The Curse of the Cole Women

by Marielle Thompson

Three generations of women struggle with a curse unfairly placed on their ancestor in this gothic story of magic, queer love, and mother-daughter relationships, perfect for fans of Spells for Forgetting and Practical Magic.

The Cole women are cursed. Each generation will birth a daughter, lose their love, and, as surely as the tide beats against the rocky shore, take her own life by giving herself to the sea. For generations, the Cole women have lived as outcasts, maintaining a lighthouse on a small island off the coast of New Hampshire. Ever since their ancestor was accused of witchcraft and cast into the sea hundreds of years prior, the islanders have ostracized the Coles, distrusting their rumored magic and their control of the lighthouse. 

Despite their mistreatment, the Cole women are compelled to remain on the island because they know that if a Cole woman does not light the beacon on Juniper Island, anyone who is out at sea will be drowned. Out of guilt and obligation, the Cole women live out their solitary lives on the island, knowing someday their recompense for protecting the people from the sea will be to die in the sea themselves. 

Told in three interwoven timelines in the late twentieth century, The Curse of the Cole Women unravels the lives of three women who struggle with their relationships with each other as they contend with the reality of their fates—is it truly a curse, or is it generational madness that drives Cole women to the sea? 

Readers will be swept into this evocative and moving story about challenging misogyny, finding community, and struggling with fate.

Genres: Fantasy, Queer, Fiction, Lesbian, Gothic, LGBT, Adult

330 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 2, 2025

About the author

Marielle Thompson is the author of historically inspired gothic fiction that always features a bit of love and a pinch of magic. She holds two master’s degrees in Romantic and Victorian Literature & Society, as well as Creative Writing, both from the University of Edinburgh. Born on New Hampshire’s Seacoast, she has lived in New York City and Scotland before settling in Switzerland, where she currently lives.
Connect on Instagram @byMarielleThompson

Reviews

[Marielle Thompson]

As this book is starting to make its way to readers I wanted to pop in for the first (and last) time to provide some content warnings for the book. Please take care of yourselves and your mental health <3

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Suicide, suicidal thoughts, death of a parent, death by drowning, domestic violence, antisemitism, opioid addiction (particularly in a parent), mistreated bipolar disorder (on page depressive and manic episodes, referred to by the outdated name 'manic depression' for historical accuracy), brief mention of homophobia, brief mention of miscarriage

[Lady Olenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars

I received an ARC for this read.

I hate working out. I hate sweating, I hate exerting effort. But we do it because it’s good for our body or whatever. But then after working out we get this euphoric feeling deep inside us that is pure contentment and just bliss. I promise I have a point. This “workout” metaphor is exactly what I felt when I read The Curse of the Cole Women by Marielle Thompson. The suffering of reading about abusive, misogynistic men, generational trauma exacted towards women, ugh! It was gruelling! It had a bittersweet conclusion but well worth my time spent reading about disgusting men.

The vibe was very Wuthering Heights (imo) the vibe, not the setting, not the characters. It also conjured memories of To Kill a Mockingbird, so really, having those high calibre books as reminders when a reader reads your book means the author done good! The fact that it was painful and begrudging throughout but couldn’t stop myself from turning the page! I couldn’t stop until I knew what the _ is truly going on! Cathartic ending though. I’m tempted to read the author’s previous books (as long as it’s wlw).

[gracie · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an outspoken lover of books centered around complex mother-daughter relationships, grief and the cycle of trauma, 'The Curse of the Cole Women' is basically engineered to make me love it.

This was a difficult read, infact I dropped it midway for a couple months while thinking of it every 2 days because of how much it made my heart hurt reading about women being hurt by men through generations. It was rough but it was worth it!

I love how the 'curse' is worked into the story of these women and at the end, the narrative poses a question of if the curse was real or if it was a mind prison all along and truly that made me sob. Reading about Simone's guilt at leaving, telling herself that the cycle ends with her...it was deeply resonant.

I can't put into words properly how much I loved this book but I can't wait to read it again once it's out officially. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

[Miki_reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book for the girlies who have complicated relationships with their mothers. It is one of those books where there are parts of it I'M OBSESSED WITH and other areas that fall a little flat.

At it's core The Curse of the Cole Women is about the way women love and uphold each other through the brutality of men. It also explores maternal love and how it defines a person, and I really appreciated the way this story dealt with generational trauma and patriarchy. I loved that each of the Cole women were tragic in their own right, and the sapphic love story mixed in the middle was gorge. I JUST WISH THERE WAS MORE OF THEMMMMM. They were probably the most interesting part of the book, and it wasn't developed enough for me to fall completely in love with it. In saying that, each woman brings something different to the table, so I think each person who reads it will experience this differently. Whilst some of the POVs weren't as interesting to me as others, they're all equally important in understanding each of the Cole women's trauma and motivations.

There were quite a few moments here that were wrapped up quite abruptly off page that probably could have been taken further and made this a more satisfying read for me but I still 100% appreciate what this was doing. Overall, I really loved the atmosphere of this book, and the ending was perfect for the story. The writing is strong (seriously, there's some gorgeous pull quotes in here) and I'd definitely read more from the author in the future.

P.S. If you have mummy issues, you will love Simone.

3.5 rounded up xo

[Hester Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

An evocative and beautifully written story of a quiet power passed down through generations of women. Thompson expertly twines themes of mental health, generational trauma, and the healing power of love, all set on the rough and salty shores of an island filled with small town intrigue.

[Midnight Library Mouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book hurt me. I knew it would as I am no contact with my own mother and our relationship was never the best, especially after I grew up and became my own person. What I didn't expect was how many times a character would think or experience something I'd thought or experienced almost verbatim.

The Curse of the Cole Women is so beautifully written and so incredibly well told. We go between the points of view of three Cole women, Mabel, Rebecca, and Simone. Each women has their own distinct voice, personality, and outlooks on life, even while the common thread of the curse and the island that contains them remains the same. We get to know the Cole women so deeply, and really feel like we're living alongside them, seeing things first hand, living their hardships too.

This book does deal with some *heavy* subject material, such as suicide, generational trauma, addiction, mental health struggles, antisemitism, domestic violence, and a few other more minor themes, but it does so in a way that feels really realistic, and shows how different characters, and generations deal with these themes again and again.

I will forever be grateful for Netgalley for the opportunity and access to amazing authors, who I would likely never known about without getting an ARC from the publishers. Now I feel the need to read all of Marielle Thompson's books because I fell in love with her writing! This is a perfect example of why I feel that way.

Disclaimer: Thank you to Netgalley, Crooked Lane Press, Alcove Press and Marielle Thompson for this e-ARC. I was provided this ARC for review only, I was not paid for this review. All opinions are my own.

[Manouk · Rating 3 out of 5]

These women suffered so much like abuse, generational trauma because they were ‘witches’, misogynistic men and the people in general on the island sucked, especially the men.

I’m torn on this book, it had nice pacing and I got transported with the stories of the three women, especially half way through, but at the same time I felt like I was missing something as well, would have loved a more witchy vibe.

The ending was predictable but I am also glad it ended that way.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an arc for an honest review

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about different generations of Cole women, mothers and daughters that look after the lighthouse on Juniper island, New Hampshire. They appear to have been cursed when the first was killed as a witch and her daughter and granddaughter abandoned on the island in 1680. The book focuses on the most recent generations and jumps between the experiences of Mabel from the 1950s, Rebecca from the 70s and then Simone in the late 90s. I enjoyed the read. I found the other islanders, their superstitions, prejudices and racism almost hard to believe but I guess isolated groups of people can behave in such cruel ways.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.

I am not usually the biggest fan of books that have multiple POVs jumping back and forth in time. If it's just multiple POVs, fine, but not the whole book jumping back and forth like this. However, it worked so well in this book that I can't see it being written any other way.

The writing was amazing, and I read this book in one sitting. I stayed up later than I should have (having work the next day) just to finish it.

The reason this is a four star, rather than a five, is there were too many questions left about the curse. I needed much more information about how it started (if you are going to keep switching POVs, give me that one). Also, was it really a curse? Is it finally over? I need more answers.

Content warning for domestic abuse and suicide (yes, suicide, but the curse makes them do it, so with lack of free will, is it really suicide? questions to make your head spin)

[Madeline Elsinga]

I was expecting something a lot different based on the synopsis and description of it being “an atmospheric, gothic story” as well as NetGalley listing it as sci fi/fantasy. However this read more like women’s fiction which I’m not a fan of. The idea was there and had me intrigued with the curse, and I would’ve preferred that story. Unfortunately it was one I didn’t finish and stopped at 20%. We really only get two POVs from what I’ve read so far and I only mildly care about Mabel. The writing style wasn’t working for me with being repetitive and choppy. It’s another case of “great idea, poor execution.”

While it was a decent enough read that I considered just powering through, the endless amount of grammar mistakes drove me insane! I hope it’s something that’ll be fixed in the final copy. Lastly I’m wondering about a minor plot hole (maybe it’s explained later, at least I hope it is): The Cole women “only have daughters” and yet Rebecca mentions pretty early on having a brother? How?!

[KateJoanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like what this author was trying to do, this is a very powerful and poignant book, but it doesn’t quite hold its weight. The ending is sweet but in my opinion minimises the suffering and the ‘curse’, I’d have liked more theatrics and something more meaningful within the resolution. And a better explanation/end of the curse.

This book is heavy on suicides and mental health without fully committing or understanding them, those moments and scenes surrounding them need more emotion and accuracy— it’s also hard to decipher how much of the curse is a real magical thing or just coincidence/fear? The consistency throughout the book just isn’t there for me.

I do love the loud independent women, so many great characters, though the misogyny and misunderstandings leading to their pain was hard to read— my heart breaks for all of these women.
Still these stories do need to be written.

I like the writing style and atmosphere, it is a heart wrenching story that just needs some ironing out.
The premise and build up were messy but still kept my interest.
Although it did feel a little long and rambling at times this is still a gripping story full of tension and generational trauma, so painfully relatable. Also Witches and diverse characters/sexualities.

An interesting and original read, the timeline could be confusing and hard to follow at times, particularly because the women/their lives are so similar which makes it difficult to remember what happened to who.

***Thank you NetGalley for this ARC

*****

‘Her girl would be as Mabel herself was; born of brine and soil and thorns and curses.’

‘And Cal left without looking back, as if she stopped existing when she was out of his sight, as if she were a doll that only came to when he touched her. Sometimes, most times, that felt true.
But, she figured, that was just what love was.’

‘For what is a witch but a name, a death sentence, strapped to a woman by others?’

‘Her laugh sounded like heartbreak as she closed the door behind her. Rebecca felt herself sink back into despair and the temporary release of sleep, the body she did not want anymore slumping into slumber.
It was true, Rebecca would not remember anything Simone had done, anything Simone had said.
No, Simone alone would carry the weight of those days, the burden of her life so much heavier than any curse could be.’

[Kathy Criswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautiful. A truly riveting tale of mental health and the pressure of small town expectations. Already a sucker for sapphic tropes, the main romance in this book tugged on my heartstrings and did not let go. I found the ending tied up loose strings very well, and I appreciated the small callbacks to little hints sprinkled throughout the book. I would love to hear where the Cole lineage ended up in modern times. I appreciated the time jumps and it was quite easy to differentiate between timelines and I did not mix up any names (which happens to me a lot with multiple timelines).

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC copy—I very much appreciate it!

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Curse of the Cole Women is a multi-generational tale of othering, mental health, and fortitude. On the small and remote island of Juniper, the Cole women are cursed: said to be witches and ostracized from the community, only two Cole women can live at once. Generationally, when the daughter comes of age, the mother dies, drowning in the sea. Soon after, a new generation is born. The book centers around the idea of the curse: is there truly a curse, or are the repeated and untimely deaths of the Cole women the result of a lifetime of ostracization and rejection?

Unfortunately, this book never really grasped me the way I hoped it would. The book follows the abuse by the townsfolk, particularly as it is propagated by the men of the town. In this way, the book is aiming for a feminist ending: only the love between women, both romantic and familial, are able to repair what has been broken by generations of abuse. However, I struggled to feel like the town’s hatred of the women was very real. To a degree, it felt unbelievable, like the book never really convinced me of it. The Cole womens’ interactions with the town are largely told as stage whispers about witches and camera-perfect shutting of blinds every time a Cole woman walks down the street. Occasionally, the shopkeeper refuses to sell a Cole woman something. I never really felt like the situation felt grounded in a way that made it feel impactful. Even the man who is most directly responsible for the pain to the family is…bad? But he’s not bad in any particularly interesting way. He’s never built up to be a compelling character. I didn’t feel that his ending had much impact.

I believe that this is exacerbated by the somewhat rushed plot. A lot is told rather than shown. Big scenes are glossed over in a way that took away from the emotional impact. The book also intermixes the three womens’ chapters, causing the reader to bounce between decades of the story, but it rarely builds any suspense or mystery even when the book is aiming for such an impact. When the answer to the final mystery is revealed, motivations are attributed to action that just have no basis in the text, taking away from the reading experience. Interesting relationships are often built in past-tense rather than shown on page. The writing is fine but tended towards being a bit clunky. Ultimately, I felt the book lacked the spark that made me excited to pick it up.

This was a 2.5 star read for me, rounded up to a 3. I generally felt that this book was fine. The question of whether or not the curse was real fell flat for me, but the moment-to-moment reading experience was decent. I did like the ending and its focus on the love between women; it did make me feel something even if the rest of the book tended not to. I think that other books use the idea of a feminist tale across generations of abused women better, but this has an interesting take in the remote island setting that would make it worth the read to someone seeking out a similar story.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and Alcove Press for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Chelsea]

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

This review is not spoiler free

The Curse of the Cole Women by Marielle Thompson is a third person multi-POV multi-timeline gothic historical exploring Queer love and mental health. The Cole women have been cursed for generations to not only be on the outskirts of Juniper Island, New Hampshire, but to also limit their family to only two Cole women at a time. Simone Cole is the latest in this line of women and has managed to escape Juniper to find a life on the mainland. When she returns, she starts to understand her family's history and how the curse impacted them.

I was originally expecting something speculative or supernatural when I picked this up based on the title and what I learned from the marketing, but it is not speculative at all. It falls in the same slot as Rebecca and other classic gothics where there is something or someone haunting the narrative and having a negative impact on the mental health of the lead(s), but there's no magic going on or paranormal ghosts. I've spent the past year trying my hardest to understand what gothic actually is and The Curse of the Cole Women feels like an actual gothic as I have always understood it to be. I cannot recommend it enough to other people struggling to understand what the heck this genre even is.

I really appreciated how the use of Bipolar disorder, the generational trauma of the curse, and the struggle to connect with your own child played out within the text, especially in Rebecca’s story. I know a decent amount about Bipolar through relatives who have it and it is not a fun thing to live with. It can make the world feel too big and too small at the same time and have intense highs and lows. Rebecca’s POV chapters show this very well without playing into the stereotypes that often crop up.

The other thing I appreciated was how Mabel choosing to have a child with a Jewish man led to her being ostracized further and how that led to hatred towards her daughter and granddaughter. anti-Semitism is still alive and well and it is, unfortunately, a part of reality that many places in New England have a long history of being discriminatory to Jewish people. That Mabel and her granddaughter Simone are also Queer only creates more complexity for them and makes their situation on Juniper more precarious since the island is still very homophobic.

I would recommend this to fans of gothic literature and readers looking for books to help them understand the genre more

[Micronova · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Curse of the Cole Women by Marielle Thompson
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
3 stars.


A novel based on witchery, lore and curses? Yes, please!

With the exception of the opening story of Goody Cole, this novel focuses on three generations of Cole women over the span of three different timelines. We follow Mabel Cole during the 50’s, Rebecca Cole in the 70’s and Simone Cole in the 90’s. The story telling isn’t negatively affected by the oscillating between the different eras.

Short version:

The Cole women have been ostracized and outcasts on the island of Juniper in New Hampshire since the 1680’s. They were shunned to the lighthouse on the very edge of the island. They’ve made a home there and have lit the lamps for many, many generations. Per the curse, there can only ever be two Cole women alive and one must always be on the island to man the lighthouse. If the Cole women were to leave, the sea would turn against the island and its people. There have been a few Cole women that have tried to leave but the sea and the lighthouse always call them back.

This is a novel that delves into many topics, such as generational trauma, small town communities ruled by superstition, prejudices and misogyny. It also touches on grief, mental health and homophobia that causes people to hide and love in secrecy. Mabel Cole was a deep, well developed character.

I feel like the pacing was off. The first half of the book was slow going and rambling but I enjoyed the atmosphere and the stories of the lives of Mabel, Rebecca and Simone. There is a beautiful love story and a lot of heartbreak throughout the generations. With that said, I finished this book feeling like I was told a story but it was nothing special. There isn’t any actual witchery, not a lot of tension, no build up to a pivotal climax. There isn’t a point in the story that proves there is an actual curse, you’re left more to believe that the curse is based upon fear and misunderstanding.

The idea of this story is compelling, I just don’t think it was fleshed out as well as it could have been.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books/Alcove Press for the digital advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Expected publish date: December 2nd.

[Danika at The Lesbrary]

This book is described as a gothic novel, and the plot synopsis would lead you to believe it. But while that is an element of the story, it’s secondary to the multigenerational family narrative.

Unsurprisingly, my favourite point of view character was Mabel. What sapphic reader can resist a story about two women in the 1950s building a library together and falling in love? Unfortunately, things aren’t that simple. Mabel’s love interest, Evelyn, is married to an abusive man from the most powerful family in town, and that reality soon crashes into the bubble of happiness Mabel and Evelyn made together, with consequences that ripple through generations.

There were some aspects of the book I didn’t love, like the description of how the curse first happened; I find it hard to believe that someone would say, “May there never be more than two Cole women living and the world will be better off.” Wouldn’t you just curse the Cole line to die out entirely? Why exactly two? Also, there is some repetition in the text as well as several moments where the main characters go out of their way to say that they don’t agree with prejudices of the time, which felt a little clunky.

But overall, I really enjoyed the portrait of this family and the way it spiraled through the characters’ stories. Lesbrary readers will be interested to know this has two sapphic (bisexual) main characters, though Simone’s queerness isn’t as big of a part of the plot.

If you’re looking for a multigenerational story about mother and daughters with a witchy element, I definitely recommend this one. I think it will appeal to fans of books like Practical Magic.

Content warnings: Suicide, abusive relationship, neglectful parenting, addiction, antisemitism, homophobia, murder

Full review at .

[Tegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three generations of the Cole women struggle with a curse unfairly placed on their ancestor, who was accused of witchcraft and cast into the sea: each generation will birth a daughter, lose their love, and take her own life by giving herself to the sea. They live as outcasts trapped in solitary lives, but despite their mistreatment, they are compelled to remain on Juniper Island and control the lighthouse beacon.

This is a gothic story of magic, queer love, and mother-daughter relationships told in three interwoven timelines in the late twentieth century. Above the other themes, it’s a story of misogyny and how generations of a family have suffered abuse and trauma at the receiving end of witch allegations.

I'm not usually the biggest fan of books that have 1) multiple perspectives, or 2) timelines that jump back and forth, and this one has both. The Cole women's lives are similar, and the characters have enough shared traits that I struggled holding in my head what happened to whom and the order of events throughout the interweaving timelines, but I can't imagine it being written any other way. I found Mabel’s point of view to be the most developed and genuinely enjoyable of the three—I was fond of her relationship with Evelyn, the one islander who seems to disbelieve in the curse—and I couldn’t wait to return to her life.

For me, something was missing, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. Maybe I expected something different from this book as a whole, more reason to believe the witchcraft allegations or understanding the significance of the lighthouse as their home. Maybe I needed to know more about how their treatment at the hands of the townsfolk affected their day-to-day lives and survival, especially as there are mentions of people refusing to interact and sell to them. Maybe some chapters felt repetitive when similar events occurred to each of the women, maybe I was left unsatisfied at their fates and the fact that it wasn’t my favourite of the narrators who got to survive the curse. And perhaps I wanted a more defined understanding of whether there truly is a curse, or is it generational madness that drives the Cole women to the sea? The book is heavy on mental health and suicide, but doesn’t commit to or unwind the themes as much as I would have expected, so those specific scenes lacked emotion for me despite their significance.

Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Antisemitism, Death of parent
Minor: Homophobia, Miscarriage

[Kayla ✧♥︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐

Ouch, my heart 💔

Wow, okay. This one hurt. The Curse of the Cole Women is a beautifully done story that will make you incredibly angry and sad at the unfair prejudice that the Cole women have to deal with throughout generations.

The jumping back and forth POVs of the different woman was well done and didn't leave me confused. I actually loved it. I loved that we got to see 3 generations of Cole women. It just ended up working so well with this story. We get to know each of these women deeply and get to see the trauma and hardships that comes with the curse and living on that stupid island. Its absolutely heart breaking.

The ending kind of ran of the rails a bit for me. I felt like the conclusion with Simone at the island was lack luster. The "mystery" she was trying to solve just didn't resonate since we as the audience already know all the facts. It was just a recap essentially. Although I wish it would have went a different way, it didn't ruin the story.

If your looking for actual witches, you will find none in this book. It is just the accusation of them being witches, not them actually being witches. Just FYI.

» Thank you to Crooked Lane Books | NetGalley for an eARC of this book! «

❗ Publication Date: December 2, 2025

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC!

🌊🐟💙✨💡📚


The Curse of The Cole Woman is so tragically beautiful. There was several times where I had to pause and stare at a wall and process the events because it hits you like a ton of bricks (in a good way).

The story follows the Cole Woman, specifically three: Mabel, Rebecca and Simone. On Juniper, it has been said for centuries that the Cole Woman were cursed. That there could be no more than two living at a time. The Cole Women were since been ostracized and put into isolation in the lighthouse. We explore each characters story line and how the curse affected them and their daughter and future family members. These three characters are drastically different in their own ways of how they handle the topic of the curse which I thought was very interesting.

This story deals with the heavy topics of generational trauma, grief, mother-daughter bond, misogyny, classism, mental illness etc. but it also deals in the topic of love and acceptance.

The Curse of The Cole Women is a great story for those who love generational storylines with a fantastical/suspenseful twist.

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF - 43%

This was by no means bad, it just wasn’t for me. This book felt a lot more like romance and I was hoping for something darker akin to horror.
I feel a little bit mis-sold, I thought I would be reading a lot more about witchcraft in a gothic setting. There wasn’t really anything gothic where I read up to and absolutely no magic.
I also just couldn’t get on board with the curse. I don’t understand why there would be any obligation to the people who have mistreated generations of Cole women. They didn’t even seem to believe the curse themselves.
Of the women themselves, I didn’t see enough of Simone and I heard too much of Rebecca. Mabel I found the most likeable but ultimately just a bit boring.

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Diana-Simona Biliboc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This book ripped my soul out and fed it back to me, I swear. I’m not a crier; I rarely cry while reading books, but my God, this book wrecked me.

The characters are very well fleshed out, and the writing is absolutely beautiful. Mabel, Rebecca, and Simone had such tragic stories. I think this book handled the topic of suicide really well, especially considering that it’s set in the 20th century.

Unfortunately, not everything was perfect with this book. The time we spent with each character was not equal. We spent a lot of time with Mabel, a bit with Rebecca, and sped through with Simone. I wish we had spent more time with all of them and learned more about their lives.

[Keighty Wiley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story unlike any I’ve read before.

This novel beautifully weaves together the lives of mothers and daughters across multiple generations, all bound by what seems to be a family curse. The storytelling unfolds in a way that feels almost like a spell itself—tangled timelines, shifting perspectives, and the haunting echoes of choices made long before the characters were born.

What struck me most was how the daughters only come to truly know their mothers after loss—when they are gone, and when the daughters themselves have stepped into motherhood.

If you enjoy multi-generational family sagas with a touch of folklore and fate, this book will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

**Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review**

[Lacea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks so much to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC!

An intense story about love (mother-daughter, romantic, and platonic and how complicated these relationships can be), generational trauma, grief breaking the cycle, and healing old wounds. This story kept me captivated, so it was a quick read. It was very emotional, and I loved having the three different perspectives and how they intertwined. This book focused heavily on relationships, which I personally love. In fact, the relationships and grief really carried the story for me. The writing style was good and the story was paced well. This was a very solid 4 star book for me, and I enjoyed it very much. Some of the characters felt a little flat (Ezra!), but the characters that felt this way were not given much time, anyway. This story was about the Cole women, not the others, so it makes sense they felt less developed - it was not their story. Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book! It is well worth the read!

[Leahna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5/5

The premise of The Curse of the Cole Women definitely drew me in when browsing for ARC titles on NetGalley. Overall, I had a good time reading this one–the atmosphere, feminist themes, and interwoven stories of three generations of women were aspects that drew me in. Having said that, I was hoping for a little more witchy vibes and a curse that felt more real. At times, the pacing felt off and the plot felt directionless, only picking up during the third act.

Thanks to Crooked Lane Books/Alcove Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

[Krystelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I appreciate the intention of this book, and I do have to commend the author on the successful management of multiple points of view. It is always a difficult thing to successful contain multiple characters, especially when they are from the same family and have shared traits. I was left really impressed by the balance created by the author for all of the characters. I didn’t feel like any of them were neglected, which was fantastic.

However, I do think that I maybe expected something a bit different from this book as whole. I probably enjoyed Mabel’s point of view the most, and I found her to be the most developed of the Cole women. I do think that there wasn’t quite as much from the town as I may have expected. There are allusions to the conduct of the rest of the town, but it always cut off just before we found out more about how they were treated.

I suppose as well that there was a lot more I would have hoped for from the relationship side of things, less physical and more emotional. The ending was strong and quite cosy, however, and as a whole, I think that there’s a lovely little story here, even if it misses some beats.

[A.L. Mountain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Acknowledgement: Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Ms Thompson for setting up their partnership with NetGalley. I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Warnings: Period-typical homophobia (1950s), period-typical purity mindset (1980s), suicide, murder, domestic abuse, bullying, adults failing their children

Summary: Full disclosure, I went into this book expecting real magic, real curses, and a mystical/fantastical story. If this is the kind of book you’re looking for, Curse of the Cole Women is not for you. The magic found here is the magic of families, of tradition, of heritage and women through the ages, but it is also the magic of evil men, of small towns and the minds born from them. If asked to give this story a few tags, I’d say it was gothic historical, and while romance is at it’s heart, the story is not romantic.

The chapters of this story alternate frequently, back and forth between two different Cole women at any given time. The first Cole woman we see is Goody Cole, thrown into the sea for being a witch during the 1600s. The men that threw her there are the ones that seemingly start the “curse” that no Cole woman can ever leave the island of Juniper, and that only two Cole women can live on the island at any time.

We go then to Mabel, and later, Mabel’s daughter Rebecca, and even later, Rebecca’s daughter Simone, and how all of them had children, all of them had daughters, and none of them were married when it happened. Except for Simone, who is determined not to give the curse of the Cole women a single thought.

Mabel, in the 50s, lets a mainlander, a stranger, stay with her for some time, a Jewish man who managed to escape the Holocaust, but lost his parents to a camp. He and Mabel have a quiet romance, that ends when he leaves to find his sister, who also survived. Mabel carries on his traditions for her daughter.

While Rebecca, in the 80s, does not carry those traditions for Simone, she does carry on the tradition of falling for someone who doesn’t marry her. Unfortunately for her, the man she loves is the sort of man who cheats on his fiancee with Rebecca, then pretends Rebecca and the child he fathered don’t exist anymore.

Simone, despite never knowing her grandmother Mabel or the traditions of the grandfather who survived to teach those traditions, Simone finds them anyway. She works hard at a school who hates her to get into Yale, and finally, finally leaves the island, the first Cole woman to go so far from the sea. The first Cole woman to ever choose herself.

The island of Juniper is the epitome of a close-minded, bigoted, racist (for a given definition of racism by which I mean antisemitic) town. No one leaves, no one comes to stay for longer than the tourist season lasts, and if there isn’t a Cole woman in the Cole Lighthouse, then the fish dry up and their fishermen die at Sea and it’s the Cole women’s fault, of course, they’re witches and not only that they’re Jewish witches.

Spoilers:
Mabel and Rebecca both “give in” to the curse of the Cole women and kill themselves in the sea. Mabel, to protect her lover – a woman who’s husband was abusive to her, who attacked them one night and fell from the lighthouse – and Rebecca, to escape her deteriorating mental health.

Simone is the only one who spends the entirety of her chapters refusing to give the curse any power over her. That, at its heart, is what the book is about. That the evil of ignorant, angry humans is more powerful than any one person alone, and unlike her mother, and her mother’s mother, Simone spends a good portion of her adult life trying to capture a story that doesn’t end in more death.

It’s up to the reader to see how much magic is “real” and how much is tradition steeped in guilt and anger, but I didn’t read even the most mystical parts of this book as anything more than manifestations of troubled minds, and that made the language chosen even more impactful. There are several lines that will stick with me from this book for a long while, and I don’t want to spoil them for anyone, so I’ll close with the one that I liked the most:

She wondered what it meant to avenge your ancestors. Was it punishing, an eye for eye, or was it choosing the future, choosing your own peace in their image?

The best revenge is living well. 3.5/5, rounded up to 4/5.

[EJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Curse of the Cole Women is twentieth-century historical fiction with light Gothic elements, following the lives of three generations of women from the titular family. The Coles live on a small island off the coast of New Hampshire where their ancestor was once burned at the stake as a witch. Her dying curse was that each generation of Cole women would give birth to one daughter, lose the one they loved, and then throw themselves into the sea. They are also bound to the lighthouse on the island; if they are not there to keep the light, the seas will become rough and the supply of fish will dwindle. The Cole women are pariahs to the other islanders, but any attempt a Cole woman makes to leave the island angers their neighbors even more.

I enjoyed the narratives of the first two women we follow: Mabel, who has a brief relationship with a Jewish refugee after World War II, creates the island's first library, and has a surprising romance with a society wife, and her daughter Rebecca, who has a clandestine fling with the island's golden boy, runs off to the mainland for a while, and winds up embracing her witchy reputation to make a living selling potions even as she struggles with mental illness and substance abuse. The book paints a vivid picture of dysfunction handed down through a family, each woman making choices in opposition to her mother without really unpacking any of her issues and thus winding up with an equally unhealthy relationship with the town, her daughter, and herself. I also enjoyed seeing the family's evolving relationship with Jewish identity and practice, with Rebecca, who is raised Jewish, distancing herself from it in adulthood to try to lessen her ostracism, while her daughter Simone turns back to it, despite not being raised with any elements of the faith or culture, in search of community and identity. Versions of this push-and-pull have played out in many real families, and it's nice to see in fiction, especially in a book that isn't specifically about Jewishness.

However, when Simone's story picks up, the book's pacing drags. She spends most of her time trying to figure out something the reader already knows, and never actually manages to make any progress, just spins her wheels for ages until someone conveniently comes along to hand her the answer. The narration also becomes very repetitive--we're reminded that Simone doesn't believe in the curse or curses in general or anything supernatural about once a paragraph, for one example. For another, there's a scene in which Simone and some others are looking through some records, and Simone realizes that a particular one is missing thinks that that's bad because that's the one they need, so she tells her friend that that record is missing, and her friend replies that that's bad because that's the one they need. I'm not sure if this kind of clunky repetition was less common in earlier sections of the book or if I just didn't notice as long as the plot was moving at a good clip, but either way it added to the frustration of Simone's narrative.

The first 2/3 or so of the book are very solid, especially if you like family sagas and aren't looking for too much spookiness, but be prepared to exercise a lot of patience to get through the final section.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books/Alcove Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Curse of the Cole Women was a really interesting read for me. It's a story that is told through three perspectives of three women of different time periods. We focus on Mabel, Rebecca, and Simone, three generations of Cole women who are bound to live on the island of Juniper by a decades-old curse on their family. The curse states that only two Cole women can be alive at one time, and each Cole woman will birth a daughter, then eventually give herself back to the sea. They tend the lighthouse and remain on Juniper to keep the spirits of their ancestors in the sea calm, with superstition suggesting that if there was no Cole on the island, the ghosts would be angry. Despite providing this service, the townspeople of Juniper hate the Coles and treat them with distrust and suspicion, their isolation and abuse causing trauma for the women throughout their lives in various ways.

I loved a lot of what this book did and the ideas that it engaged wtih, particularly with regard to the themes connected to mental health and the way it talks about things like addiction, parentification, generational trauma, misogyny, and the fraught nature of mother-daughter relationships. The way we saw the relationships between Mabel, Rebecca, and Simone evolve and Simone's understanding of her family deepen was special, and a lot of the emotions the characters experience are beautifully described by Marielle Thompson. I wasn't familiar with her before but will be looking into her other work after reading this.

For me, as is usually my experience with multi-perspective stories, I was far more interested in Mabel and her storyline than the other two for the majority of the book. Rebecca's chapters in particular were slow to me in the beginning and middle of the book. Without spoiling anything, I struggled to believe that she was so naive with regard to Cal when she had to grow up at such a young age due to the way that people treated her. I also just didn't feel the spark in her romance the way that Mabel's romantic storyline seemed to come alive on the page. In general, Rebecca's characterization felt a little shallow, Mabel and Simone are given more depth and color. Evelyn and Mabel were the heart of the book, pretty clearly, and the narrative shines the most when it is focused on their relationship.

I did like reading this book and I found certain parts of it to be very emotional, I teared up near the end, but there was just something missing for me that never fully drew me in. Still, know that this is a heavy book and it may be hard to read depending on your sensitivity to discussion of topics like suicide and family trauma. The book also makes clear that it has a feminist lens, which I appreciate, but sometimes it did feel a bit heavy-handed or like it was trying too hard to say something about feminism rather than just telling me a story and allowing the subtext and the action to emphasize the message and meaning. I would say overall that this was definitely worth reading and I found a lot to love about it, but it also left me wanting more. 3.5/5.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected an atmospheric witchy seaside read. Instead I got this.

I’m honestly so disappointed I don’t even want to rant. The writing style was thoroughly lacklustre where it should have been beautiful, the three women were either insufferable (Rebecca) or so boring I forgot about them (the other two), and then I find out that you could have cut the first 200 pages because everything that happens AFTER is what the story is actually about. I can’t even give you a plot summery bc it was just two random women’s lives where everyone hated them and then the third woman who also everyone hated and only came in at 80% and then… discovered all the things we WATCHED HAPPEN in the other two POVs! I truly believe the story should have been about the third woman uncovering the mystery of her ancestors and the reader following along, instead we had reveals that we already knew about and then what I thought was supposed to be a Whodunit (and I was finally getting invested), the protagonist doesn’t uncover a SINGLE piece of the puzzle, instead has some side-character barge in and reveal everything and then there wasn’t even a confrontation bc she was like “it doesn’t matter anyway” GURL WHY WASTE MY TIME THEN? And she was SO stupid! Babe if you KNOW no one will give up information when you’re around and you already have SOMEONE ELSE asking the questions JUST WAIT OUTSIDE!

Oh, right, I almost forgot. THERE AREN’T ANY WITCHES. NO MAGIC. NONE. Whoever wrote that synopsis read a different book. “Gothic story of magic, queer love and mother-daughter relationships.” There was not a single bit of magic (the characters kept asking “is there even a curse?” and never got any closer to an answer), the queer love was on the side lines at best and so forgettable I actually had to rack my brain to remember what about this was queer (spoiler: all the women end up with men or sad or dead) and we barely saw the mothers interact with their daughters and none of them liked each other. And then the mothers kept dying before any meaningful interactions happened. Seriously who wrote this synopsis???

I had so many other issues with this book and I was truly dragging myself to that last page and I’m so pissed that that cover is so pretty, but I think I deserve to find peace so I’ll leave it at that. Guess I’ll have to look for another queer witchy seaside story bc this ain’t it.

[Dimitri Cullipher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley, Marielle Thompson, and Crooked Lane Books/Alcove Press for a copy of this novel to review.

Content Warnings: Islamophobia, Antisemitism, Religious Bigotry, Homophobia, Hate in General, Single Mother Shaming, Old World Views, Curses, Generational Trauma, Death, Depictions of Pregnancy and Giving Birth, Spousal Abuse, Abuse in General, Mentions of Suicide, Possible Alcoholism, Mentions of Child Abuse, and Mentions of Nazi Germany/WW2.

Please note that I did not finish this book; I gave up around the 40% mark.

"The Curse of the Cole Women" by Marielle Thompson was difficult for me to get into as much as I did. While the beginning of the book held so much promise, by the 30% mark, I felt like reading it was a chore.

The book switches between three different women, each from a different generation of the Cole family (although, technically, as far as I read, only two of those generations where really represented; the third was mentioned but had nothing to do with the story so far). This family was cursed long ago by the soul of Goody Cole, a woman from New Hampshire that had been accused of witchcraft multiple times. Since her dead, on the small island of Juniper, only two Cole women could live at the same time--a mother and her child. They would be tasked with keeping the lighthouse. Should a Cole woman not live on Juniper, then something horrible would happen to the community. Because of this supposed curse, the islanders of Juniper hate the Cole women, making them outcasts.

I grew up in New Hampshire. Everyone knew of the legend of Goody Cole--a real woman who really was accused of witchcraft multiple times--and everyone only spoke of her during Halloween or to scare little children. She has become something more than story or a legend, really; she's like Bloody Mary or any other scary story to tell in the dark. People have made up tales about her, stories of horrible things she did to the people around her. Marielle Thompson's idea of turning Goody Cole's legend into a complex, emotional family drama is a good idea, I think. I just think that it was not as well executed as it could have been.

Although I did not finish the novel myself, I can see merit in the book itself. "The Curse of the Cole Women" would be a delight for some and a snore-fest for others.