Night Witch by Jack Priest Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Night Witch
Book Review: A Priest of Horror
Summary: 4 Stars
Since they both have similar copyright dates, I'm not positive which of Jack Priest's novels was written first, Gecko or Night Witch. If I had to guess, however, I'd say it was the latter: while Gecko is a decent book, Night Witch is better, the mark of a writer whose talents are growing.
The title character is a soucouyant, a demonic creature from Trinidad with powers akin to a shapeshifting vampire. Chronic thief John Coffee has stolen a magic locket from her, and without knowing what he has, has given it to his estranged eleven year old daughter, Carolina, who lives in Northern California. Two parallel stories develop. Carolina finds herself pursued by the Night Witch and seeks help from her classmate Arty, all the while contending with the usual tweener problems of school and bullies. Meanwhile, Carolina's teacher Sarah is ending her brief marriage after her husband showed his true colors (deeply yellow), but she quickly hooks up with John, who is trying to secretly protect his daughter.
The Night Witch is like a malevolent force of nature, rarely speaking but just bent on killing and re-obtaining her locket. Sometimes she takes on the guise of an old woman, but other times, she is in the form of a wolf, bear or hyena. Whatever her form, she can be wounded but never really killed, and in trying to achieve her goals, she is relentless. She represents one of the sign of writing growth I mentioned: in Gecko, it takes a long time to really see how bad the villain is (we're told he's evil, but don't directly see it for a good portion of the book). In Night Witch, we know pretty quickly just how powerful and nasty the soucouyant really is.
The other issue I had with Gecko had been dialogue that was occasionally stiff, but that is not nearly the same problem here. In fact, Priest succeeds in doing something that few authors of adult fiction seem able to accomplish: he writes kids who actually seem like kids, not just miniature adults.
The end result is a fun, fast-reading horror story. An additional nice thing is that Priest uses unusual horrors from other cultures; no standard vampires or serial killers here. If you are looking for a new type of horror fiction, try out Priest.
Book Review: A Thrilling and Very Enjoyable Experience
Summary: 5 Stars
Night Witch is about a little girl in California who is being chased by a soucouyant, a Caribbean vampire type old woman who can appear as anything she wants. She's a shapeshifter who usually shifts into very bad, menacing things. She wears a locket that lets her live forever and it was stolen by Carolina's father, who gave it to her as a gift. The soucouyant want's it back. However, Carolina doesn't know this. She only knows the monster is after her. Her father tries to protect her, but her true hero is overweight Arty, a boy in her class who adores her. The question is, can Arty, who has his own demons to deal with, defend Carolina against this blood sucking shapeshifter from another land?
Jack Priest has a knack of character development that gets his people right into your hearts without pages of background. I loved Arty, probably because I was a fat, ugly girl when I was growing up. I'm not now, that's for sure, but your childhood is something you never forget. I used to hunt with my father and I know how to load shotgun shells and more than once I've been knocked on my butt as Arty is when he does battle with the soucouyant, so no wonder he resonated as so very real to me. And I liked the way the bully Brad evolved and changed in the story. But I think I liked Carolina's father, John Coffee, the best. He's a bit shady, but he grows and changes too. Reading Night Witch was a thrilling and very enjoyable experience.
Book Review: A page turner!
Summary: 3 Stars
This was a fast paced thriller that had some fun characters. The story is written primarily from the perspective of Arty, a fat-kid turned hero, and Coffee, a thief who has antagonized a soucouyant, a type of shapeshifter witch. The other main characters are Carolina, Coffee's daughter and Arty's school teacher.
The violence of the night witch is revealed in the first chapter when she attacks a jogger--Arty's teacher. Arty is pulled in to confronting the witch by his adoration of Carolina who is being stalked by the night witch. The rest of the story is about the confrontations between the night witch and the protagonists, as well as the day-time realities and difficulties of the characters lives. As Arty and Caroline elude the witch by night, they also learn to defend themselves from the local bullies by day.
While this is a traditional thriller, Priest adds some creative touches that are interesting--such as having the lives of Arty and Caroline parallel the lives of the adult couple. For example: Arty's talents arise because of his need to survive an alchoholic abusive dad. Coffee developed his talents by surviving as the child of an alcoholic dad. Caroline has been abandoned by her father, Arty's teacher is abandoned by her husband.
Once you start reading this book, it is hard to put down. Priest crafts a story with a page-turning pace and some highly likeable characters. I would have liked to have known a little more about the history and motivations of the Night Witch. Otherwise, a good read!
Book Review: Awful waste of my money
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this book when I saw it rated highly on an Amazon list that contained quite a few other horror books that I had enjoyed reading. I could not even finish this book; I forced myself through the first 50 pages before I gave up. It was very poorly written, and full of bad cliches; in the first few pages one of the protagonists kills a bad guy by driving his nose into his brain using his fist. Come on, Jack. Not only is this incredibly overused, it's also not possible.
If your looking for a good gruesome read, look elsewhere. Avoid this book.
Book Review: Caribbean Bloodsucker Comes to California
Summary: 5 Stars
Young Carolina Coffee has a locket that a soucouyant needs to stay immortal. A soucouyant is a vampire-like, bloodsucking creature found in the Caribbean. By day she's an old hag, but by night she sheds her skin and can be whatever she wants, anything from a ball of fire to a man-eating tiger.Carolina knows her father is a sneak thief, it's why her parents are divorced, but she doesn't know that he stole the locket he'd brought back from Trinidad and given her. The soucouyant has traveled to California to get it back, will stop at nothing, but first she has to find it.
John Coffee, Carolina's father, knows he's put his daughter in danger and he does battle with the old hag several times, trying to draw her away, but the bloodsucking fiend isn't easily put off.
Carolina senses something is after her and she turns to her classmate, chubby Arty for help. Together the children find out what it is they are up against and even how to kill it, but the task is great and they are just children, however they have to try, because to fail is to die.
I don't know if my brief synopsis has done justice to this spellbinding thriller, I hope it has, because I believe Mr. Priest is going to have quite a future in writing horror fiction. His antagonists are always so fascinating, and I like how he gives us normal good guys who have to get it together and get up to speed quickly or they'll perish.
NIGHT WITCH Mr. Priest's third five star book had me reading the night away and as soon as I finished, I started it over again. He just seems to keep getting better. I can't wait for the next one.
Reviewed by Vesta Irene