Island Witch
Amanda Jayatissa
363 pages
Berkley Publishing
published February 20, 2024
Thanks to Berkley Publishing and PRH Audio for my gifted copies. #BerkleyInfluencer #PRHAudioInfluencer
I have to start with this beautiful cover. Am I right? That sunset and her eyes. I was a huge fan of My Sweet Girl, so even though this is a departure from that genre, I picked this up. I really enjoy her writing style and that doesn’t hold true for just one genre.
This is an atmospheric tale of a witch in the Sri Lankan jungle. It’s twisty and supernatural and had me wondering what the heck was going on. I am always a fan of culture and this one is brimming with it.
Amara and her family live in a village on the edge of the jungle in Sri Lanka in the 19th century. Her father is a demon-priest and Amara is of the age she should be married. Something in the jungle is attacking men and Amara is having strange dreams. I was sure I knew where this one was headed. While I was partially right, I was also far off from guessing the ending.
But I’ll be honest, this one is not just about the plot, but the picture the author paints. The history, the atmosphere, the culture. I was caught up in it all. It had a gothic eerie feel that lasted through the entire book.
And when I listened, Isuri Wijesundara’s voice was perfect for the story. I loved her accent. It was easy to listen and I never had trouble understanding what she said as I sometimes do with accents. It really added to the mood set by the words.
About the book
Inspired by Sri Lankan folklore, award-winning author Amanda Jayatissa turns her feverish, Gothic-tinged talents to late 19th century Sri Lanka where the daughter of a traditional demon-priest—relentlessly bullied by peers and accused of witchcraft herself—tries to solve the mysterious attacks that have been terrorizing her coastal village.
Being the daughter of the village Capuwa, or demon-priest, Amara is used to keeping mostly to herself. Influenced by the new religious practices brought in by the British Colonizers, the villagers who once respected her father’s craft have turned on the family. Yet, they all still seem to call on him whenever supernatural disturbances arise.
Now someone—or something —is viciously seizing upon men in the jungle. But instead of enlisting Amara’s father’s help, the villages have accused him of carrying out the attacks himself.
As she tries to clear her father’s name, Amara finds herself haunted by dreams that eerily predict the dark forces on her island. And she can’t shake the feeling that it’s all connected to the night she was recovering from a strange illness, and woke up, scared and confused, to hear her mother’s frantic No one can find out what happened .
Lush, otherworldly, and recalling horror classics like Carrie and The Exorcist , Island Witch is a deliciously creepy and darkly feminist tale about the horrors of moral panic, the violent space between girlhood and adulthood, and what happens when female rage is finally unleashed.
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