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A review by selfwinding
Brimstone by Cherie Priest
4.0
I love it when books are set in Florida, especially parts of Florida I know well. I love it when books are set in the late 19th or early 20th century. I love it when books are written by Cherie Priest. So it's no surprise Brimstone was a near homerun for me.
Weaving together two characters separated by the width of Central Florida, Priest uses the backdrop of the spiritualist camp in Cassadaga, Florida to tell an intriguing story about spirits, faith, and loss. The characters are the center of this novel, and even though I tend to be drawn to young upstarts like Alice Dartle, I found myself equally moved by the chapters from Tomás Cordero's point of view. Priest does a wonderful job of bringing these different voices to life, distinguishing their world views and syntax clearly enough that I didn't need the character titles at the start of each chapter, it was so obvious which character was speaking.
The setting is vibrant. Having visited modern day Cassadaga many times, it was interesting to see it filtered through the lens of historical fiction (and identify which things haven't changed). Priest does an excellent job not just with the geography, but with the character of the town, proving that the right location matched with the right story can make magic happen.
The story moves a little slowly, but given the way details unfold it's the right pace for this novel. Just be prepared for the slow burn (ha, ha), and know that everything pays off by the end.
I stalled on reading more Priest after Boneshaker (because it terrified me), but after reading Brimstone (which I would classify as "light horror") I'm feeling a bit more confident about reading more of her work.
Weaving together two characters separated by the width of Central Florida, Priest uses the backdrop of the spiritualist camp in Cassadaga, Florida to tell an intriguing story about spirits, faith, and loss. The characters are the center of this novel, and even though I tend to be drawn to young upstarts like Alice Dartle, I found myself equally moved by the chapters from Tomás Cordero's point of view. Priest does a wonderful job of bringing these different voices to life, distinguishing their world views and syntax clearly enough that I didn't need the character titles at the start of each chapter, it was so obvious which character was speaking.
The setting is vibrant. Having visited modern day Cassadaga many times, it was interesting to see it filtered through the lens of historical fiction (and identify which things haven't changed). Priest does an excellent job not just with the geography, but with the character of the town, proving that the right location matched with the right story can make magic happen.
The story moves a little slowly, but given the way details unfold it's the right pace for this novel. Just be prepared for the slow burn (ha, ha), and know that everything pays off by the end.
I stalled on reading more Priest after Boneshaker (because it terrified me), but after reading Brimstone (which I would classify as "light horror") I'm feeling a bit more confident about reading more of her work.