I got this book for free using edelweiss, publisher but I promise all opinions are my very own!on June 11, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Horror
Pages: 146
Source: edelweiss, publisher 
I have loved Cherie Priest’s books since the days of Boneshaker. I also love zombie books, so that was a big plus for Cherie Priest
Her take on zombies in Boneshaker is original and a breath of fresh air (or dead air) from the hordes of authors trying and failing to imitate Max Brooks and his take on Zombies.
I had anticipated loving this book, and I did.
The story takes two women to a small town in eastern Tennessee to try to find out what happened to a woman named Ellen. She is one person’s aunt and the other person’s lover. In the beginning, we learn that somebody or something put Ellen in a black gum tree after she did, and no one knows what happened to her.
Then we follow along, and the plot gets creepy; every time something is revealed, the story provides a plot twist.
In my view, in a lot of “horror/gothic stories, the author tends to reveal too much too soon, and worse, the story turns out to have a smaller ending, 80 percent, than any other story in that genre.
Cinderwitch, however, the author takes it in the opposite direction, which means you, the reader, are only told the bare minimum to help move the plot along, and even then, especially toward the end, what happens is what your brain thinks has happened.
After I read the last page and View Spoiler », well, if I’m being honest, that ending led me down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what the hell was going on with that ending. Was this the first book in a series, or was I missing something? I looked everywhere, and every person had their ideas of what happened.
I now suspect that Cherie Priest wrote it for that exact reason. After all, once you learn how it happens and it fits, it is no longer a horror story. However, if you leave an open ending, your brain is free to imagine whatever horror it can, and that is how a horror or gothic book should be written.
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