The blurb: In a quiet street far from the river, with an ancient tree growing through its walls and floors, is the House of the Dead. There lives the witchling: healer, midwife and conduit between the world of the living and the world below. A witchling must give up her family and friends and spend her life alone, tending to the sick and carrying the dead down dark tunnels to the underworld. Haley was born with the gift of death-magic, and at the age of seven her mother abandons her to the witchling to be raised as her successor. But as Haley grows older and learns her craft - as invading armies pass through her town, people are born and die on her floor and loyalties shift and dissolve around her - she finds it harder and harder to keep her vows and be the perfect and impassive healer.
But if she can’t, it will be her downfall - and that of everyone she’s not supposed to love ...
My thoughts: Imagine being seven years old and abandoned by your mother, to the most frightening person in your town.
The longing to return home, the fear of your new surroundings and the strange person who now rules your life.
For young Haley it must be devastating. And Helena Coggan weaves a realistic portrayal of this young girls anguish and rising curiosity as she begins to accept her fate.
While also weaving an intriguing fantasy world, that merges seamlessly with the characters within it.
My heart went out to Haley and Miriam, both thrust into a life they didn’t ask for and didn’t want. Torn from their families and expected to care for people who feared and shunned them.
Forced to suffer abuse, for what must have felt more like a curse than a gift. Simply because they were born different. Something, I think many readers could relate to in their own many varied ways. Be it poor eyesight, that means they require glasses, a disability or illness, or an accident later in life, that disfigures, even something as uncontrollable as the colour of your skin or your sexuality. The world is afraid of that which they deem different. As if that difference may somehow infect them if they let it come to close. And Helena illustrates this beautifully in this book.
The towns folk need the witchling’s and the witchling’s girl and yet instead of being grateful for them as you might think, they try to ignore them, pretend they are not there unless they have need of them. As if they are a dirty little secret, not to be acknowledged.
And the persecution continues for Haley throughout her life, as she is forced into one bad situations after another and grapples for some small pockets of happiness, even if it means breaking the rules.
It’s a heartbreaking story, that keeps you guessing with its many twist and turns and has a whole host of well developed characters, that capture your heart and have you rooting for them and for change.
I really enjoyed this one and would highly recommend it. The only downfall of the book was that at times it did drag a little, but it was so packed with action these moments never lasted too long.
Please note: I received this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.
Also please bare in mind that due to my Crohn’s disease I now struggle with pretty bad brain fog
Among other things, which means I sometimes muddle words or names, and forget how to spell the simplest of words (so frustrating) so apologies for any errors in this or future post, It was not/is not intentional,
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