Witches on the Road Tonight

by Sheri Holman

By the best-selling author of The Dress Lodger, Sheri Holman's new and most ambitious novel to date, Witches on the Road Tonight, uncovers the secrets and lies that echo through three generations of one Appalachian family. It is a deeply human, urgent exploration of America's doomed love affair with fear.

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Witches, Horror, Magical Realism, Literary Fiction

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 2011

About the author

Sheri Holman graduated from The College of William and Mary in 1988, mastering in Theatre. From there, she became an assistant to a literary agent. In that time, she began to write her first novel, A Stolen Tongue. It was published in 1996. She then went on to write "The Dress Lodger," which was published in 1999. Sheri Holman also wrote "Sondok, Princess of the Moon and Stars," which was published in 2002; and "Mammoth Cheese," which published in 2003. Sheri Holman now lives in Brooklyn, New York with her family.

Reviews

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fantastic find! While I'm categorizing it as Horror for purposes of my Horror Readathon, this book is a lot of things: Historical fiction, fairy tale, family saga, etc. And while a book that jumps through time and plotline as much as this one does is risky, it really paid off.

The throughline of the book is Eddie Alley, brought up in Appalachia, and more importantly, from a family of witches. As a child an accident brings a writer and photographer find themselves at the Alley's small and strange cabin. As an adult, now locally famous as the host of weekly horror movies, Eddie adopts a troubled teen to join his daughter Wallis. And finally, full grown Wallis and aging Eddie consider the now-lost boy.

I particularly loved the oldest plotline, every part of it just sang. The photographer's worldweary romance with the writer, already knowing he will let her down. The writer's seduction by magical forces and his inability to escape them. Most of all I loved Cora, Eddie's mother, who is strange in the way witches should be strange. Unknowable. The witchy night scenes of secrecy are some of the best writing I can recall, certainly some of the best horror I've read.

A very ambitious, very enjoyable novel that may not scare in the traditional way but that packs a real emotional punch.

[Kat Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, the first drop-my-jaw-in-awe book of 2011.

Some writers are a "brand" which is to say you know exactly what you're going to get when you pick up one of their books. So not so with Holman; you don't even know what time frame you might be inhabiting: the 15th century of "A Stolen Tongue," the 19th century of "The Dress Lodger" or the 20th century of "The Mammoth Cheese." Another Holman hallmark: her books invariably disport unusual titles.

I cannot fathom why there has been little buzz around this new novel. So far. Maybe I'm too eager and missed the opening reviews. The PW and Booklist reviews here on Amazon don't reflect the book I read and they're good reviews overall but lack the excitement of readerly greed satisfied so richly and rarely.

"Witches on the Road Tonight" is hallelujah-finest-kind. I had to rise early on a Saturday morning expressly to read the last 50 pages.

Why was I mesmerized (eponym alert)? Holman specializes in story telling and in this book she exceeds the bar. At the same time, the writing, language, depictions, evocations, great heart put flesh on her story and I don't mean it to sound muscular because the result delivers distilled but non-fussy elegance uncommon in a very good story. The WPA element doesn't hurt, either. {Yes, we're in the 20th century again but roaming about some.) Tired Appalachia here is fulsomely rendered -- luscious, gorgeous and time-out-of-mind dangerous.

I expect I've found the book I'll be pushing (ok, I'll be nice, evangelizing) on all and sundry this year. Stay tuned and stand by your mailboxes y'all who call me friend.

[Lyndz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok so I will cut to the chase, since that is what I do best. I liked this book but I also had some problems with it too. Shocking, - yes I know.
I love witchlore, I don’t know what it is about it that is so fascinating, ok, maybe I do, but either way, I am yet to read a book about witches that I thought was a total waste of time. That being said let me get to what I thought.

Sheri Holman has a distinct writing style in this book, which I quite enjoyed. You are never at a loss for physical descriptions or tidbits of poetic anecdotes. There was perceptible depth to the tapestry of this book. The symbolism of the ginseng (or the ‘sang) root’s circles of growth and the parallel to the entire book and the story specifically of Eddie was not lost on me.
Unfortunately, of all the elaborate characters, I was not able to obtain that inexpressible “connection”(that I so crave) with a single one. I wanted to, trust me.

Although the story started off strong with finely woven silver hairs of the supernatural and a great historical fiction backdrop, I found some of the plot to have lost its “magic” as the book progressed, particularly near the end. The conclusion felt a little spotty and vague to me. I am not sure what exactly I was hoping for, but the ending just didn’t sparkle the way the beginning did.

All in all, it was a good book. I am happy that I had a chance to read it. If you are into witchlore like I am, I think you should put this one in your pile of stuff to look into.

3 & ½ stars

I received this book for free from goodread’s first-reads, but that in no way influenced this review. Thank you to Grove Atlantic for the book and the opportunity to read it.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Witches on the Road Tonight is much like the monster in the Frankenstein film referenced throughout the book. It is an amalgam of different parts stitched together in such a way that the product is displeasing to those who encounter it. The portion of the story set in 1940s Appalachia was well-written and mysterious. Holman's description of place was rich and her usage of carefree WPA workers in an unfamiliar territory was a clever take on a classic horror movie plot scenario. The portion of the story set from 1980 to present, however, had the opposite effect of the historical antecedent on me. These parts felt like a familiar and dull story of a family in crisis with the inconsequential exception that the head of the household was a schlocky host of a horror movie program on local television (the less-busty male equivalent of Elvira). This character is the link between the good and bad halves of the story. The problem is that this character, Eddie, is the least interesting of the characters in the Appalachian setting. When the WPA characters fade from the fore and Eddie becomes the central focus, my investment in the story diminished. This section does not have the same tone, compelling prose, and mystery as its historical antecedent. Consequently my rating of the book jumped erratically from four stars to one to four stars before settling on the final number of two as the story jumped back and forth from one time and place to another. I might give Holman another try since half the book shows that she can tell a good story.

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have liked a whole book just about the Appalachian witch, Cora, but instead it jumps all around--from the mountains to NYC; from WWII to 1967 to 1980 to the present and back; from one person's view to another person's view to the writer's narration. In one chapter Ann is referred to as Mom, her mother, and Ann--I thought another character that I had missed was telling this part of the story. The book is leading up to two murders, but neither are convincingly pulled off. One murder is unrealistic because it is supposed to be like the ghost stories one character hears as bedtime stories and another character tells on TV. The other murder is just unbelievable--almost like the author just needed to wrap this up. Also, other than Cora, I didn't really care about the characters. With the exception of Ann, they are all too self-absorbed. Oh well, two of them die, who cares, they won't be missed. The writer's style is intoxicating, which is what kept me reading this book.

[Lauren]

Like the Frankenstein monster, the book is assembled from several plot lines that don't mesh very well. Her writing is fantastic, but it doesn't make up for what a mess this is.

Later note - I 'unstarred'. Cathleen Schine's review in the NYRB and several days of thinking about the book has altered my opinion some. It seems more of an ambitious failure now. But I don't want my low review to put off anyone else wanting to read it.

[Cassi Haggard · Rating 1 out of 5]

1/5 stars

This is a review that I knew I should write. However, this is a book that I wish I could wipe from my memory. Yes it was that bad. Sitting down to write this review has been a bit of a struggle. However I am going to try. There will be spoilers. I tried to avoid character names and specifics, but the spoilers are necessary to understand why I feel so strongly about this book.

I picked up Witches on the Road Tonight because I always find myself looking for books with Appalachian roots. We have a great storytelling tradition and rich legends in these hills. But these books almost always disappoint me. This might be the most disappointing yet.

This book tries too hard to be literary. The story alternates between the past and the present. In the past it struggles to find a child's voice, making a unbelievably grown-up, too sexually aware version of an adolescent girl especially considering those sections take place in the past.

This book wanted to be edgy and provocative, throwing in everything from witchcraft, women who love sex, to abortion, to homosexuality. There are at least two very disturbing scenes, one where a young teen throws himself naked at his father-figure who suddenly realizes he's gay. I don't like the implied connection between homosexuality and pedophilia, even though I doubt that's what the author meant. It just makes me uncomfortable and not in the "testing the boundaries of my beliefs" way but in the "that's beyond creepy" way. There is also a horrible scene where a woman who's pregnant either has a herbal abortion or miscarries (the book leaves that up to the reader) and it graphically describes her celebrating as the blood flows out. I don't care whether you are pro-choice or pro-life, that's gross.

The adult-child relationships were pretty much all unhealthy. Here is a quote, most likely not exact because I listened to the audiobook but the gist is the same.

"Cora is drawing him a bath, almost flirtatiously, the way women do with their grown sons." This section was either a flash of the future or a daydream or something, once again the book was unclear, but it was confusing and made me very uncomfortable.

There is more I could say. The characters are unlikable and the plot plodding. The audiobook narrator's Appalachian accent was somewhat offensively overdone. But when I remember reading the book, those are annoyances when compared to horrible attempts to be edgy and the disturbing imagery that I want to erase from my mind. Just don't read it.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started off wonderfully, with an intriguing setting full of menace (a sophisticated couple -- a writer and a photographer traveling for the WPA in 1940 -- get themselves stranded in a remote Appalachian cabin, with a woman who just might be a witch). Holman's prose is lush, and she creates some heartpounding scenes of dread -- there is never a problem believing in Holman's version of witchery. The problem is that the book becomes meandering -- we lose track (literally) of Tucker and Sonia, the couple that start the book off, and Holman's family tale lacks focus -- leaping through generations and from character to character without quite giving any of them the attention the big themes she explores (jealousy, sexual awakenings, fatherhood, fidelity) and the colorful settings she devises deserve. The loose ends are a bit maddening -- you keep expecting that your careful attention to her copious detail and many recurrent images will be rewarded by a sense of closure, but I felt the book just petered out. Promising, but not quite.

[Annie Oh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the writing style more than the story itself.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of the more weird and anti-climatic books I've ever read. It left me still wondering what happened to a certain character in the end, maybe even more than one character. It was actually very well written with great thoughts about human nature. The parts I didn't like were about ALL the characters behaviors. They were all well developed, but heartless and I didn't like any of their morals. NONE of them.
It is about a family of poor Appalachia decent, that has legends and stories in their families about witches. The boy and his mother (the witch) grow up in a shack of the mountains. The boy grows up to host a horror Friday night movie every week. It hops back and forth in time with him and his mother and then his daughter, Wallace growing up with him as her dad. It also goes into her briefly as an adult, she is telling most of the story. Anyway, I was very into the story, because it was one that gave a huge piece of info about the ending, right at the beginning. But in the end I said, "What? That's it? What happened to the details about peoples lives and how they ended there?" I was annoyed. Like I said, it was actually a very strongly written book, but I just didn't like the story or ending.

[Teresa Calhoun · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a primal need in all of us to live between opposites --as if we can only appreciate one end of the physical or emotional spectrum in proximity to the other. We come inside from a bone-chilling day and revel in the warmth. Comfort and fear are among the earliest opposites we experience; we cry because we do not yet have words, and someone comes and holds us close and attends to our needs.

One suspects that Sheri Holman had a childhood that included sitting around campfires--experiencing the sweetness of a toasted marshmallow one moment and shivering in horror over ghost stories the next.

Witches on the Road tonight is told in the glow of campfires and television screens, where contentment is always suffused with a dark underside of anxiety, love is aversive, and dread becomes an addiction. Holman, who has produced remarkable novels across centuries and continents, takes a look at the sinister whispers of insular communities--some with millions of eyes watching and others as claustrophobic as a secretive family home.

Do not expect a feel-good family history here; Holman's deftness in the dark makes us appreciate the light all the more.

[Corinna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up at the last minute when checking out at the library... read the back and thought... hmmm ... interesting and so I checked it out.
In my opinion... interesting would be a good word to describe this read. It is a book I will remember... but I glad to be done with it.
At times it was frustrating to me due to the time warp back and forth... I found it hard to follow.
At about half way through I read the synopsis again... to get a better idea of where the story might be going. I was disappointed in the ending... and some what shocked by some of the developments.
It also seemed to blur what really happened from time to time... almost like the author forgot where she was going with the story. I would probably give it a 2.5. I am glad I read it but for the love of God thank goodness I am finally done with this book.

[Alanahurley · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, to quote a certain failed Congressional wannabe, I am not a witch, nor have I ever been one. Right? Because they're all, we're going to meet over here at midnight, and I'm eh, no, I go to bed at 9:30. The supernatural life is not good for morning people like me.

And anyway, I'm not sure what exactly is useful about being a witch. Flying around would be fun, I suppose, if you're not prone to motion sickness, but the traditional witchy things - withering crops, spoiling milk, generally being a nuisance - seem more trouble than they're worth.

Sheri Holman's witch is a beleaguered, poor Virginia mountain woman named Corey Alley, and she's simultaneously the most real and most fantastic character in Holman's mostly excellent but sometimes spotty novel Witches on the Road Tonight.

Witches hopscotches from rural Virginia just as World War II is ramping up to the 1980s to present-day New York, unspooling a narrative between a father and daughter who have a reservoir of secrets and a lifetime of hurts. The book is at its strongest in the backwoods of the Virginia mountains and falters when it moves to the present, but is filled with strongly evocative detail.

Witches opens with a suicide note from Eddie Alley, a weary and sick old man, to his daughter Wallis, a television show host. Eddie worked in TV, too, as "Captain Casket," the corny host of a horror movie show. Eddie finds a bitter humor in comparing his hokey show to Wallis' newscast, musing that her show delights in terrifying viewers.

From present-day New York, Holman pulls us back to the fall of 1940, where photographer Sonia and write Tucker are on a WPA-funded trip to write a travel guide to rural Virginia. The assignment is a cruel joke - in a nation still reeling from the Depression, who can afford to travel? - and the trip has taken on an odd combination of honeymoon and funeral. Tucker's been drafted and is mere weeks from having to report. He and Sonia, the more worldly of the two, perhaps inevitably begin an affair that unspools as they travel through the backwoods of the Virginian mountains.

Their fragile idyll is shattered when Tucker hits a young Eddie Alley with his car. Eddie's not badly hurt, but Tucker and Sonia take him to his cabin, where they meet his mother, Cora Alley, a woman with a spooky reputation in Panther Gap. Sonia and Tucker let themselves be talked into staying for a few days, with ambiguous but perhaps fatal consequences.

The novel skips several decades, and when we catch up to Eddie again, he's escaped Panther Gap, married, and fathered Wallis. His marriage, already fragile, is strained to breaking when Eddie brings home a young runaway, Jasper, who hangs around the station cadging odd jobs. Wallis become infatuated with Jasper, but there's a flinty edge to her affection, and Jasper's intentions are murkier. When Eddie's marriage to Wallis' mother Ann finally implodes, Eddie, Wallis, and Jasper find themselves back at Panther Gap, facing their own ghosts.

Holman deftly weaves the supernatural into her narrative, creating a night-riding witch and a possessed man with an aplomb that renders them completely plausible. Her writing shines at detail, particularly evoking the natural beauty and scrubby poverty of the mountains, lighting on details like Cora's two dresses and stained nightshirt resting on nails in the wall, or her rolling out exactly four biscuits.

Witches' opening is strong, but the narrative loses steam as it jumps around and the fragile magic of the first chapters is lost. Holman sometimes strains to find the connections between Wallis and Cora, and the first-person chapters narrated by Eddie are meandering. The book ends with one wishing to return to Panther Gap's witch.

[Terence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Witches on the Road Tonight has proven to be as enjoyable a read as Holman’s earlier efforts (The Dress Lodger and The Mammoth Cheese), and I am looking forward to the day when I move up to #1 on my library’s hold list for her first novel, A Stolen Tongue.

Holman’s novels, so far, have reminded me in some ways of Sylvia Townsend Warner’s (which would explain why I like them so much). On the surface, the three novels I’ve read could have been written by three different authors – The Dress Lodger takes place in 19th century England and involves body-snatching, prostitutes, deformed babies and the early Industrial Revolution; The Mammoth Cheese takes us to the heartland of America in the first decade of the 21st century and has pedophiles, frustrated loves and the fate of small-town America on its mind; and in Witches, we focus on the story of Eddie Alley, from his childhood growing up in Appalachian Virginia just before World War II to his attempted suicide 60+ years later, and, oh, yes, his mother, Cora, who’s reputed to be a witch among the people living near Panther Gap.

What they all have in common, though, are the themes of family and love and the price one pays to love. They also, as I’ve noted in earlier reviews, are ultimately positive affirmations.

The best parts of the novel are those that take place during 1940 when Eddie’s about 12 and living mostly alone with his mother on a small farm in Appalachia (his father, Bud, is working for the Civilian Conservation Corp building roads). Tucker Hayes and Sonia are writer and photographer, respectively, hired by the Works Progress Administration to document rural America. While driving through the region, Tucker hits Eddie with their car, and the two wide up taking the young boy back to his farm, where they meet Cora. For me, these sections particularly were intense reading. The prose simply lifted me up and carried me away; much like Tucker feels when he dreams (?) that he’s being ridden like a horse by the skinless Cora.

A lot of people will be disappointed by the ending. Holman leaves little resolved, and there’s little reason to believe that you know what happened back in 1940 or what happened in 1967 or 1980 or in the present day (the other threads of the narrative) but there are times when you want the ambiguity of Rashomon rather than the certitude of a more typical novel, and Holman successfully pulls it off here.

And despite the ambiguity, the ending is – again – mostly happy:

“Wallis, my little girl. Love comes for us all. We run from it, we hide from it, but in the end it finds us where we are cowering. We creaky old monsters are returned to life. That’s why all the best horror movies have a sequel.

“It really wasn’t necessary. Any of it. All of it.

“But thank you.” (p. 264)

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Witches on the Road Tonight is a complicated book. I think it is quite original although "uneven". I always try to read a book carefully and I admit to being a bit confused by this one. I am not exactly levelling this as a criticism. Gray areas are generally fine with me in fiction.

Other reviewers have pointed out that the characters are not exactly likeable people and I agree. However, I found an affinity with Eddie, who I interpreted as the lynch pin who tied the many other personalities in the story together.

This quirky and at times, memorable story opens with the attempted suicide of Eddie Alley. Eddie is a former weatherman and local late night TV host, "Kaptain Kasket". In the first chapter he is an old man dealing with cancer. His life has brought him far from his birth place in the hollow of Panther Gap, Virginia to Manhattan. He leaves a message for his daughter, Wallis, who is a well known news anchor. Thus begins a dialogue of shared memories and shared guilt about events long past.

This story involves Eddie's impoverished childhood in the hollow...his chance encounter with a writer and photographer on a WPA assignment in 1940 and his mother, Cora, who is reputed throughout the backwater community to be a witch. Mysterious events take place when the writer (Tucker Hayes) and his partner/lover, photographer -- Sonia stay with the Alleys for a few fateful days.

The third thread involves the story of Eddie and his family in 1980. At this moment in time Eddie is on the air as "Kaptain Kasket." Wallis is a prickly and somewhat spoiled early teen. And Eddie is married to Ann, a woman who is far above him in social station. Ann basically took Eddie in under her wing when he came to work at her father's TV station in the 1960s. She has helped to groom him into an on-air personality and has encouraged him to leave his haunted past in Panther Gap behind.

At this point the Alley's life is upturned by the impending cancellation of Kaptain Kasket and the introduction of a troubled orphan/runaway named Jasper into their family. Jasper is a catalyst to stripping away many false layers from the life Eddie leads with Wallis and Ann. Events here come to another crescendo, mirroring in some ways the events of 1940.

I have categorized Witches on the Road Tonight under my heading, "Bizzarro". However that is not a truly accurate description. It is not 'wacky'. It may be a little bit 'out there'...but not so much. This is a very interesting book and it shows quite a bit of talent. I just believe that many readers will not give it much of a chance because there is a confusing element to the narrative.

I could perhaps relate to the more 'realistic' sections of the story because I am the approximate age of Wallis. I was a young teen in 1980 growing up in Cleveland where we had more than one "Kaptain Kasket" type personality on our local airwaves. Memories of being parked in front of the TV under a blanket watching some late-nite cheese are fairly central to my past! Thus, I may have responded to that segment of the story more than the average reader.

Not knowing exactly how I feel about this book, I would encourage others who are curious to pick it up. It has a strange resonance.

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just finished ‘Witches on the Road Tonight’ by Sheri Holman. It was interesting. Not exactly what I thought it would be. The story jumps from the past to the present and sometimes in between. It is the tale of a dying weather man, Eddie, who also hosts a weekly horror movie night on a local television station. He grew up in the Appalachians in a place called Panther Gap. It’s the 40′s and his mother is a reputed witch. He is ostracized by the local kids and while running away from a beating runs into a car driven by a man and a woman who have been hired by the Federal government to map the state and write stories with photos of different locations. They stop to help Eddie who refuses to go to the hospital, so they take him home. They should have dropped him off and ran as far and as fast as they could. But of course they don’t.

It is a tangled story about those people and Eddie and his own family in the future. I finished it because curiosity about what was really happening kept me going. I can’t say I really liked the characters. None of them were really likable. All of them seemed to have a death wish. I was hoping it would have more mountain lore and less fantasy. I never really understood what the witch was doing, or why. I guess I never really understood that character’s motivation, other than she wanted to fly. Endings don’t always have to be satisfactory but when everything was tied up at the end, it left me wanting further explanation. I was left too unsure about some of the story lines so felt unsatisfied. I do think this author is a good writer. She is able to tell a story and weave the story lines. This one just felt like it ended with too many knots going no where.

I would give it a 3 out of 5 stars and recommend it to those who like a little fantasy with their mystery.

[Bondama · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I had not just finished reading "Once Upon a River" by Bonnie Jo Campbell, I probably would have rated this book more highly, particularly as they seem to be aimed at the same reading audience.

I got the book from the library, having heard some good things about it, but quite honestly, the writing style simply drove me crazy. There are far too many main characters:: Cora, a mountain witch of whom it was said that she could shed her skin at night and "ride" any man. Eddie, her son who grows up to be "Captain Casket" - one of those late night TV hosts who showed horror films while in costume. He has a daughter, and is trying to adopt a son, Jasper, who is a year or two older than his own daughter, Wallis.

And that's just a few of the characters who are crucial to the story. Not only does the POV change constantly, but the time in which a particular action takes place jumps all over the place, in no particular or logical sense. The reader starts in modern day, then is jumped to the early 40's in the mountains, then again to 1967 when Jasper, the "adopted" kid comes into Eddie's family. And the book only becomes more chaotic after that.

Understand, there is nothing supernatural about this book, despite the title. It a pretentious attempt at "classy" writing, all but begging the critics to fall all over themselves in adoring this book. There is absolutely NO emotional resonance at all. The characters apparently are going through some pretty dramatic life changes, but the reader feel absolutely nothing at all either for or about them.

Skip this book, if you're tempted. I'm no professional critic, and I sure didn't adore it.

[Marcie Crandall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so torn by this book! I loved it and I hated it. It gave me hope in humanity and made me feel like all hope is lost. Even as I type, I'm not sure how many stars it deserves...
I will start with the good. Holman's writting is absolutely beautiful. Her metephors are flawless. I found myself bookmarking page after page on my Kindle. Here are a few of my favorites.
"We need only for life to teach us the humility with which to give thanks."
"There is always farther to go and places you've yet to be."
"Secrets are always hardest at the beginning. After a while they settle in, like the cavities in your teeth, and you only think about them when they hurt."
"This is how my mother was beautiful," Eddie says, answering her earlier question. "You had to know what to look for."
This is just a sampling of Holman's way with words. I could have read chapter after chapter on Eddie's childhood in rural Virginia, hunting for the sang and other roots and herbs for his mothers rememdies. But when the story moves ahead to present time with adult Eddie and his wife and child, the story gets all mucked up. This is where the bad comes in, and there is plenty of it! At times I really felt like she was adding crudeness and crap so as not to leave out the "edgier" more liberal readers. Why else would she make such an effort to ruin such lovely work?! I don't know. I'm so very disappointed and frustrated! BAH! RAYOR.....read at your own risk.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's another one I was torn on. I LOVED the Virginia setting. She captured the mountain forests so well that I could feel myself standing among the trees, hunting for ginseng, listening for a panther. (There's even a character who's working for the CCC building Skyline Drive - awesome!) Holman effectively bounced around in time - 1940, 2011, 1980, 1967. The witch part was creepy, not like the bubbly witches you find in paranormal romances these days. The 1940 and 1980 storylines paralleled each other just enough to make the reader really think about whether it was coincidence or something more. Personally, I kept turning the story over in my head for a day after I finished it. I think what made me not like it as much was a) it really made my skin crawl (and I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for crawling skin), and b) her writing must have been slightly cumbersome, because an otherwise engaging story seemed to take me an awfully long time to read. Still, I think this was a good book and just right for the right kind of reader.

[Lora King · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not about witches. It's more a ghost story. A 1940 backwoods mother tells her son ghost stories instead of bedtime stories...and how much is real and how much made up it never told. This boy will grow up to be a "male" Elvira, hosting horror movies late night. He marries, has a daughter, and present day in the book, he is dying of cancer, is on chemo, and is committing suicide. Written from several characters point of view, this is a very good story, hard to put down. It moves from present day to 1940 and the WPA project and to 1980. Easy to follow, it left me questioning what really happened back in 1940 and wondering if the stories told by father & daughter were truthful or as make believe as the horror films they both watch. I'd love to discuss this book at a book club meeting or with friends who read it.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall - 4.3/5
Story - 4/5
Writing - 4.5/5
Character - 4.5/5
Memorability - 4/5
Enjoyment - 4.5/5
Would I read again? Yes

I loved this strange tale of a family of witches. The narrative is slightly confusing as it jumps around from the 40s to the 80s to current day, but I thought each and every character was so well rounded and the mountain setting was really visceral. Sheri Holman's writing is beautiful and I'm surprised I've not heard of her before. I definitely want to pick up more of her work. If you like slightly strange, meandering tales, particularly about witches, then I can highly recommend.

[sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was enthralling from the first page. Holman presents a mix of viewpoints: Eddie, a former star of a local cheesy horror show, on his deathbed; writer Tucker Hayes, who gets mixed up with witchy backwoods woman Cora, when he hits a young Eddie with his car; Eddie's daughter Wallis as a young girl experiencing her first kiss with a pyromaniac foster brother and as a cut-throat war reporter trying to escape her own demons.

So good!

[Monogo Daddy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really hate to DNF books but at 130 pages I was just so bored I had to. Maybe it’s a good book. Just not my jam . It was a cover buy tbh

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Witches on the Road Tonight' by Sheri Holman is majestic. It is stunning. I was so surprised at its page-turning drama and beautiful writing! Even more amazing it is only 263 pages long!

This novel is pure Grand Opera, folks!

The novel won The Shirley Jackson Award in 2011. It will not suit some readers, but omg, it suited me just fine as an entertaining mystery. For me, it is a jewel of a book - a well-written, dark fantasy story and a family drama with heart and soul. However, the story seems like two novels imperfectly interwoven together though, and that is why it failed for me in the end. Even so, the writing is beautifully atmospheric and the stories full of crisis.

In alternating chapters we switch from 1940 to 1980 to 1967 to the present (2011).

In 1940, a witch is behind a boy's family dynamics, but Eddie Alley can't help loving her - the witch was his mother, Cora. Eddie's father Bud worked for the CCC, one of many 'New Deal' programs, a government plan of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration to put the country to work after the Depression. Bud's work kept him away from their Appalachian mountain shack for years. During one of those absences, a car hit 8-year-old Eddie as he was playing with his friends. The driver, Tucker Hayes, and the woman riding with him, Sonia, are artists. Tucker was a playwright and Sonia a photographer. They are employed by another Roosevelt administration program (WPA) which hired talented out-of-work professionals to drive around the roads of America chronicling the lives of Americans through their art.

Something magic happens between Tucker and Cora - but not in a good way. Nonetheless, little Eddie is now aware for the first time of another possible type of life because of how Sonia and Tucker presented themselves.

Eddie moved to New York City when he grew up, married a classic middle-class Stepford-type wife (although she is very nice), Ann, and they have had a young daughter, Wallis, 12-years-old in 1980. Their family also added a 15-year-old boy, Jasper that same year. Jasper was living on the street doing odd jobs for the TV studio where Eddie worked as a vampire character hosting monster movies. Jasper needed a home, but there was a lot of tension because of his presence.

When the phone call came telling Eddie his mother Cora had died, he has to go back to Appalachia. Things happen, and well, gentle reader, as people say, things will never be the same.

Wallis grows up and she is a world-famous journalist. She thinks she understands what happened long ago in 1980, and she can't run fast enough from her memories. She traveled to the most dangerous places and took the most dangerous assignments. Now 40, she is settling down to an anchor position, married to Lawrence, with baby Ollie. But she can't seem to stop having affairs. Sitting in a bar, she sees her elderly father Eddie has called on her cellphone and left a message. His lover Charles is out of town and Eddie is feeling very sad. Very very sad. By morning, he intends to be dead, but first, he wants to tell his daughter something about what had really happened in 1980....

An Appalachian childhood rooted in deep poverty, and personal family mythologies drive an atmosphere of tragedy and mystery. I think the novel very well-written with authority and energy. But, I have to admit it lacks focus ultimately, and I could not see a direct line through the elements of the stories pulling it into a coherent whole, although there are certainly many insightful observations. (I suspect there is supposed to be some points about family identity, and the monsterish black magic of love, and coming to terms with the unknowable or unknown made known, but frankly, I thought the message got very lost in various plot cul-de-sacs, if so.)

It still is a terrific read and a fun entertainment!

[Mir · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan of any of these characters and as a result not particularly interested in hearing of the messed up lives they create through bad communication, selfishness and destructive behavior.

Also, I found the male narrator's voice pretty annoying- like he was constantly running out of breath and talking painfully slow. It was somewhat appropriate for his characters, I'll admit, but ultimately was a distraction for me. Also difficult to listen to in the car, as he frequently drops his voice lower than I can hear over the engine. (My car is old so this might not be a problem for most people)

[Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this was unexpected.

So I thought this was going to be about witches and such. In a way, it is, but really, it's as non-witchy as a book about some people who may be witches gets. What do I mean? I mean, if you LOVE witch stuff like some people LOVE vampire stuff, I don't think this book is for you. Instead, it's a book for those who like multi-generational family sagas, old horror flicks, coming-of-age stories...

The story does skip around between 1940, when a couple on a government project to write a travel guide-like book with photos accidentally meet a boy and his mother, who live up in the woods. The 1980s are told mostly by the teenage daughter of this boy, who is now a grown man, in fact, a TV host for a horror-film show. And in some recent past (say the 2000s) the grown up daughter as well as her ailing father remember the good old days. So there are roughly 3 times the story takes place (there are some others, like when the girl's mother, Ann, talks about when she met her husband and when his mother died, etc)

The whole family saga is well done. Characters are all extremely well developed. Holman takes her time with descriptions of people and places. Some of her language is haunting. Towards the end, there are bits where it gets a bit too preachy for my taste, but this is not unrealistic. This is confession time for some of the characters, so it is expected and it is not out of place.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the book is that it is ultimately very sad. Not in that make-you-cry kind of sad, but more like that's-the-way-life-is kind of way. A simple girl crush can seem childish just a few days after some things happen in a teenagers life. An old shack in the woods, which meant the whole world to a little boy, can seem like a hell-hole to his new bride many years later. You grow up, get married to a woman who's set on helping you climb out of the dirt you come from, have a child, and then one day, a young man shows you what other desires you might have crawling under your skin. And in the end, we're on our own, together but separate, longing to understand yet never succeeding. And sometimes, guilt and blame, the self-afflicted pain is what makes us feel alive.

All in all, Witches on the Road Tonight is a well-written, complex, and multi-layered book. Holman writes well and keeps the story rolling as she builds characters bit by bit. And regarding the witches, she's caught the narrative exactly where it should be, happily trotting at the edge of the enlightened new millennium and the magical and ignorant past.

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is very well-written, but simultaneously suspenseful and not very plot-y. I never got 100% sucked in, but I highlighted a ton of passages & that’s not terribly common for me.

Sometimes you read a book by a man & it’s painfully obvious he has no idea what it’s actually like to be a woman. He probably doesn’t even have a tiny bit of interest in what that’s like. This book is one of the flipsides of that, specifically a book you just know was written by a woman. Even if she’s describing something you’ve never experienced or felt, it makes intuitive sense. As a woman it’s a relief to be able to put yourself in the author’s hands with that kind of trust.

[Janellyn51 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had started one of Sheri Holman's other books, the Dress Lodger, and wound up putting it down. This book is very different than that one. It's a fast read, and pretty interesting. I couldn't help but picture older Eddy as Svenghoulie, the host of the local creature feature we have on Saturday nights. It's as if Holman watched him with his rubber chicken, and goofball antics and skits. I was intrigued when I came across the book about the WPA aspect of the book...it being about a photographer and a failed play writeon the government's dime, exploring Appalachia, marking out, photographing and writing about points of interest, showing America to American's if you will. I've recently read a fantastical book about magic, earlier one about the witches of Pendle Hill in England, and it makes me wonder, I suppose magicians are really illusionists, where as witches cast spells, but are also healers, and naturalists. I found it interesting, the parts of the book about Cora's herb knowledge, and simple wisdoms. Was she a witch? Sonia, seemed to me to be Martha Gelhorn and Lee Miller combined. I admired her strength, but she wasn't a very sympathetic character. Tucker Hayes, I liked him, it was easy to picture him as a shambling sort of easy going fellow, and even though WWll was the good war, and people were eager to sign up, not everyone was all that excited about dying over there. Wallis, I find I'm getting very prudish in my old age, and while I liked her as a kid, I wasn't so sure I liked her as a grown woman. Ann, I somehow could only picture as David, Amy and my friend Tiffany Sedaris' mother. Jasper gave me the willies.

[Chris Qualls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it and told her so. She's a great author and respond to readers.

[Brenda · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was not what I was expecting. I was hoping for an atmospheric story full of witches set in the Appalachian south, but instead this was some weird book about a homosexual svenghoulie-type guy and an orphan who wanted to be his lover. Needless to say, I was disappointed. There was some witchcraft, but only a little. I wish this was titled differently.