A review by trike
Chapelwood by Cherie Priest
3.0
This was not nearly as good as the first one. I don't know what it even has to do with Lizzie Borden, really. That aspect really feels forced, frankly.
It also felt far too long for the story. Shifting the first-person POV every chapter doesn't help the story flow, either. The Lovecraftian aspects were very much in the background rather than a clear and present danger as they were in the first book.
So why 3 stars instead of 2? Because it feels politically prescient, despite being set in the early 1920s. This was published in September 2015, which means she probably turned it in six months before then. That was before Donald Trump announced his candidacy. Yet everything political that happens in the story, complete with the KKK, misogyny, and alt-right type of organizations, feels straight out of Trump's campaign. And subsequent election, along with the cronyism of his cabinet appointments.
The fact that the heroine is an older woman teaming up with a Catholic to battle evil was icing on the cake.
THAT is the truly eerie aspect of this book.
It also felt far too long for the story. Shifting the first-person POV every chapter doesn't help the story flow, either. The Lovecraftian aspects were very much in the background rather than a clear and present danger as they were in the first book.
So why 3 stars instead of 2? Because it feels politically prescient, despite being set in the early 1920s. This was published in September 2015, which means she probably turned it in six months before then. That was before Donald Trump announced his candidacy. Yet everything political that happens in the story, complete with the KKK, misogyny, and alt-right type of organizations, feels straight out of Trump's campaign. And subsequent election, along with the cronyism of his cabinet appointments.
The fact that the heroine is an older woman teaming up with a Catholic to battle evil was icing on the cake.
THAT is the truly eerie aspect of this book.