The Bearwood Witch

Rating:
Summary: "I Shall Go Mad If You Don't Help Me..."
Review: "The Bearwood Witch" is an intense, frightening, disturbing look into the elements of faith, of belief, of witchcraft and of death by the author of the award-winning "Sterkarm Handshake" - another deep and fascinating novel by this versatile author. You may have trouble with this book, and you may not like it, but I guarantee that you'll never forget it.

Zoe Hutchinson has sought out Elizabeth Beckerdyke, an elderly woman who is renowned in her community as a witch. But she is not a neo-pagan, a tarot-reader, a clairvoyant, or a Wiccan, but a *real* witch, with *real* power, that can give Zoe back what she wants so desperately. And what Zoe wants is her dead boyfriend back. She misses Gary so much that she feels that she'll die of missing him, and in tracking down Mrs Beckerdyke she swears that she'll do anything in order to get him back.

Duncan believes in this sort of thing too, but from a different perspective. He is a born-again Christian, and after experiencing the existence of Christ in his own life he is set to go out into the world as a soldier of Christ, to save people as he himself was saved. And after running into a distraught Zoe in the park, he learns what it is that she plans to do. He is unsuccessful in persuading her to leave the dead alone, but feels compelled to do all he can to prevent Mrs Beckerdyke from meddling with powers he sees as evil.

But in Mrs Beckerdyke the two young-adults finally meet their match. Unlike any witch that Duncan has ever heard of, Beckerdyke challenges the beliefs he holds and agrees to Zoe's demands. But even she gets more than she bargains for when something follows her back from the world of the dead - something with an agenda of its own...

Susan Price's novel is a story that is unput-downable. She plays with the question we all grasp to when someone we love dies: "what if...?" What if death was not inexorable? What if someone could be brought back from the other side? What if we could, through sheer force of will have our lives return to normal before the onset of death tore it apart? With this in mind, Price explores the many possibilities that death could bring - Paradise, oblivion or some dark and sinister Hades are all considered within the story.

She gets into all three of the characters minds and motivations, all of whom are vivid and compelling, with feeling we've surely all felt: Zoe's despair, Beckerdyke's pride, and Duncan's hope and fear. Though none of them are particularly likeable, Price makes sure we are pulled into their incredibly unusual situation.

Just as Duncan is not your typical Christian, Mrs Beckerdyke is not your typical witch - neither the devil-worshipping witch of Biblical lore, or following the benign practices of modern-day Wicca, this is a woman that has her own unique way of seeing the universe, rejecting both of the above-mentioned religions. The real religious intentions of Price are unclear - are we meant to believe in Christianity or Beckerdyke's realities? The fact that strong evidence is given for *both* cases makes this particular question extremely difficult to unravel, though I suppose at the end of the day Price expects us to make our own decisions.

The best thing about "The Bearwood Witch" is what other fantasy/horror books lack - a real sense of the uncanny and strange. As a whole, readers are quite "desensitised" to fantasy elements - most of us take anything from elves to ghosts in our strides, and authors have long since expected us to take the supernatural elements of their books for granted. But "The Bearwood Witch" has the difference between the real and the unreal as one of its central themes. Due to the meticulously detailed settings and realistic human behaviour, the spooky side of the story really does feel unnatural and intrinsically *wrong*. If you want a "real" reaction to the supernatural and an unwholesome leaking from *that* world into ours, then this book will set you straight.

The story itself is riveting, and Price even has time to poke holes into the popularity of tarot cards and other forms of divination, highlighting the futility and even danger of this particular past time. Toward the second half of the story, things begin to unravel into a more surreal scenario (most readers, myself included, will probably go: "whaaat?!") and the ending is *extremely* open. I was a little frustrated by the lack of answers that Price ultimately gives, but the ambiguity and mystery it evokes is well in line with the rest of the novel. Susan Price is a top-class writer, and "The Bearwood Witch" is well worth you're time, and will certainly give you something to think about.