Back to some fiction and one of those books that I’m pretty sure I got on concept and title alone. I may have heard someone say something about it and it really does sound right up my alley from the concept alone.
We follow [name], a young woman who is the only one of her family to ever leave the house. She goes into town where everyone knows the story of what happened to her and her family. One night, all but three of them died of a poisoning from dinner, which somehow turned the whole town against them. She is a strange girl herself, having grown up believing in practical magic and practicing it by casting small spells around the property. All seems calm until a distant family member, their cousin [name], shows up one day looking for the family fortune and causing their strange lives to come crumbling down.
This story reads like a fairy tale, with [name] being very matter of fact about everything that is happening around her, even if she is describing something that seems ridiculous. The people are not so much real people as a single character trait that is brought to the forefront and there doesn’t seem to be that much motivation behind most of the actions of the characters.
Not that this is a bad thing! It was very much a fun read and interesting to be in the head of someone who was looking through the lens of magical happenings. Overall, I was very entertained, but it really does read more like an old fable with a lesson to be learned. What that lesson is, I’m not sure, but it might be something that you like!