The Seance, by Joan Lowery Nixon
Church attendance went way up, and people began remembering all kinds of stories about witch water in the Thicket, and a giant black panther with human eyes, and old Marley Thompson, who cast hex spells on people until he accidentally shot off his right foot while hunting and went to live with his son and daughter-in-law in Buffalo, where it's too cold to pay attention to hex spells.
If you're guessing this is a southern Gothic... not exactly. That is, it is, but its actual genre is 80s teen thriller.
Can you believe I was a teenager in the 80s and never read Joan Lowery Nixon? It's true! And so I have no idea how typical this book is. I assume the twisty suspense aspects are, but I'm really curious if the Southern Gothic atmosphere is too.
Lauren lives in East Texas with her Aunt Mel (short for Melvamey because of course it is), her neighbors Fant (husband) and Feeny (wife), and Sara, who like Lauren is a 17-year-old foster kid, but unlike Lauren is pretty and gets lots of attention from both boys and adult men. When Sara vanishes during a seance and then turns up dead in the Thicket, suspicion falls on every man and boy in town... and also the teenage girls at the seance, because one of them had to have helped her stage her disappearance.
The thriller aspects are pleasingly twisty, but what was most fun for me were the OTT Southern Gothic bits.
Fulfillment of premise: If you're looking for a book heavily featuring a seance, this is not it.
The Seance (Laurel-Leaf Suspense Fiction)[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
If you're guessing this is a southern Gothic... not exactly. That is, it is, but its actual genre is 80s teen thriller.
Can you believe I was a teenager in the 80s and never read Joan Lowery Nixon? It's true! And so I have no idea how typical this book is. I assume the twisty suspense aspects are, but I'm really curious if the Southern Gothic atmosphere is too.
Lauren lives in East Texas with her Aunt Mel (short for Melvamey because of course it is), her neighbors Fant (husband) and Feeny (wife), and Sara, who like Lauren is a 17-year-old foster kid, but unlike Lauren is pretty and gets lots of attention from both boys and adult men. When Sara vanishes during a seance and then turns up dead in the Thicket, suspicion falls on every man and boy in town... and also the teenage girls at the seance, because one of them had to have helped her stage her disappearance.
The thriller aspects are pleasingly twisty, but what was most fun for me were the OTT Southern Gothic bits.
Fulfillment of premise: If you're looking for a book heavily featuring a seance, this is not it.
The Seance (Laurel-Leaf Suspense Fiction)[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
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