The Thirteen [Paperback]

Ohhhhh. I wanted to like this one. I really did. When I read what this book was about, I immediately went to take it out of the library and giggled with glee as I didn't have to put it on hold or anything. It did have it's great moments! I was all ready for a really nice dark gothy read! I loved the idea of a cat filled town (furbabies!!!) where things aren't what they seem. The town had a nice dark theme to it, almost akin to Witches of Eastwick mixed with Stepford Wives theme. So that in itself was great. Audra's curse was great! I thought that was really interesting and fun to read. It's most certainly a well descriptive curse.

Each of the 'witches' and what they wished for was also interesting, but of course everything comes at a price. When things do get messy, the consequences are severe. This was also fun to read - especially when they all go into a panic. The panic gets contagious and they're suddenly resembling frantic chickens.

Then...the story itself just falls apart.

What is it with this dogs vs cats theme? that really bugged me. It really played on that a little too much and the old adage of cats being the 'witches familiar' is really really old. That bugged me because I knew in the long run in this book, that there was going to be a mass killing of cats somewhere along the line. Oh for crying out loud. Seriously? we're still writing about how evil they are and that dogs are every body's best friend and the champions against the dark witchcraft magic. Have we suddenly gone Middle Ages all over again? the animal cruelty (both for dogs and cats) was not necessary and this dogs vs cats thing was silly.

Let's now talk about Rowan. She was all right. For a while. Until the story starts in her point of view. Then we get writing like this:

'No one answered it of course, until
(another weirdo)
the nurse Tula came down the hall'

WHY were her thoughts written this way??!!! WHY??? not only did this interrupt the flow of the story but it was very distracting and haphazard to read. It was so disruptive, it was almost as if these thoughts were interrupting the book itself. It made for very annoying reading.

Finally, we go to a chase scene, where it was going at least in a circle three times and it made the reading redundant and the last scene of the book felt so long to play out because of this. Although it was rather exciting to read, as the chase started getting longer, it started getting absurd.

This was certainly a book you can pass on. I expected so much more and it ended up falling short. It's definitely not what I was hoping for.

This is a wonderfully spooky book written by my favourite author!! I couldnt put the book down. I read it from cover to cover in 3 days. I have read all of Susies books and I have loved them all. She is Canadas version of Stephen King!! I cant wait till I see Susies book on the big screen. If you love the ghostly tales and stories told of witches then Susie Moloneys books are for you! It is wonderfully written and held my attention all the way through. Thank you Susie for another wonderful book. Cant wait for your next one!!

If you combine the original "Stepford Wives" with" Desperate Housewives" and add in a soupcon of "Practical Magic" you may have a good idea what to expect with this book.

This book was filled with spookiness, malice, meanness,(b)witches, cruelty and a ton of tension, and that was just amongst those who sort of liked each other.

The characters are very well written with enough depth that I could really 'see' them in my mind. I could visualize everything about the town, the women, their lives.

The build up and extreme tension was just perfect. The addition of a tiny little romance which took me out of that tension enough to make it possible for me to finish this book without having to hide under my bed at night, was perfect. I adore speculative fiction but I mostly read the kind that you really need to suspend you sense of disbelief for, but with this book all the characters were so realistic and the book was so deftly written that I could just imagine being in this town and being part of this group...even if that would be a bad thing.