This is going to take some time as I parse out everything I want to say about this novel. (I have such a difficult time beginning reviews. They feel like analytical essays I am writing. Boo for essays.)Okay, let’s plunge into it. First, I enjoyed this novel. It had some very serious problems but writing and pacing weren’t one of them. The characterizations were believable and there was a lot of excitement and movement in the story that leads me to believe that were the scriptwriters able to find a way to express the “possession” part of novel, it would make a really good movie. The kind that both boyfriends and girlfriends can watch and love. I haven’t heard anything about the authors and very little information is given about them on Goodreads but the calibre of this book is sufficient to convince me to read their next work. Good, so far?Moving on then, (and this is where I will tell you to stop and come back when you have read the book because it’s going to get distinctly spoilery) let’s talk about what bothers me about this book. What bothers me so much that I have been thinking about it possibly nonstop. Okay fine, not nonstop but more than I want to think about a book that I have already read (and which is not on the syllabus).The ending of the novel sucked and to me, it brought up such questions that answering them would collapse the entire foundation the novel is built on. If you have read the synopsis, you will know that Mary has to see herself through the eyes of seven people (this is not limbo, folks) and until she has done so, she will not be able to “pass on” or um, save herself.Mary is not a nice person or so the book would have you believe. However, she doesn’t come off as a horrible bitch at all. In fact, throughout the entirety of the book, even when you are seeing her behave badly through someone else’s eyes, you still find yourself liking the character enough to hope that she makes it through. Regains her life, so to speak. Mary is one of those beautiful people who is selfish and manipulative and yet, entirely unaware that she has those qualities. She takes advantage of people and uses them but there’s no malice in it. If the authors had made her sincerely horrible, I would have accepted the ending better.It turns out that Mary was one of the participants of the curse that her father put on her mother when he found out that she had been having an affair with another man while still being married to him. Under the influence of the curse, Mary leaves her mother trapped in some hole and the little sister sees all this happening. After the curse is over (only lasts for a day and this time, the dad died and the cursed, the mom, remains alive), Mary forgets everything. Skip about 7 or 8 years, the sister puts that same curse on Mary with the intent to kill her at the end.Okay, we are supposed to like the sister. We are supposed to empathize with her, suffering as she is, living in the shadow of the selfish sister. However, when you think about it, Mary does everything she can to save a friend who is supposedly kidnapped and then in the end, she sacrifices her own life so that the sister may live. Considering Mary’s actions, the sister seems decidedly more evil. And I keep on wondering why Mary would do such a thing. Save someone who wants to kill her. You see the logic? If Mary is that selfish and horrible, she would save HERSELF and let the sister go to hell where she most certainly belongs. But she’s not, so she lets herself die so the sister (the sistericide committing one) can live.말이 돼? Which basically means, does this make sense? It doesn’t to me. There are times when you can make the gray area so gray that your logic is subsumed by it. But that is not all, as a consolation prize, we are told that Mary’s spirit remains in Ellen’s (the sister’s) body so yay? Really?Also, the mythology aspect is clumsily handled. Questions such as how the father got the books, why he was so knowledgeable about curses and why won’t anyone smack the adulterous mother remain unanswered. So while the reader may enjoy the novel while he or she is reading it, it is when the last page has been turned and some reflection has been done that he/she will realize that the feeling in their stomach? It’s dissatisfaction.
