Spells for forgetting by Adrianne Young

This was a wonderful read and I discovered it with perfect timing for Halloween week. It tells of an unexplained death within the close island community of Saoirse Island that sits in the estuary waters of Puget Sound on the west coast of the United States; and it comes with just the right amount of mystery and magic to keep me hooked to the very last page.

Saoirse Island life is bound up in tradition and folklore with the older women still teaching their granddaughters how to set spells. Fourteen years before the story begins, four teenage friends, August, Emery, Dutch and Lilly, graduated high-school, and August and his girlfriend Emery were planning to leave the island the following morning to get August away from his violent and controlling grandfather.

The night before they were due to leave, the great orchard belonging to the August's family caught fire and after the fire was out, Lilly's body is found among the trees. Her death may have been murder but mysteriously the autopsy shows that she drowned, as her lungs are filled with seawater and there is seaweed in her stomach, but her hair and clothes are quite dry. How could this have happened and what secrets are being hidden by the old families of the island.

August and his mother flee the island after the police decide there is not enough evidence to charge anyone with murder, and Emery is left heartbroken as he didn't even come to say goodbye. For fourteen years she hears nothing from him, but after August's mother dies, he finally returns to the island to bury the ashes and sell their old property including the orchard.

August's re-appearance opens old wounds new information comes to light about the night of Lilly's death. August was always the main suspect as he was the one who ran away, but Emery discovers that there is a whole web of lies that is only just beginning to unravel.

This book is beautifully written, and a great story well told. The plot twists and turns constantly and there is a tension running through every page and I loved it. No wonder it is a bestseller.

Comments

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