Author: Hester Fox
Publication Date: September 17, 2019
Synopsis:
A town gripped by fear. A woman accused of witchcraft. Who can save Pale Harbor from itself?
Maine, 1846. Gabriel Stone is desperate to escape the ghosts that haunt him in Massachusetts after his wife’s death, so he moves to Maine, taking a position as a minister in the remote village of Pale Harbor.
But not all is as it seems in the sleepy town. Strange, unsettling things have been happening, and the townspeople claim that only one person can be responsible: Sophronia Carver, a reclusive widow who lives with a spinster maid in the eerie Castle Carver. Sophronia must be a witch, and she almost certainly killed her husband.
As the incidents escalate, one thing becomes clear: they are the work of a twisted person inspired by the wildly popular stories of Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. And Gabriel must find answers, or Pale Harbor will suffer a fate worthy of Poe’s darkest tales.
The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox completely enchanted me last year. It was the perfect October read, featuring a haunted mansion and a girl who had just come into her power as a witch. I was looking forward to read the writer's second novel, which had a similar eerie promise.
It wasn't exactly a let-down, but I couldn't say The Widow of Pale Harbor lived up to its predecessor.
Gabriel – a man with a well-guarded secret – arrives to Pale Harbor to act as the minister of the sleepy town. He quickly becomes fascinated with the woman the whole place regards a murderess and a witch, and when strange occurrences disturb the people, he can't help standing up for the lady of his heart.
"Death had cast its sickly pall over the town, and nothing was certain any more."
Most of the readers will be drawn to this book for the reference to Edgar Allan Poe in the blurb. Indeed, the murders and other weird happenings in the novel are pulled from Poe stories and the reader even gets time to guess from which ones before it is revealed. I think it is a pretty awesome game for those who know Poe's tales intimately.
The setting and the whole atmosphere that is created are the strongest features in the book. The gothic vibes are very powerful, starting from the mansion Sophronia lives in, through the foggy streets, to the eerie cemetery and the windy cliffs – the mood is beautifully composed through the chilly descriptions.
I know, so far I've only shared good things – so why wasn't I completely satisfied then?
The romance I'm afraid blunted my excitement for yet another autumn read. It was too flowery, too sweet for a gothic book. Everything else was so dark, so raw, that I expected the passion to be a bit more down-to-earth, the love a bit less schoolgirlish. I find I don't have much patience for these kind of romances any more. It is sad, but it's the truth.
Also, I couldn't really understand why Sophronia found Gabriel so intriguing. It turned out they didn't share that many interests after all, he wasn't one for intellectual conversations – as far as male protagonists go he fell a little flat for me.
I'd say it is worth to give The Widow of Pale Harbor a try if you're a Poe fan and like gothic tales. It helps if you're also a romance fan, because then you'll appreciate the parts I didn't, and the story can give you more than what it offered me. It is far from being a bad book, but I couldn't rate it higher because the author's debut novel undoubtedly casts a long shadow on it.
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