This book was enjoyable reading for me as the writer’s style shows potential and the story held my interest to the end, although there were trying areas in it, which I think, took courage to write about. Bringing together the ways of a family that followed a religion very strictly and the idea of pagan worship, telepathy, and white witchcraft has to be difficult for any writer, but this author has succeeded beautifully in doing that.

The story begins in Glasgow, Scotland, and immediately after, the setting becomes San Francisco to where the family immigrates. The main character in the story is June, the youngest of several girl siblings. June’s father is abusive while her mother is suffering from depression. To begin with, her father resents June because she doesn’t have a saint’s name like her siblings as her mother has named her. Then June herself is a different child with a sixth sense, healing powers, and she sees an angel who guides her. This creates terrible clashes between June and her father and with the Catholic school she’s made to attend.

As the story moves along, the readers meet an old woman who teaches June Tarot reading and other strange psychic things, June’s refusal to obey her father and the church because of her visions, June’s selfishly dependent mother who is powerless to properly defend and take care of her children, and June’s father’s alcohol dependency and physical abusiveness. Then, other concepts are introduced through June’s sisters’ substance abuse and teen pregnancy and through June’s favorite neighbors’ homosexuality and their disregard to traditional ways of child-raising. The time frame when June is in her teens is the nineteen fifties and sixties with a Haight-Ashbury scene.

Even though I liked the book, I think like most anything, the novel can be made better. For example, most plot twists were very good but some secondary characters could be developed better. Also, the family secrets could be subtly introduced earlier. The ending was all right but it didn’t impress me much, as I felt it was trying to make way for a second book with the same protagonist. I like to feel that a book is whole in itself. The narration, in regard to point of view changes, from the halfway point to the end, could improve, also.

Still, this is a good story with an excellent premise, and I believe its author has a brilliant future.

the beginning sections until about midway in the book.

is June Ahern.

the premise is interesting and a few 1950s and 60s scenes, I thought, were good.

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Created May 06, 2018 at 8:29pm • Submit your own review...