All her life, Annie has played it nice and safe. After being unceremoniously dumped by her long-time boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start. She accepts a teaching job that moves her from Manhattan to a small village upstate. Her new home is picturesque and perfect. The people are all friendly and warm. Her new apartment is lovely too, minus the oddly persistent spider infestation.
Then Annie meets Sophie. Beautiful, charming, magnetic Sophie, who takes a special interest in Annie, who wants to be her friend. More importantly, she wants Annie to stop apologizing and start living for herself. That’s how Sophie lives. Annie can’t help but gravitate toward the self-possessed Sophie, wanting to spend more and more time with her, despite the fact that the rest of the town seems… a little afraid of her. And, okay. Sophie’s appearance is uncanny and ageless, her mansion in the middle of the woods feels a little unearthly, and she does seem to wield a certain power… but she couldn’t be… could she?
Dark bleatings, my lovely tribe. Thanks to my ridiclous TBR bookcase, it takes me forever to get around to the many books I buy and want to read. I finally picked up ‘Cackle’, and I have to tell you upfront that this is easily the most delightful book I’ve ever read. I’ve loved everything that I’ve read from Rachel so far and she always does something a bit different and interesting with whichever subgenre she’s writing in, but this book has a feel to it that I never get with horror.
Annie moves far away following a break up that she didn’t want, because the guy is the love of her life. She takes up a new teaching position in a very small town, and finds the place quite welcoming in a way she isn’t used to. A woman called Sophie, in particular, is just wonderful to her and immediately befriends her. Sophie is the kind of woman who would strike anyone as an enigma. She’s beautiful, confident, and just has a way about her, which is why it strikes Annie as super weird that most people in town seem a bit afraid of her.
What follows is witchy.
Now, I’ll tell you upfront that despite the witchy nature of this story, this novel is very light on the horror, so don’t go into it expecting to be super scared. However, I simply must recommend this to absolutely everybody. I almost exclusively read horror and very rarely feel inclined to read outside of it, but this just had me hooked from beginning to end, and I was so sad that it ended.
What this author is truly the G.O.A.T of, in my humble opinion, is painting characters and their relationships. Even when the character in question is supernatural in some way, they are all so real that they’re leaping off the page within the first paragraph of meeting them. Annie is one of the more relatable characters I’ve ever read, and Sophie reminded me of a girl I met in college that just emanated self-confidence unlike anyone else I’ve ever met, even to this day. I wanted to be her friend but also felt too inferior to be her friend, despite the fact she was lovely to me.
This is a story of rediscovering yourself, building confidence, and figuring out what you actually want in life. It’s also about crawling out of a bad self-esteem pit and taking the rose-tinted glasses off, and seeing not just yourself but others more clearly. With some adorable creatures and sprinklings of really fun magic along the way, of course. I swear, I had never in my life liked a spider, but there’s one in this book that I desperately wish was real so I could keep it as a pet.
I just love love LOVE this novel. I was indescribably sad to finish it because I wanted to stay in this world forever. As I said, I recommend it to everyone, it’s lovely, but in particular if you are in need of something uplifting, this is what you should put to the top of your list.
If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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