joabroda's review
slow-paced
1.5
Let me say right up front: If you are a gothic fan, a fan of strange, you might enjoy this book a bit more than me. If you read it and find it a worthy read, I would really like to know why.
Asking why this queen of DNF, did finish it? The premise was intriguing to me, I won it in a giveaway, it was way out of my box, and it worked for a few challenges I am doing.
The blurb from the book:
"A historical feminist horror novel, Sister Séance takes place in Concord, Massachusetts, just after the Civil War. Spiritualism is sweeping the nation when Halloween calls for matchmaking in a traditional “dumb supper,” a dinner party where guests may not speak but must express their needs and desires through nonverbal communication. After the dumb supper, mysterious intruders shock the party guests into confronting their pasts through materializations. These materializations unite sisters of séance with abolitionists, freed people, former slaveholders, wounded Civil War veterans, and a photographer pregnant with the child of a former slave."
In the initial pages way too many characters are thrown at you, and the narrative became confusing. The "dumb" supper" (what intrigued me the most) takes up all of 1 1/2 pages. I expected a horror story that would spook me. It did not do that either. The one and only reviewer of this book called it "A Work of Art". Since art is a subjective subject, I will go ahead and say it: It was just "paint by number" for me .
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