★★★★☆ Once the engine starts, it's great

The Briar Book of the Dead

AG Slatter

Personnes d’un certain âge had an experience that I think most of you young folks now manage to avoid: starting a small gasoline engine with a pull cord. Here's what that's like. You always start by flooding the carburetor. Then you pull the cord, the engine turns over, and stops. You do it again and again. Finally, maybe on the fourth pull the cylinder fires once -- "putt". Then, on the next pull, you hear it fire three times -- "Putt, putt, putt," and stall again. At last, you pull once more time, the engine catches, you open the throttle a bit -- "Roar!", and you're off.

I mention this, because that's what reading A.G. Slatter's The Briar Book of the Dead was like. At the beginning I could feel Slatter trying to start this plot. She'd pull the cord, it turned over and failed to catch. Finally, about a third of the way into the book, I felt the engine fire. The next chapter after that it sputtered a bit and stalled. Finally, at about 50% the engine caught and the story took off with a roar. I was interested in reading the Acknowledgements to learn that my experience in reading was paralleled by hers in writing it. She started it in 2015, then it stalled. It lay fallow for years before she took it up again.

Now, the most important thing I have to tell you is that once the engine catches, it's a great ride.

This is a story of a family of witches -- the Briar family. They are all women -- Briar women have daughters only, no sons. It is told from the point of view of Ellie Briar, who is not a witch -- she has no magic. Her grandmother and all her sisters have magic. The Briars live in the isolated mountain town of Silverton, and they run the place, benevolently, with the cooperation of the townspeople. One of them is The Briar Witch, who is by way of ruling the town. That is not Ellie -- since she has no magic. Ellie is the Steward -- her sisters are the chief Healer, the chief Vigilant (think Chief of Police), and so on.

The ordinary magic of the Briar family is less important to the story than you might expect. It is really the story of a family -- a more dysfunctional family than it first appears to be -- but no spoilers! Ellie gradually discovers and reveals the forgotten history of her family. Things get exciting at the end.

The Briar Book of the Dead is a good ride. Even though it's slow to start, you will feel, when you reach the end that you've had a lot of fun.

I thank Edelweiss and Titan Books for an advance reader copy of [book:The Briar Book of the Dead|128746994]. This review expresses my honest opinion.

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