Full of dark humour and beautiful prose, Deirdre Sullivan’s unsettlingly creepy and wickedly macabre gothic YA thriller is what I’d imagine Netflix’s Sabrina would look like—if Holly Black and Krystal Sutherland co-wrote it!
Everyone in Ballyfran has a secret, and that is what binds them together…
When sixteen year old twins, Madeline and Catlin move to the strange and isolated town of Ballyfrann, a place littered with the corpses of small creatures, infamous for the young girls who’ve gone missing over generations in surrounding mountains they now call home.
As a distance starts to grow between them, Catlin falls in love as Madeline begins to understand her own witch-like abilities she quickly realised that Ballyfrann isn’t nearly as unassuming as she’d originally thought. For the place is full of predators and the wildlife isn’t all they hunt.
And when Catlin falls into the gravest danger of all, Madeline must ask herself who she really is and who she might have to become to save her sister.
I’m in awe at how much I loved this, the world building was incredible and the unsettling feeling Dierdre Sullivan manages to portray even in the most mundane moments was just spectacular. From the moment both girls arrived at their new home dubbed ‘the murder palace’ I got a sense of foreboding and dread that only heigtened as the story progresses.
I loved Madeline, who was the more introverted and awkward of the twins but seemed to be one of only a few characters that actually picked up on the strangeness of everything. I mean, secretive and evasive locals are a huge red flag (though I must confess, I do find unusually small towns creepy at the best of times.)
We don’t get much character development outside of Madeline and her family (and Lon) but with the standoffish nature of the town it really plays up the uneasiness that the setting evokes.
The inclusion of missing girls into the plot was also pretty ingenious but also felt rather prescient given the events that’ve transpired in the UK (and in many other places) involving the harassment and violence against women. It’s this (grounding the gothic horror elements in reality) that makes it all the more eerie, but for reasons other than the supernatural.
Overall a quick and undeniably addictive read—and that ending was definitely a shocker I literally cannot wait to start Precious Catastrophe.
Also a huge thank you to Hot Key Books and NetGalley for the digital copy.
Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
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