The Stone Boy

This is a wonderful mystery/drama/psychological thriller, translated from the French. It's not my usual type of novel, but I became totally engrossed and couldn't put it down. It's intriguing, amusing, surprising, and sometimes troubling.

The Stone Boy is really the story of Elsa Preau, and elderly lady who returns to her house after several years in a "convalescent" home. In the years she has been gone the neighborhood has changed, and houses have been built just across the street from hers, allowing her to see from her window into the neighbor's garden. There she sees what appears to be a neglected, even abused child, who she comes to call the Stone Boy because he's always playing with the rocks in the garden. But no one else has ever seen the Stone Boy - is he even real?

Through a series of flashbacks, conversations, journal entries, and letters, we learn that Madame Preau has a history of a somewhat tenuous grasp on reality, and has enjoyed (or suffered from) relations with spirits in the past. Is the boy just another of these? Or is he a real child suffering from horrible abuse? The way the case builds in one direction - well, I won't ruin it, but I have to say I was taken by surprise again and again in this novel.

The author, Sophie Loubiere, and the translator, Nora Mahoney, really explore the idea of reliable vs. unreliable characters, and sort of leak information to drag you deeper and deeper into the story. I highly recommend it.

The Stone Boy

Blood Magick

So this is the third book of Nora Roberts' Cousins O'Dwyer trilogy, about the family of good witches fighting the evil witch who is out to destroy them. I enjoyed the first two books, and I enjoyed this one too - but, as I've said before, Nora is just getting a little predictable and boring.

Each of the books in the trilogy focuses on bringing a couple together - along with fighting the evil witch Cabhan - and this third one focuses on Branna and Fin, who've loved each other since they were teenagers but can't be together because Fin carries Cabhan's mark, meaning he has Cabhan's blood, and Branna's ancestor Sorcha placed the curse on Cabhan's bloodline because he killed her husband before destroying her. Branna and Fin are interesting and attractive characters (are any of Nora's heroes/heroines not?), and they have great repartee, but let's face it, we all knew when we opened the book that they were going to wind up together, right?

I am generally a big fan of mystical realism and witchcraft and the power of three (Charmed is one of my favorite TV series), but this book was predictable, and the final battle with Cabhan wasn't really all that exciting. I think Nora has played this theme out.

Blood Magick

The Patron Saint of Ugly

I LOVED this book! Marie Manilla has created a cast of characters so vivid, and interesting, and charming (for the most part), that I just could not put it down. This is mystical realism at its best!

Garnet Ferrari is born in Sweetwater, West Virginia, circa 1950. She's a perfect little red-haired baby, except that her body is entirely covered by port-wine birthmarks showing a map of the world. Garnet's older brother is, of course, the most beautiful little blond-headed child ever to exist, making Garnet feel inadequate, to say the least (the pointing and comments from the neighborhood kids don't help). So Garnet's Nonna Diamante creates the legend of Saint Garnet, a long-ago Sicilian girl who was saved from the flames of Mt. Etna by her devotion to God. Then Garnet starts performing miracles.

The story is told from an interesting perspective - the Church has heard of Garnet and sent an investigator from Rome. He leaves a questionnaire for her to fill out, and she does so by recording a series of tapes for him. So we get the story from Garnet's perspective - mostly (there are some interruptions from Nonna). It's a sad, funny, sometimes tragic story, but the ending is just spectacular.

The Patron Saint of Ugly