Sanctuary

February 5, 2024

This supernatural horror set in Italy spans generations while drilling beneath readers' skin. Sibilla, soon to give birth, has come with her engineer husband to a mill and property he hopes to renovate. However, something haunting the land sabotages the husband's efforts while also targeting Sibilla and her unborn child. Hundreds of years earlier, Maddalena came to the mill with her loving husband and large family. She hoped to win over the townspeople, but they were distrustful of her herbs and potions. The family was beset by incidents that tormented them, pushing them toward financial ruin and making them pariahs. The choices of Maddalena and others are destined to leave ripples that will haunt Sibilla. The story is told through two narratives: Sibilla's tale takes place in 1933, and Maddalena's begins in the late 1500s. Though Repetto (The Rose Master) switches rapidly between the two timelines, she slowly and deliberately builds tension in both narratives before ratcheting it up in the book's final moments. VERDICT Fans of Isabel Ca�as's The Hacienda and Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic will breathe in this book's brooding atmosphere, even as its emotional punch of a climax leaves them breathless.--James Gardner

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2024

This Italian haunted-house story features a generations-spanning curse affecting a soon-to-be-mother. The curse begins in the late 1500s when Maddalena and her family move to their new villa with a mill on the property. Maddalena's fellow townspeople are distrustful of the medicine she practices, while the mill and her home are beset by several catastrophic accidents. In 1933, Sibilla moves to the villa with her engineer husband, ready to raise a family here, but they too are beset by accidents, and Sibilla begins to see strange shadow shapes and bizarre accidents that pose a danger to her, her unborn child, and her family. Narrators Rachel F. Hirsch and Eva Passeltiner keep the parallel narratives distinct, even as the story moves from one timeline to the next. Their characterizations work in tandem, with Passeltiner voicing Maddalena as a confident but harried mother and Hirsch depicting an increasingly unsettled Sibilla. The supernatural elements are more prevalent in Sibilla's story, but Repetto (The Rose Master) gradually amps up the tension in both tales until they crash head-on into a heart-wrenching ending. VERDICT Fans of Isabel Ca�as's The Hacienda and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House will savor this solidly scary yarn.--James Gardner

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.