The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton (review)

The Blackburn family is legend on the small Washington island of Anathema. Like all Blackburn women, sixteen-year-old Nor has a supernatural gift, and hers is an ability to converse with animals. Her mother Fern, however, has the more menacing talent of manipulating people’s minds, and used Nor’s blood to do so. Fortunately, Fern ran off years ago; unfortunately, Fern has recently found resurfaced in the media, finding fame as the author of the best-selling The Price Guide to the Occult, and she’s handing out spells. Nor knows that sort of magic requires dark sacrifices, and it’s only a matter of time before Fern returns home to gain power by spilling Nor’s blood again. The claustrophobic small town centered on the generations-old myth of a family’s supernatural abilities recalls the eerily oppressive atmosphere of Wallace’s The Memory Trees (BCCB 9/17), and the mounting tension around Fern’s likely arrival is expertly paced and laced with creepiness—the sea animals flee the surrounding waters, the forest quiets with no noise from birds, and weeds overgrow the island. The book hits a hiccup, however, as it transitions from suspense to horror, especially in a plot contrivance that conveniently introduces another island family that was long ago tasked with protecting the Blackburns at all costs. Nonetheless, once the horror hits, it hits in all its bloody glory, and Fern proves to be more monstrous than Nor could ever imagine. Fans of magic and mayhem will happily pay the price to watch Nor and Fern’s final showdown.