Book 21, 2020

Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie She's Dead by Christiana Miller

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Earlier this afternoon, I finished the ebook Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie She's Dead, by Christiana Miller. It's the first installment in the author's "Toad Witch" paranormal series. Narrative is in first person pov, from the main character, Mara Stephens, who is a witch of moderate talent.

With her birthday approaching, Mara does a tarot reading for herself. There's nothing but misfortune in her cards, and Mara soon realizes why. She loses her job, gets evicted from her apartment in LA, and manages to get blackballed from Beverly Hills. What's a witch to do? Mara uses magic in hopes of getting her life back on track. She soon learns that an aunt she's never met has died and left her a cottage in Wisconsin. With no choice, Mara moves there, only to find that Aunt Tillie may be dead, but she's not gone. They have a common ancestor, Lisette, who was one of the most powerful and wicked witches in history. Tillie wants Mara gone, because she believes that Lisette lured her there, in hopes of using Mara to regain her lost life. Mara isn't buying it, but when Tillie repeatedly tries to kill her, she traps her aunt in a brass vessel. However, Mara accidentally unleashes Lisette, and now she's in danger of losing herself, body and soul, to her evil ancestor.

I enjoyed this story. Characterizations were done well, including the secondary ones. Mara's gay BFF, Gus, was hilarious, Lisette is deliciously bad, and Tillie is not a ghost to trifle with. While the plot may have been slow in the first half, I felt it was necessary to set up the second half of the book, when Mara got to the cottage and had to battle Tillie and Lisette.

Favorite lines:
♣ "My life's falling apart and you're giving a pep talk to a mud lump?"
♣ "I forgot you need SPF 4800."
♣ "There are people all over the world who've had to kill to get a ghost and you're complaining about one you're getting for free?"
♣ What I needed were cats. Lots of cats.
♣ "The living room is only slightly larger than my penis."
♣ "Did you miss the Crusades? The Inquisition? Since when has any fundamentalist religion taught religious tolerance?"

Lots of fun! I look forward to reading more. Four stars!