Stars: ****
I received this book for review.
Synopsis:
Prepare to be seduced. A gothic thriller for the twenty-first century, Season of the Witch tells the tale of two beautiful witch sisters and the love triangle that consumes the man sent to investigate them.
Gabriel Blackstone is a hacker, information thief, and skilled “remote viewer” – he makes an excellent living stealing other people’s secrets. When a former lover asks him to look into the disappearance of her stepson, Gabriel’s investigations lead him to Monk House, a rambling Victorian home where time seems to stand still. Gabriel becomes increasingly bewitched by the house, and by its owners, the beautiful, enigmatic Morrighan and Minnaloushe Monk.
The sisters are “solar” witches, obsessed with the study of alchemy and the Art of Memory, a practice invented by the ancient Greeks. Gabriel believes that his client’s son has been murdered and that one of the women is the killer. But which one? Gabriel finds himself drawn in exorably deeper into the sisters’ complex world – becoming entranced even as he realizes he is in mortal danger.
Swirling together elements of the Matrix, Interview with the Vampire, and The Historian, this enthralling novel takes on big themes – love, death, alchemy, the power of the human mind to transform and transcend reality – and will beguile and entrance all who turn its pages.
Review:
I originally expressed interest in this book because I like reading stories about witches. When I started reading it however, I found it a little hard to get into. This quickly changed. By two or three chapters in, I couldn’t put it down and finished it in 10 hours.
The synopsis says it’s a mixture of The Matrix, Interview With a Vampire and The Historian. I saw The Matrix but couldn’t follow it and haven’t read Interview With a Vampire or The Historian so I won’t be able to compare them at all. I do know why they said it was a little like The Matrix though. In the book, Memory Palaces are used. They are like large mazes of rooms and doors, all surrounding a portal, that exists only in the person’s mind. The purpose of it is to gain knowledge of all that exists in the world.
This book is not for the young or prudish. While there isn’t explicit detail of sexual activities, there is talk of desire and generalized descriptions of a few sexual acts.
I enjoyed the read, as a fun read and as thought-provoking. It’s really making me think about how memory works and how our society is getting worse and worse at using it. I may pick up another of Natasha Mostert’s books.
Buy a copy of this book.
About the Author:
Natasha Mostert is South African. Educated in Johannesburg and New York, she holds graduate degrees in lexicography and applied linguistics, and has worked as an academic and journalist. She now lives in London with her husband.
Visit the book’s official website or Natasha Mostert’s Myspace page. Here’s Natasha Mostert’s official website.
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