I was reading this, pretty bored by ninety percent and remembering the other ten percent from my childhood in some amusement until I got to the following rhyme:

A woman, a spaniel, and walnut tree,
The more you beat them the better they be.

REALLY?!

I like the idea of poems by a fictional class of fifth graders, and some of them were downright heartbreaking. But too many felt lackluster.

The story is funny but the art is terrifying

Liked the story, hated the illustrations.

Whitfield cares deeply about the plot and built a fascinating world in which real English history was been subverted by the presence of deepsmen, this story's mermaids. The beginning of the story where a young half-deepsman boy is brought on to land to be raised there is fascinating in its psychological aspect, and the genealogies were well plotted.

Unfortunately the story dragged on too long and felt more like reading a history textbook than a novel. The characters were boring and underdeveloped until the last few chapters when they all suddenly figured themselves out so there could be a satisfying conclusion.

Would recommend to history majors and seekers of adult scary mermaid books.

Ben, like any good middle class horror protagonist, moves his wife and two sons to an abandoned house with a creepy history in a small town so that they can restore the house to make it into an inn. Along the way he meets a cast of small town elders who are pleased to have one of their founding families relatives back in the area, a kindhearted priest, and a creepy deputy.

Yet despite the plot's familiarity, Duffy does a great job of keeping you on your toes. I was suspicious of every one by the time the book ended, suspecting trouble from the priest, Ben's own son, a wendigo (at least, I suspected a wendigo after about five minutes, which probably means I read too many supernatural books and watch too much supernatural tv), and everyone else Ben encountered. I liked that I didn't know if it was going to be a supernatural story or a realistic one, and the interweaving stories of revamping the inn with modern conveniences blended nicely with the tales of the town's past.

Would recommend to someone looking for a nice modern horror.

Review copy granted by NetGalley.

This book is haunting and it is not something I would recommend lightly. It is full of scenes that will make your stomach turn, make you wish you lived in a world where these things didn't or couldn't happen. But that's not the world we live in.

The Enchanted is narrated by a death row inmate who shares with the reader his hallucinations, his obsession with stories, his fascination with the lady who comes to investigate men who have been given the death penalty to try to free them, and the priest she falls in love with -- everything but what he did to end up in prison.

It exists in a world somewhere between the modern day and magical realism, and it is the kind of book that will keep you up at night wondering whether right and wrong mean anything at all.