Spooky, Spoopy Salem
"How are you so calm?"
"I am already dead."
Well, well, well. Long time, no see. Once again. Excuse me for that, but I have literally ran out of reasons to continue apologizing for always being busy. Nonetheless: let's hurry and talk books, shall we? We shall!
This post comes kind of late, but I must say: I read this at THE perfect time of the year. I just didn't review it until just now, but read: it was! Therefore, I suggest you save this little novel for next autumn if you're one of those people who believe it's already winter and LOVE seasonal-everything. So, onto the actual book!
I'd been lured by this novel, a couple of times before I actually decided to buy it. I was scared I was going to be too much of a scaredy-cat to actually finish it (I read Susan Black's novels as a teenager and they still haunt me in my dreams, okay?). Anyways, this book had some instances in which you wished you most definitely hadn't read it just before heading to sleep, but at the same time, knowing that even if you turned off the light, evil witchy creatures wouldn't hunt you in your slumber. It was the perfect blend of spooky, spoopy and mystery.
I will be honest, at the start of the novel, I felt a bit torn due to the amount of clichés the story seemed to be presenting: the main character as a "loser" that doesn't know how to interact with others but is actually an incredibly smart, sassy and cute girl who changes schools and gets framed by the popular girls; coincidentally, the sweetest and apparently hottest boy in existence is her neighbour and totally fanboys about the new cool-loser girl; the mean, but popular girls start bullying cool-loser girl; mysterious guy is mysterious... You get the idea, right?
I was a little disappointed since the blurb had promised such an interesting and intriguing storyline to find all of these incredibly basic notions as the characters' and settings' basis.
HOWEVER, I still felt impelled to keep reading and that proved to be a great decision. The book had me completely hooked past these initial stereotypical aspects. Adriana Mather's writing is tremendously rich in dialogues which makes the story unfold astoundingly quickly and the reader is able to recereate it mentally in great detail (I feel like I've been vacationing in the beautiful Salem for years now, thank you Ms. Mather!).
Despite the initial disappointment with clichés, the characters in the storyline become rounder as the narrative unfolds and you, especially, end up falling in love with mysterious boy (who wouldn't have seen that coming? Honestly? But, still 10/10 an enjoyable ride because: the cute).
The mysteries revolving around the Mathers, the Descendants and the curse are absolutely intoxicating and you will find yourself trying to sneak in as much time as possible to read the novel, so you can decipher it all with Sam (the protagonist). And, as I've mentioned before, this sort of highly-addictive books are totally my thing.
I do have to warn you though: if you read this, you'll feel like you've been in Salem already, but also like you have to actually go. I really do need to. Specially in the fall time.
This was a nice little read and I hope to have more reviews up more often. So, I will try my best. I am currently working on my own arts and culture magazine with one of my friends. Our magazine, "Drima" will be launched soon, so we sincerely hope you show us your support like ou've done thus far. I wil still post in here, but more of my writing material will be found there in case you miss me! :
I hope you have a wonderful day!!
My copy of Adriana Mather's "How To Hang a Witch" is the 2016 Alfred A. Knopf edition.
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