Information:

• Goodreads: 4.21 out of 154 ratings
• Genre: Horror
• Age Category: Adult
• Series: No

Summary:

Dean’s life flashes before Satara’s eyes when she finds out he is cheating on her with her best friend, Lilah. Naturally, as one would do, she kills him. It’s not like she hasn’t done it before, calm down. And she has great plans on remarrying, starting over. Sure, she wants to get with another married man and that does seem hypocritical considering the hatred she holds for Lilah. But, here’s the difference – Lilah was her best friend. Satara isn’t pals with this man’s wife. Unfortunately, Lilah is hot on Satara’s trail with a goal of showing the world was Satara really is. And so we dive into Satara’s world as everything is crumbling around her but its totally okay because she has witchcraft on her side.

Review:

I don’t even know what to say about this book. I think I liked it. I also think I hated it. Hear me out. Satara is interesting. Her delusion is fun to follow and I was reminded a bit of Pearl. Actually, I feel like the first portion of this would be a cool A24 film. We’re following Satara as she slips into her delusion more and more, learning more about her past murders and seeing her justification of all of them. You can almost see and understand her perspective. The first man absolutely deserved her outrage. Pearl just wants fame and love and Satara just wants love, but no one can ever live up to what love is to her. She lives very oppositely towards her own morals – such as actively pursuing a married man while being angry at Lilah for sleeping with her husband – and it was fun seeing how she justified that difference – it was wrong because Lilah is her best friend but she’s not friends with this man’s wife.

I’m all down for reading about a serial killer woman losing touch with reality and dabbling in drugs and witchcraft. I was down for watching Pearl go on a murder spree and also lose touch of reality. Pearl had a great ending though. There were no weird twists to piece together, she just was. The writers seemed content and comfortable enough to know that Pearl could carry the story on her own with her own delusion and face a bit of reality when her husband comes home – though we know that isn’t for quite so long. We do get to see Satara continue through her delusion. We get to see how she justifies every action she takes, how her world continues to crumble around her and how she thinks she’s successfully maneuvering it. But with Satara, it felt like Mia Ballard felt as if she had to add in more twists and turns. Satara and her delusions weren’t allowed to carry it all on her own and I feel that the story suffered for it.

Instead, we learn that her love spells aren’t actually working (shocker) and there has actually been a 6 year long investigation hoping to catch her for her past murders. Hear me out: I know killing five people is a lot of people. Is it 6 years worth of an undercover investigation that has multiple cast members? That’s where you lose me. Not only is Lila actually her first victim’s fiancé – who doesn’t care that he groomed and raped a 15 year old – everyone else for the last 6 years of Satara’s life with the exception of maybe 2 people were also in on it. It’s one thing for me to follow one person’s delusion, it’s another to just not believe in the world we’re in. And I know Lilah/Stacey is also unhinged, I could get behind these two delusional assholes duke it out. I would love a fun cat and mouse between two women full of rage and complicated feelings. But that’s not necessarily what we got. Or, not only what we got. We have these, with Lilah doing ungodly things to make sure she catches Satara. We also get a whole office, community, and police department willing to engage in this weird ass investigation/delusion. It doesn’t sound like it would check out.

It felt like the first half had the potential of capturing an audience the same way Pearl did and I mean that in the best way. Mia Ballard’s mind and writing for this portion were outstanding. It’s just the last portion that stumped me and made me go from a 5 star to a 3. And then the epilogue came in and I was back in. We were given what I wanted – two Pearl’s now engaged in revenge against one another. I just wish it was given the permission to stay with that, because it truly could have been one of the best of the year.

Also, that fucking cover is amazing. I’d love to know you’re thoughts if you’ve read it yet and thank you for tuning it!