Thursday, January 27, 2022

Waking the Merrow (The Merrow Trilogy Book 1) —by Heather Rigney

 Fiction / Historical Fantasy / Celtic Mythology / Horror

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

May 22, 2014

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00KIQGG6S

1967 KB

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1499114257

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1499114256

344 pages

5 Stars

 

Enter our protagonist, Evie McFagen. She’s the mother of a not yet toddling daughter, she’s overweight, a functioning alcoholic, acerbic as all get out, adores her daughter and her also overweight husband, who happens to be sober. He’s the coroner, she’s the undertaker in this small Rhode Island village on Narragansett Bay. The women don’t like her, but that’s ok, she’s more comfortable drinking with the men.

 

Evie is narrating her portion of the story and she talks to the reader. Often. And it works! I like her. For all her faults, she’s honest with others and, perhaps more importantly, with herself.

 

She sees a new mother in town at the kiddie park and has a very odd reaction. She becomes painfully nauseated. And when she looks up, this new person (Nomia) is talking to one of the other mothers, and when her eyes meet Evie’s, Evie is certain the woman was speaking to her directly to her brain, no spoken words, and threatens her.

 

The merrow of this book are merpeople. They are not all sweetness and nice. Mr. Disney would not approve. They are also extremely long-lived, and we read a few chapters about Nomia and the men and boys from the 1600s to today. She does not treat them nicely.

 

Had I realized the genre was horror, I probably wouldn’t have read it. I easily get nightmares. I don’t know how Ms. Rigney did it, but I couldn’t put the book down, and no nightmares. I now have books 2 & 3 of the trilogy, and way too much housework to stop and read, but ya know what? The housework will be there when I run out of merbooks.

 

Waking the Merrow was impossible to put down until finished. Ms. Rigney’s Merrow books belong on the shelf with Anne Bishop’s Other series, Patricia Briggs’ were books. There’s a new kid on the block. Welcome and make room for her.

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