Witch 13 by Patrick Delaney - What the Hell did I just read!?

 

"What the hell did I just read?" Is what I thought when I finished this.

Sheriff Sterling Marsh has had a rough go of it lately and she has decided to resign as Sheriff of Drybell, Ct, where she's worked for ten years. Her last night working seems like it will be relatively quiet, a little too quiet considering a once-in-a-century storm is raging outside. But she and her co-workers take advantage of it and have a Christmas/Going Away Party and make the best of it. As soon as the egg nog is gone though they get their first call. Her deputy's wife calls to report an intruder at City Hall where she works. Sterling arrives to find an honest to goodness straight out of a fairy tale witch complete with the silly hat is the intruder. Sterling arrests her unleashing hell on her tiny sheriff's office. With the phone lines down all she can to do is protect her people till morning. Easier said than done.

This wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be, it was more creepy than scary. I really just wanted to know what the hell the witch was actually doing, which was motivation enough to finish it in just a few hours. And in the end, I was slightly disappointed as there was one scene that made it pretty clear as to why the Witch was there earlier in the book. That being said it was one hell of a ride getting to the end so that's forgiven. 

Every character in this has some sort of messed-up background too, and the Witch seems to use these to make them do things they normally wouldn't. A depressed wife becomes a suicidal wife, a child who normally isn't a thief becomes one around the witch, etc., etc. 

There are a couple of things that were sadly standard horror fare. The whole "Omfg don't go back in there!" was yelled a lot and the "Why are we disregarding the guy who clearly knows what's going?" was pondered every time the action slows down. But other than that I don't have any complaints. 

Overall this was a solid horror story with a creepy (the Witch was incredibly creepy) villain with just enough violence that you knew you were dealing with something no human could hope to defeat.

Ooh totally forgot to add this to the Netgalley review, it has illustrations, which is worth a whole star in my opinion! 

Thanks to Netgalley and Oblivion Publishing for the eArc of this creepy tale.

Pre-Order available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble! 

The Me You Love in the Dark by Skottie Young, Illustrated by Jorge Corona - Yeah, it's freaking creepy on more that one level!

 

Alright so normally I just copy and paste my review from Goodreads (now you know) but this one I wanted to go over again because I've had a few days to think about it. 

I enjoyed this book and if you follow me on Goodreads the four-star rating I gave there still stands. However, I have to say that after having a few days to think about it I believe that the book was too short. The premise is that the ghost/demon/thing in this book becomes controlling and abusive. Because of the length of the book, I do not believe that the author was able to really drive home how this happened over time. The situation simply didn't feel as serious as it should have. And now I could be completely wrong about the author using a monster as a stand-in for an abusive partner and none of that could matter, but I don't believe so given how accurate their portrayal of an abusive relationship is. So ya know my complaint could be totally invalid but I really don't think so. 

And that's it, my one complaint. Other than that I found this to be a really phenomenal graphic novel that uses fantasy to address intimate partner violence. Because she uses fantasy I believe that makes this just a little more accessible for those who have experienced it, something they can relate to while also having a cushion between themselves and the situation portrayed. And what is the fantasy or horror genre if not a place for us to address real-world concerns in a manner that is safe?

The art was absolutely gorgeous and really did an exceptional job of setting a creepy atmosphere and let me just say the monster is freaking terrifying. 

All in all this was a great quick read and I'll be picking up the next book in the series!