Description:
Drawn to the Grave is a short, tight novel with a simple premise, the grotesque implications of which are spelled out in full by midway through the first chapter. This approach allows the reader to concentrate on the characters: an arrogant man who is trapped by fate and weakness into performing the same horrible act of supernatural violence over and over, the woman he has just victimized, and the woman he plans to victimize next. As in the classic tale of "Bluebeard," the question of "Will it happen again?" is much less important than the nuances of how the pattern unfolds, mostly seen through the eyes of next victim. She is a college student on a solitary hiking trip who stumbles into the eerie and beautiful setting--a wide river in a remote, wooded area. This is Mary Ann Mitchell's first novel: it has a bit of first-novel awkwardness (while not gory, the book does have quite a few gross-out moments), but the prose smoothes out and gains power as the book progresses. Especially effective is the use of odor, such as the sweet, cloying smell of hyacinths that drifts along the river, alternately enticing and maddening the characters. --Fiona Webster
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