Night Witch

by Jack Priest

Alone in bed Carolina plays with her locket, a gift from her dad. She doesn't know he stole it from an evil woman in Trinidad. She hears a noise outside her window, looks up and sees red eyes staring in at her. Something horrible is outside. The Night Witch is a soucouyant, Southern Caribbean cousin to the vampire and werewolf. She is a never aging shape shifter born of a mixture of Voodoo and European folklore. She lives forever because she wears a locket that contains a magic potion. Her locket has been stolen and she wants it back.

340 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2003

Reviews

[Veronica-Lynn Pit Bull · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author has some good ideas in terms of plot and originality; however he seems to be inexperienced in terms of his ability to translate this into a credible story. The characters are not believable and somewhat one dimensional. They seem to think, feel and behave however the author believes is necessary to advance the plot; not however the way one would expect multi-dimensional complicated human beings to think, feel and behave. Consequently it is hard to dredge up any real feeling for any of the characters (beyond an incredulous "Who would do that?").

Another big down side to the book, being that it's a horror novel; is it just plain isn't scary. Not even shudder worthy. However as Mr. Priest does show some raw talent and definitly evidences the kind of determination necessary to be a successful author; I wouldn't write him off entirely. It would be interesting to see what he could do with a couple of psychology and creative writing courses under his belt.

[Mary Ellen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book reads like an unedited National Novel Writing Month manuscript. I wish I had spent as much time reading it as I've spent writing this review.

[Wendell · Rating 2 out of 5]

My goodness, this was a badly written book. Cliched, pot-boiler prose and one of the lamest endings I've come across in years. For a while now, I've seen Priest's name on lists of horror fiction, but his books are tough to find. Having come across this one, I can now abandon the search. Steven King-ish tween narrator with troubled family - check. Inexplicable "monster" who either can or can't be killed -- check. Plot holes and major implausibility -- check. Complete lack of characterization in favor of tropes and bromides -- check. Judging from material included in the book, this is a bunch of dudebros who came together to encourage one another and publish their books. Nothing wrong with that except when you're encouraging people who probably aren't ready to take up publishing space.