Trudchen grew up hearing Odette’s stories of their monster-slaying mother and a magician’s curse. But now that Tru’s older, she’s starting to wonder if her older sister’s tales were just comforting lies, especially because there’s nothing fantastic about her own life—permanently disabled and in constant pain from childhood polio.
In 1909, after a two-year absence, Od reappears with a suitcase supposedly full of weapons and a promise to rescue Tru from the monsters on their way to attack her. But it’s Od who seems haunted by something. And when the sisters’ search for their mother leads them to a face-off with the Leeds Devil, a nightmarish beast that’s wreaking havoc in the Mid-Atlantic states, Tru discovers the peculiar possibility that she and her sister—despite their dark pasts and ordinary appearances—might, indeed, have magic after all. (from Goodreads)
Not what was I expecting but it is what I should have been expecting.
I found this book rather randomly on google. I was searching books with monsters and it appeared in the results. I was immediately drawn to the cover and the story. I did really like the bond between the two sisters. It felt very real, and normally the switching perspectives and timelines would bother me, but it didn’t at all. It made a lot of sense from the storytelling perspective and the sisters had a different enough voice that it worked.
I also want to warn you that this is not a happy read. It didn’t make me cry or anything, but it was a little depressing. The way that Od tries to protect Tru is so heartwarming and I really loved seeing that in this book. The book was pretty predictable, and though I was hoping for a bit of a different outcome, I didn’t get it. That, however, didn’t take anything away from my enjoyment of the book.
A good book about the bonds of family.
Overall: 3.5
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