Cheryl R. (Spuddie) - , reviewed on 7/27/2009 + 412 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

First book in the Eden Moore trilogy--not sure how to classify it. Sort of Southern gothic horror paranormal mystery ghost story? LOL Eden Moore is a young mixed-race woman who's seen ghosts ever since she was a young girl. Her childhood and parentage are shrouded in mystery, her mother having died in a home for troubled teenagers during Eden's birth, her father's identity unknown. Lovingly raised by her Aunt Lulu and Uncle Dave near Chattanooga, Tennessee, they give her everything she needs except the answers to questions about her past.

She was attacked by a religious nut when she's just a young girl, and is spared from death because the three sisters (her ghosts) warn her that he's coming. Later, Eden learns that Malachi is a relative who thinks she's the reincarnation of an evil person from generations back in their family tree. As a young woman, Eden sets out to find the answers that Lulu refuses to give her, which leads her on a trail of horror, danger, and pure evil as she travels from Tennessee to Georgia and then the swamplands of Florida as she tries to work out who to trust and what to do next.

Steeped in Southern mythology, this ghost story grabbed me in from the first page and wouldn't let me go. While the plotting seems a bit wobbly at times and all the ghosts, ancestors and their relationships are sometimes confusing (there's some inbreeding and I'm still not sure of a couple of the ties) Eden's character grows during the course of the book and by the end, I've come to like her very much.

The ending is a bit anti-climactic but there are hints of stories yet untold which I presume will be unfolded in the other two books in the series. I'm glad I've already got them or I'd have to go hunting them down!

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