Amanda Craig likes Julie Hearn's new novel, The Merrybegot:
Like Arthur Miller ?s play The Crucible, this is as much a novel about adolescent sexual hysteria and parental conflict ? as about witchcraft ? yet in The Merrybegot, the piskies are real, as amoral as weather, and affect the course of history. Told in clear, vivid prose, and peopled with sympathetic yet complex characters, it is a huge leap forward for a talented new storyteller whose debut, Follow Me Down, was enjoyed by many.
but is disappointed in the new book by Celia Rees, The Wish House:
One doesn?t care about any of these characters, and the plot they?re in is as skimpy as a cheesecloth tunic even before the predictable hints of incest. Rees has shown such a gift for genuinely magical fiction in Witch Child, it?s disappointing not to find her on characteristic form.
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