On the British isle of Lute people march to a different beat. One that resonates particularly every seven years when a tithe of seven lives must be paid for the safety and prosperity of the islanders.
It’s an ancient tradition dating back to the Druids, but Nina doesn’t know any of it when she marries Lord Treadway and becomes the Lady of the island. She finds out almost the day off and by then, of course, it’s much too late to do anything but ride The Day out. And yes, advertising the novel as The Wicker Man meets Final Destination works, lazy as it may be. Folk is all the rage in genre right now and Lute is a solid entry into the realm. Not especially original, but quite well executed with almost live time intensity of the narrative and a tight focus on the protagonist’s fish-out-of-the-water perspective. It isn’t without faults, chief among them women’s fiction undertones of Nina’s suddenly overexciting love life and a backdrop of WWIII aka Waters Wars with USA and UK on the opposite sides which seems to go nowhere and do nothing outside of providing the reason for the locals to be distrusting on Nina the American. In fac, the novel kind of reads like it’s set during WWII and then texting is mentioned and you go, oh, modern time. Well, modern time with a. twist, but you get it. As for the estrogen overload, well, you kind of have to look at the author’s oeuvre to know that should have been expected. In fact, all things considered, it is understated in Lute. And then there’s the granddaddy of them all – the logic. Logically, would such sacrifices perpetuate in modern times? On an island THAT small? I mean, for a population of 200, seven sacrifices is pretty extreme. And everyone seems quite cavalier about it. But the sacrifices themselves are written nicely, interestingly, and very creepily, so kudos to the author on that. And the ending does the underlying logic good service by introducing much needed modernization to an ancient concept. So overall quite a fun read, entertaining enough, not too long. The cover is underwhelming. Folks, what folks get up to on remote islands is a quite disturbing. But you already knew it. Likely from The Wicker Man. Thanks Netgalley.
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