Post by kahlan on Feb 26, 2017 14:34:47 GMT
I received this book as part of the Amazon Vine review program. Review below. I gave it 4 stars.
This is one of those relentlessly dark novels where everything is grim and full of horror, and just keeps getting darker. The basic premise is somewhat unrealistic - there is a village that is haunted by a witch who wanders freely around and often stands in plain sight, night or day. No-one who lives in the village can leave for any length of time (any attempt to do so leads to an uncontrollable desire to commit suicide. The people of the live have to keep their witch secret from outsiders and they have a variety of measures in place in order to achieve this. There is a delicate balance between the witch (Katherine) and the people - as long as the people don't upset Katharine, she largely ignores them. However, events in the past when Katharine has wreaked havoc upon the people give a strong motivation for the villagers not to upset her.
And so the basic scenario is that of a horror story, and yet this is so much more. The strength of the tale is less in its portrayal of the witch and more in its gritty exposure of raw human nature. The village has developed a series of laws and rules to maintain order, and even its own form of prison for those who transgress. When events turn nasty and people panic, we see the power of mob rule and just how primitive and brutal human nature can be. By the end of the story, no-one is unscathed. Even the protagonists, Steve and Taylor, who seem to be genuinely decent people, do not end the story guilt-free; it seems that fear can bring out the worst in anyone. And strangely, even though Katharine is the witch and hence the character one presumes we should fear, it is the humans who act despicably and there are even times when one can feel some sympathy with Katharine and understand her motivations. This is a brutal expose of just how quickly the civilised veneer can disappear from people when the mob rules; an insightful and thoughtful, but certainly not comfortable, read.
This is one of those relentlessly dark novels where everything is grim and full of horror, and just keeps getting darker. The basic premise is somewhat unrealistic - there is a village that is haunted by a witch who wanders freely around and often stands in plain sight, night or day. No-one who lives in the village can leave for any length of time (any attempt to do so leads to an uncontrollable desire to commit suicide. The people of the live have to keep their witch secret from outsiders and they have a variety of measures in place in order to achieve this. There is a delicate balance between the witch (Katherine) and the people - as long as the people don't upset Katharine, she largely ignores them. However, events in the past when Katharine has wreaked havoc upon the people give a strong motivation for the villagers not to upset her.
And so the basic scenario is that of a horror story, and yet this is so much more. The strength of the tale is less in its portrayal of the witch and more in its gritty exposure of raw human nature. The village has developed a series of laws and rules to maintain order, and even its own form of prison for those who transgress. When events turn nasty and people panic, we see the power of mob rule and just how primitive and brutal human nature can be. By the end of the story, no-one is unscathed. Even the protagonists, Steve and Taylor, who seem to be genuinely decent people, do not end the story guilt-free; it seems that fear can bring out the worst in anyone. And strangely, even though Katharine is the witch and hence the character one presumes we should fear, it is the humans who act despicably and there are even times when one can feel some sympathy with Katharine and understand her motivations. This is a brutal expose of just how quickly the civilised veneer can disappear from people when the mob rules; an insightful and thoughtful, but certainly not comfortable, read.
