Love From PW

Did I post this review already? Sometimes I’m pretty dreadful at promoting my own work–I still like to imagine that my work will magically attract an audience and I can just sit home and write and blog and eat bon-bons!

This was in the 10/27 issue of Publisher’s Weekly….btw, they really disliked Isabella Moon, so it was a nice surprise.

Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts Laura Benedict. Ballantine, $25 (352p) ISBN 978-0-345-49769-7

After summoning a lover through a ritual part witchcraft, part Santeria, at the start of Benedict’s spellbinding second novel (after Isabella Moon), three 13-year-old Lolitas—Roxanne, Del and Alice—believe that their new teacher at Cincinnati’s Our Lady of the Hills school, is the angel sent to deflower them. Roxanne successfully schemes to seduce Cuban-born Father Romero, who suffers terrible guilt as a result. When Alice and Del each falsely accuse Romero of acting inappropriately toward them, Romero is defrocked and loses his job. Seventeen years later, Romero returns to town with Varick, a demon disguised as a man, to punish the now adult schoolgirls. All become entangled in an unholy web of destruction that threatens innocent lives. While the underage sex may make some readers uncomfortable, this sad, erotically charged update of a classic horror theme offers a cautionary moral: pacts with the devil seldom result in happiness. (Dec.)

And I just found out today that the upcoming Booklist review looks good. I can’t reprint yet, but let’s just say I’m very fond of the words suspenseful, tense, and sinister!

And apropos of nothing: This is one clever bird.