By Scott Norton
Published by Yellow Horse Productions
Deborah Ducharme is the quintessential housewife. She cooks, she cleans, she goes to church (even if it is just to use the free wifi), she bakes, and she worships Satan.
Her family is falling apart, though. Her husband is disinterested, her son is a jerk, and her adult daughter is an absolute mess. Barbara finds a little bit of relief from her daily doldrums in her secret pen-pal relationship with criminal Jasper Dix. When Deborah and her not-so-perfect little family head out to spend the weekend at a run-down house a late relative once lived in, all hell breaks loose.
Jasper and his violent accomplice have broken out of prison and picked up a psychopathic woman, and they are headed for the same isolated location. What’s Barbara to do? Call on Satan, of course!
sWitch is a definitely a fun read! It’s a little tongue in cheek, a little campy, and just a whole lot of fun. I enjoyed reading it quite a bit. The writing is fantastic and the character development is great—Barbara is quite the frustrated June Cleaver. Norton seemed to pour a lot of development into the characters, and it shows. They remain consistent throughout the book. Ken Jr’s, descent into complete serial-killer mode is funny, and the way dad joins in on the adventure is funny.
One of the elements that takes this book on a sharp left turn outta’ nowhere is the entrance of Louis P. Odekirk, God’s Drill Sergeant, and his team of demented little disciples. While Barb and her family are battling Jasper, Delilah, and the ill-named Lucky, Odekirk is marching his devilish God’s-soldiers right towards the house, with one mission in mind—kill the descendants of the witches Odekirk himself once offed at the house. The action is fast and the by this point in the book, it’s fairly consuming.
One thing about the book made me stop and retrace my steps. In the beginning of the book, Amanda is at home because her husband cheated on her and she wanted a divorce. BY the end of the book, Amanda was only ENGAGED to the cheater. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make me flip back to figure out what her marital status was or wasn’t. Another issue is the fact that once Jasper got to the house and confronted Barb, their history was virtually nonexistent. Jasper had her name tattooed on the back of his head, but there was no familiar interaction between the two at all. I think it could have been a good plot point if maybe their relationship had more presence at that point in the book, and if it was perhaps a point of contention between Barb and Ken. I think it was definitely something of a missed opportunity.
Other than those nitpicky things, sWitch is a fun book. I really enjoyed reading it and it’s in my ‘keeper’ file!
Rating: (4 out of 5):
