Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest

[lightreads]

Eden starts seeing ghosts when she’s barely old enough to talk. When she’s ten her cousin tries to kill her. Then things start getting weird – twisty family trees, ancient wizards, gross resurrection rituals, etc.

This book nicely engaged me for the first third (great atmosphere, southern racial politics, vivid writing) and then lost me almost entirely in the last two-thirds (clichés, predictability, decline in the writing quality). I think partly the book is just a predictable little ghost story, and partly this isn’t really my cuppa so I’m not particularly forgiving of the clichés. Truth is, I was pretty bored.

Stick to Heart-Shaped Box, is my recommendation.