Events too unnatural – even for New Orleans – lead Adele to an attic that has been sealed for three hundred years, and the chaos she unleashes threatens not only her life but everyone she knows. Mother Nature couldn’t drain the joie de vivre from the Big Easy, but someone or something is draining life from its residents.
Caught suddenly in a hurricane of eighteenth-century myths and monsters, Adele must quickly untangle a web of magic that links the climbing murder rate back to her own ancestors. But who can you trust in a city where everyone has a secret, and where keeping them can be a matter of life and death – unless, that is, you’re immortal.
My Review:
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Casquette Girls by Alys Arden is a 2013 fortheARTofit publication. I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book embodies the spirit of the old school Gothic novel told in first person perspective by Adele Le Moyne a high school student returning to New Orleans after the worst hurricane in history virtually destroyed the city, perhaps for good.
Alone with her father now, Adele is even separated from her BFF who has moved to LA, probably to stay for the duration. The New Orleans climate has now changed, some familiar faces remain, but relatives searching for loved ones creates a new landscape in the Dystopian atmosphere.
Adele finds she has now been accepted into one of New Orleans' most prestigious schools, but life there is miserable as the usual cliques form and Adele is the odd man out.
But, in the midst of this unease, Adele hears an old story, a legend by now, about the Casquette girls. Girls who were lured into a home by evil and after all was said and done, only two bodies were found. This coincides with some rather spooky experiences Adele had encountered recently, coupled with the discovery of a diary written by one of her ancestors.
This YA spin on old world myths, legends, and voodoo, is actually a pretty interesting take on both old and new legends and beliefs. The diary Adele unearths was written circa 1700's and tell the more traditional version of vampires we know from stories like Dracula or even Stephen King's Salem's Lot. But this story adds the roots of France, Creole, and the deep South to blend a new tale of horror.
Adele is a wonderful character, typical of her age, so she doesn't always make the right choice, she is ruled by her heart and at times her hormones, but she is in many ways an old soul. There are quite a few characters in the book, so between current day and the diary of the past, there were moments when it seemed hard to keep up with them all.
The author does a great job of writing both historical details and present day details due to her incredible knowledge of New Orleans.
For me the story got off to a slow start and it wasn't until about a quarter of the way in that the diary is discovered and it's author is found to be significant to Adele. Once we get started reading the diary, events in the present begin to really take shape as well, and the action intensifies.... really intensifies. There are many twist and turns and huge reveals once the story got rolling good.
The book is just a bit long and could use some trimming down just a hair here and there. But, overall this is a very ambitious undertaking and the author did a great job with this one. I don't read a lot of YA PNR, but this one was well worth the time. This one gets 4 stars
genderfemale
websitehttp://www.thecasquettegirls.com
twitter usernamealysarden
genreParanormal, Young Adult