm.
If you’re looking for a historical witch fiction book but also want a time hop to modern times, I think you would really like this book. It was a great spooky season read for me.
Rating: 4 Stars
For the sensitive reader: There is language, some torture, and also some light discussion of sex.
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