Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Jenn's Review: Thirteen


Summary:  Desperate Housewives meets The Witches of Eastwick in this novel about a woman who returns with her teenage daughter to her childhood home, not knowing that she's stepped back into a community run by a group of witches.
Haven Woods is suburban heaven, a great place to raise a family. It's close to the city, quiet, with terrific schools and its own hospital right up the road. Property values are climbing. The crime rate is practically non-existent, unless you count the odd human sacrifice, dismemberment, and/or blood atonement. When Paula Wittmore goes home to Haven Woods to care for her suddenly ailing mother, she brings her daughter and a pile of emotional baggage. She also brings the last chance for twelve of her mother's closest frenemies. A circle of friends will support you through bad times. A circle of witches can drag you through hell.

Review:  They had me at 'Desperate Housewives meets The Witches of Eastwick'.  They lost me at animal sacrifices.  I persevered because this was a promised review, but this book is just not for me.

For me, there wasn't a single likable character in this book... except the dogs, and perhaps Sanderson. I cannot understand why any of those mothers would do the things they did.  I can understand wanting more out of life and wanting to help your child, but there are just some boundaries you don't cross.  Plus there were a whole slew of things that were never explained and barely made sense.

Though Susie Moloney does not go into the sacrifices in detail, there was certainly more than enough for the reader to get the gist of it.  Between that and the Satanic rituals, which do receive more detailed attention, I was plenty disenchanted.  I actually started to skim-read over them just to push ahead. 

I did not find the story remotely suspenseful, but perhaps that's because I was disengaged from the it. I can't even tell you who the target audience for this might be.  All I know is this is an author I will not be reading again.

Final Take:  2/5

Share/Bookmark

No comments: