Someone is stalking Devon Woodward. They’ve been there all along, since before she was born, going back to her grandmother’s time. Waiting for her. Watching. And the people who should be able to help, her own parents, are making everything worse.
Devon is right to be afraid. Verushka, both victim and villain, is a half-human witch from the other side of the world. She will do anything to get what she needs from the Woodward family, but she may have finally met her match in young Devon.
Will family conflict sabotage Devon’s efforts to escape and put her in even greater danger? In this multi-perspective novel that is part fairy tale and part horror story, a young girl fights to uncover the truth and save her own life.
Dark bleetings everyone! Things are in absolute chaos right now with life in general and my upcoming wedding (which will have passed by the time this review is live). I’ve not had a second to myself, but somehow I DID find some time to read a few of the books on the Goat’s TBR List. So, was Verushka worth my precious, limited time?
Why, yes. Yes, I do declare it was!
This is a tangled web of a story that is somehow so expertly woven that it isn’t a tangled read. We start with Devon, who is experiencing something any parent would panic about, and this section culminates in the stuff of (literal… or perhaps not!) nightmares. Then, we move back through the generations and in time. As a story-telling device goes, I absolutely LOVED this as a structural decision.
The narrative form is interesting in that we get sections depicting these connected slices of life that, combined, form what I’d say is a five-act structure. Not only that, but the author is skilled enough to have inserted what’s essentially a three-act structure into each of the five overall acts. So, not only is the overall story flowing nicely, but each section of it has it’s own self-contained journey that slots perfectly into the bigger picture. This is the kind of writing that hooks me to a new author – this is my first Jan Stinchcomb book and most definitely won’t be my last.
My favourite section was Elaine’s. It reminded me of that David Bowie vampire movie from the 1970s (The Hunger) with its delicious glamour and eroticism.
As far as the actual horror goes, I’d say it’s quite varied and effective – we’ve got supernatural mystery, creepy kid stuff, some otherworldly weirdness, and the constant question of what the deal with Verushka actually is.
I’d recommend this novel to fans of supernatural fiction and mystery. If you’d like to get your own copy, or check out the author, the links you need are below:
Happy Goat Horror 
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