The all new 50 Books Challenge!
Title: The Silver Witch: a Novel by Paula Brackston
Details: Copyright 2015, St Martin's Press
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): "From Paula Brackston, The New York Times bestselling author of The Witch's Daughter comes an enchanting tale of love and magic
A year after her husband's sudden death, ceramic artist Tilda Fordwells finally moves into the secluded Welsh cottage that was to be their new home. She hopes that the tranquil surroundings will help inspire her creativity and ease her grief, as well as lessen her disturbing visions of Mat's death. Instead, the beautiful lake in the valley below her mountain cottage seems to spark something dormant in her – a sensitivity and a power of some sort. Animals are drawn to her, electricity shorts out when she's near, and strangest of all, she sees a new vision; a boatful of ancient people approaching her from across the silky water.
On this same lake in Celtic times lived Seren, a witch and shaman. She was respected but feared, kept separate from the community for her strange looks. When a vision came to her of the Prince amid a nest of vipers, she warned of betrayal from one of his own. The prince both loved and revered her, but did not want to believe someone close to him wished him harm, even as the danger grew.
In her own time, Tilda's grief begins to fade beside her newfound powers and a fresh love grows. When she explores the lake's ancient magic and her own, she discovers Seren, the woman in her vision of the boat. Their two lives strangely mirror each other's, suggesting a strong connection between the women. As Tilda comes under threat from a dark power, one reminiscent of Seren's prophecy, she must rely on Seren and ancient magic if death and disaster are not to shatter her life once more."
Why I Wanted to Read It: I've mentioned before that up until VERY recently, my literary selections have been a bit limited. This is not crime fiction, so it already had that going for it!
How I Liked It: If you didn't like one book by an author, why on earth would you give another book a try? Is it because you really liked the idea of the story? You saw a great screen adaptation? You kept hearing recommendations? All the usual stuff that would make you pick up a book in the first place?
When I first read Jeffrey Eugenides, it was The Virgin Suicides and I was fairly disappointed. I gave him another try when hearing the vast acclaim for Middlesex and I'm so glad I did because that book is utterly brilliant.
I didn't care for a book of Chevy Stevens's I had read before, but her first book that I only recently read, Still Missing was highly entertaining in a way the other wasn't.
So circumstances depending, I'm usually willing to give an author another chance.
I've read a book by Paula Brackston before, and I wasn't especially impressed, but I wasn't put off enough to ever try again, and I'm glad I did.
The story is actually two stories. In the present, there's Tilda, a quiet artist broken by her husband's recent, sudden death in a car accident and trying to start over in the house where they were supposed to be starting over together. She starts noticing some strange supernatural occurrences, though, and a hero's journey type challenge that will force her to confront previous issues with which she's struggled all her life, including her feelings of alienation due to her albinism and her sometimes strained relationship with her parents.
In the story running concurrent with Tilda's but in the distant past, wise woman Seren (who also has albinism) dallies with the Prince and is carrying his baby, much to the chagrin of his wife, the Princess, and her angry supporters, who already both fear and resent her influence.
The stories come together in Tilda's visions of the past, and also of the archeological dig that's taking place nearby, wherein Tilda acquires some new companions: her widower archeology professor (convenient!) neighbor and his hunky archeologist diver nephew that takes a fancy to her, and with whom she eventually opens up about, well, everything.
The mystery of the dig and why Tilda is receiving visions (and accompanying supernatural phenomena) and what exactly happened to Seren are revealed slowly and more or less simultaneously, and when the story ends, we're left with a Tilda that's undergone a positive, realistic transformation and self-actualization as a result of her hero's journey, and also an idea of what happened to Seren (and the fact, as you probably guessed, she's probably an ancestor of Tilda's).
The book has some bumps (a few of the relationships could stand a bit more development) and some of the action could use smoothing, but overall it does a fairly good job of connecting the two stories and the intersecting action. I didn't catch any frustrating modernisms that threw me out of the ancient Celtic period (although there may be some I missed, obviously), although the twists were perhaps more easier to see coming than they could've been.
Brackston also goes hard on some really lovely sensory details in the story. A delicious hot meal, a freezing house made warm by the fire, and frozen landscape all come to life and add a wonderful richness that's one of the book's particular strengths.
All in all, it's a fairly compelling and enjoyable story, and given my disappointment with the earlier Brackston I read, this book lands solidly in the Second Chances are a Good Idea shelf.
Notable: Interesting, and possibly because she's dealing with the Celts and borrowing a bit from history as well as fantasy, the author straight up calls them practitioners of "The Old Religion" a term for Paganism. I've mentioned before that things can get a bit dodgy between fictional witches and actual Witches and it's an interesting choice for Brackston to make that distinction.
Final Grade: B
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