The Thirteen by Susie Moloney

This is probably the most disturbing book I've ever read...second only to Rosemary's Baby.

Imagine having everything you want: nice house, good looks, money, perfect children, hubby that works hard--until you have to sacrifice him, of course... and all you have to do is give your soul to the devil. Would you do it?


Thirteen women in this small town did. They have sex with him. (And that is one really creepy scene!!!! Whoa! Well done!) They offer their blood. They sacrifice dogs. (Hated that part.) And they also sacrifice their husbands down the road...and in once case, a son.


And then these crazy ladies become 12 (A NO NO) and so they recruit or try to recruit Paula and this is what didn't make sense: All these crazy witches sell their souls to the devil in order to make their children perfect, happy, and give them everything...so why in the hell are they asking another woman to kill hers?


Pretty gruesome and cool and disturbing. Barbie doll as a weapon! Fingers falling off. A Jeep running over pedestrians. A woman becoming a goat. Evil cats! And at the center of it all, Paula and her daughter, Rowan, blissfully ignorant.


Quibble: The Paula/Sandy romance came out of nowhere... One date? Hello? And the ending...did NOT fit with the rest of the book. Rowan didn't go that way. That was weird. But overall, the book really impacted and even scared me at times.


I received this as an ARC from the publisher. Four bikes.