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lunasgathering's review
1.0
I find it hard to believe anyone could rate this book so high. The story started with great promise. I normally don't care much for first person POV, but I liked the way Carter managed it. The pace was solid without many lulls. The idea of the Angels of Mercy was interesting as well, the ability to help someone in pain not hurt anymore through the simple enjoyment of a casserole.
It was as the main character, the so-called protagonist, grew into her power that the story lost any enjoyment. Two major points that make up the majority of the plot bother me quite a bit. First, the glee and arousal with which Rosie gruesomely murdered two people and planned to murder many more. Then the callousness in which she experimented with her gift by randomly killing several elderly people. Since when do main characters revel in killing? And why the hell would we care if some crazy religious nut killed her? She's a murderer regardless of the "justification" for the deaths. On top of all of that, she wasn't that smart. The hints given to her about the antagonist were so obvious. At the very least, she should have figured it out when he mentioned he was from Oklahoma, the home of her "sisters."
The bigger gripe for me is a bit more personal. The use of "magic" in the story was offensive. It is hard enough for modern witches to be taken seriously, to not have to hide our beliefs for fear of repercussions without writers perpetuating the misinformation of all witches as evil. I know this is a simple work of fiction not based on how witches truly are, but it plays to the stereotypes we fight so hard to disprove, right down to the reference to snakes.
Maybe my mistake was going into this expecting a good mystery. Even the cover art looks like a typical cozy mystery. If I'd been prepared for a horror novel, I might not have been so disappointed.
It was as the main character, the so-called protagonist, grew into her power that the story lost any enjoyment. Two major points that make up the majority of the plot bother me quite a bit. First, the glee and arousal with which Rosie gruesomely murdered two people and planned to murder many more. Then the callousness in which she experimented with her gift by randomly killing several elderly people. Since when do main characters revel in killing? And why the hell would we care if some crazy religious nut killed her? She's a murderer regardless of the "justification" for the deaths. On top of all of that, she wasn't that smart. The hints given to her about the antagonist were so obvious. At the very least, she should have figured it out when he mentioned he was from Oklahoma, the home of her "sisters."
The bigger gripe for me is a bit more personal. The use of "magic" in the story was offensive. It is hard enough for modern witches to be taken seriously, to not have to hide our beliefs for fear of repercussions without writers perpetuating the misinformation of all witches as evil. I know this is a simple work of fiction not based on how witches truly are, but it plays to the stereotypes we fight so hard to disprove, right down to the reference to snakes.
Maybe my mistake was going into this expecting a good mystery. Even the cover art looks like a typical cozy mystery. If I'd been prepared for a horror novel, I might not have been so disappointed.
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