Perfectly Preventable Deaths
By: Deirdre Sullivan
In my quest for some good old Halloween reading I picked up Perfectly Preventable Deaths- a story about two sisters who move to a small Irish village that has a dead girls in the woods mystery going back generations.
I did get scary although not the kind I would have thought.
The scary part was that Catlin quickly falls in love with a local guy in a relationship Maddie never likes and we see quickly becomes emotionally and physically abusive. And while I was thinking how much I disliked Catlin it struck me that was the scary part. Because you do see a different side to someone you love in one of these relationships. He’s also extremely manipulative and controlling.
And I do think Sullivan gets to the sense of hopelessness and out of control other people feel. I mean at one point when the family tries to step in and get her to stop seeing him she becomes like something out of the Exorcist. I was afraid she’d hurt them.
So what about the book overall?
I did like it but it was a weird one that walked the line. A little too flowery for me in the writing at times. Good atmosphere but the mystery doesn’t really do anything until the end. And there is a scene of a very violent attack in the aftermath at least. It’s a bit weird to describe it because it definitely grew on me the more I thought about coming at it from the abuse angle.
Of course to be perfectly honest I was far more on edge about the kitten than Catlin.
Perfectly Preventable Deaths falls somewhere in the middle of the rating scale for me. But it’s grown on me. There’s good atmosphere and some character development and I haven’t even mentioned the witchcraft although I’m still looking for that perfect Halloween fear read.
Recommend: Yes.
But beware trigger warnings for abuse and sexual violence.
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