Added Grendel for cuteness to the normal picture of the book. Since this is the next in the cats on covers theme, it seems appropriate.
This book also has a really great dedication page (pictured below). Sadly after that, things went awry.
This is a real curates egg of a book. I've read some Strieber before but not for a very long time and I remember really enjoying them. His book Billy is a horror masterclass as is the Wolfen, but this is nowhere near those standards.
Amanda Walker returns to her childhood home town to illustrate a book of fairy tales by a local author and wiccan leader of a number of local covens. Amanda's uncle George is a scientist at the local college, working on experiments on resurrecting the dead.
A local pastor is psychopathically opposed to both the witchcraft and the science (which are more closely linked than people suspect). He's also a minor league psychopath.
Added to all this, the mountains around the town are home to faery folk and demons, including one that typically manifests as a large black cat.
There's potential for a great horror story here, and Strieber is a very talented writer.
But the book just didn't work for me. the back cover sells it as a Frankenstein type story with evil spirits attacking the town. Instead we get Amanda being manipulated by all sides to the point it's impossible to tell who the bad guys are.
I'm all for morally grey characters, but this isn't morally grey as much as a bit of a mess. They're not well enough explored to make us side with them regardless of their behaviour and therefore I personally ceased to care about halfway through.
It's not helped by a preface that talks about how wiccans are misrepresented in literature and then the book proceeds to use most of the old clichés in not too positive a light.
The head witch at the start of the book is manipulating every side to coordinate events to her liking, regardless of who dies as a result. We're supposed to be on her side.
The mad scientist element is beyond daft. the scenes in the lab, despite starting strongly, soon descend into farcical stupidity.
There are hints in the text of a conspiracy against the witches and someone on the inside working against them. That may have provided an interesting twist to the tale, but it comes to naught.
Instead the majority of the last two thirds of the book is Amanda's spiritual journey that she's been well and truly conned into embarking on. As a chosen one narrative it falls flatter than my last attempt at a soufflé.
There are good points to the book. There are sections that are very well written. There are disturbing elements. The speculation on the nature of death, Heaven and Hell and all things in between is quite interesting. but the more I think about this book the less I'm liking it.
If this was the first Whitley Strieber novel I'd read, it would almost certainly be the last. It's a shame. The quotes on the cover from Charles Grant and Ramsey Campbell made me very excited for this book and it just didn't deliver.
If you want to read a Strieber novel, read the Wolfen or Communion or Billy. Avoid this one.
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