#Spooktober ‘Cackle’ by Rachel Harrison

About the book…

A darkly funny, frightening novel about a young woman learning how to take what she wants from a witch who may be too good to be true, from the author of ‘The Return’

All her life, Annie has played it nice and safe. After being unceremoniously dumped by her longtime boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start. She accepts a teaching position that moves her from Manhattan to a small village upstate. She’s stunned by how perfect and picturesque the town is. The people are all friendly and warm. Her new apartment is dreamy too, minus the oddly persistent spider infestation.

Then Annie meets Sophie. Beautiful, charming, magnetic Sophie, who takes a special interest in Annie, who wants to be her friend. More importantly, she wants Annie to stop apologizing and start living for herself. That’s how Sophie lives. Annie can’t help but gravitate toward the self-possessed Sophie, wanting to spend more and more time with her, despite the fact that the rest of the townsfolk seem…a little afraid of her. And like, okay. There are some things. Sophie’s appearance is uncanny and ageless, her mansion in the middle of the woods feels a little unearthly, and she does seem to wield a certain power…but she couldn’t be…could she?

Published in the Uk with this glorious cover by Titan Books,‘Cackle’ by Rachel Harrison is out now, many thanks to the wonderful team at Titan for my gifted review copy!

Annie is an everywoman, who never sees herself as enough, who counts her failures more than her successes, and is currently running away from her perceived abject car crash of a life.

A decade long relationship stalls and crashes as her boyfriend states their spark has gone.

There are no real friends to leave behind-the one who takes her out on a leaving do gets them drunk, gets them lost and then gets them into a palm reading where no future is forecast for Annie. Which she is both appalled by and not surprised about.

Moving is scary and is meant to be a real growing up moment,but Annie who never had a strong female role model after her mother died when she was five,doesn’t really know what this is all about.

She states she has been with ex boyfriend Sam so long she cannot remember who she was before. Before that were strings of boyfriends replacing her absent and authoritarian father.

So, no real women in her life to teach her about friendship and growth….this makes her ripe for the plucking by enigmatic Sophie,a wine merchant she meets after the school day from hell.

She immediately makes a very strong impression on Annie,inviting her to the local farmer’s market and making her feel valid and seen as a potential new friend

Or is she grooming a new acolyte?

Annie begins to suspect something is too good to be true and at the same time Sophie is so outside her realm of experience that she dare not turn her friendship down.

What will it take for Annie to see what Sophie is doing and when will she learn to see she is so much more than the sum of her parts?

Witty, relatable and genuinely chilling, this is everything I wanted an autumnal,witchy vibe book to be!

What made it for me was the dialogue-droll, funny,sharp and witty,it makes the well drawn characters so much more rounded and real.

Rachel Harrison has written extensively about the way women behave, their friendships and dilemmas in such an engaging way that the twists of horror are entirely acceptable within the world of modern women.

And I cannot wait to see what she do3s next!

About the author…

Rachel Harrison is the author of ‘The Return’, nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica and Electric Lit.

She lives in New York with her husband and their cat/overlord.

Twitter @rachfacelogic

Links-https://www.rachel-harrison.com/