“I put my books on the shelves, arranging them alphabetically, only to change my mind and rearrange by color and then again by which books I think would be friends.” - Cackle by Rachel Harrison
Interested in a spoiler free summary? Check out my Annotation of this book.
REVIEW
Author: Rachel Harrison
Title: Cackle
Category/Type: Adult Fiction
Genre: Relationship Fiction
Subgenre: Supernatural fiction
Publication Date: October 5, 2021
Number of Pages: 291 pages of story text
Series (if applicable): This book is not a part of a series
Content warnings: Toxic relationships, toxic friendships, body horror, sexism (one scene), spiders…A LOT of spiders.
Summary: Annie’s life was going well, she was in a long-term relationship with a guy she loved and she had a stable teaching job. Maybe she wore pajamas too much, but it was a good life and at the start of Cackle, Annie would do anything to get that life back. That “great guy” dumped her. Depressed and despairing, Annie decided to take a teaching job in a small town in upstate New York where no one knows her; a fresh start. Annie’s new students are nightmares but her new hometown is pleasant and perfect, even if there are a lot of spiders. Her new friend Sophie is everything Annie isn’t, confident, beautiful, powerful, and Sophie truly cares about helping Annie through the rough times. So who cares if strange things happen around Sophie and the townspeople seem a little frightened of her. There’s certainly not anything supernatural going on…witches aren’t real, right?
Follow Annie as she struggles to build a life on her own, navigate the relationships in her life, and realize her own potential, which might just come with some magical gifts of its own. This novel is a low stakes, pleasurable read, a great distraction for the everyday stresses of pandemic life.
PERSONAL THOUGHTS
WARNING: May contain spoilers
This book is classified as horror but I would say it's more relationship fiction with horror elements. There are ghosts, and at least one witch. The book does deal with sexism and toxic relationships that are sometimes made into horror works but I think classifying this book as Horror is misleading and may disappoint some readers. The majority of the story is really about Annie coming into her own as a person as well as her growing friendship with Sophie. The horror that is included, while gory, appears only in a few short scenes and is overall humorous.
This is not my normal read since I don’t usually gravitate towards Relationship Fiction or Horror, but I was delighted to pick it up and have something light to read with low-stakes problems that you knew were going to work out in the end. It entertained and distracted me and got a solid 3 stars in my opinion. If you are looking for a light, beach-type read for a non-summer season, especially in the fall, this is a good choice.
Final resting place: This was a borrow from SFPL and it was returned when finished. While I enjoyed it, I didn’t like it enough to purchase it to add to my library.