Review of "The Thirteen"

"The Thirteen" - Susie Moloney

3 Stars – Technically, I really gave this book 2.5 stars but, since there are no such thing as half stars, I had to give it three. First, let me start out by saying that there is absolu...tely nothing original about this book.

“The Thirteen” is about a witch coven in a seemingly perfect neighborhood. The women in the coven have given themselves over to the devil (shocker) for their powers but, in order to keep their powers and not be punished by the devil, they need to keep 13 women in the coven. Thirteen because, of course, that’s an evil number and always has to be in a story about witches… the number 12 isn’t nearly as terrifying as the number 13. I regress. One of the witches decided to commit suicide, which totally messes up their numbers, so they are in a big rush to find #13 when sweet Paula comes into town. Her mother is also a witch, but a good witch, and never wanted Paula involved in the coven. Paula doesn’t know this though so she keeps getting tricked left and right by the evil witches… then she falls in love. Ugh, the evil witches cannot believe their luck! They have to get Paula away from the evil man so they cast a spell over the whole town to make everyone fall asleep so they can go cavorting around without the cops getting called on them. Now this, this exact part in the book, is where I almost stopped reading. If they could cause an ENTIRE TOWN to fall asleep with a snap of the finger then why doesn’t the boyfriend fall asleep?!?!!?! He stays awake through the whole thing which causes them even more trouble. I have no words for this huge plot hole.
I know it sounds like I absolutely hate this book but I really didn’t… I just thought it was extremely predictable. Perhaps if you don’t normally read horror books this would be a good one to pick up but, for a veteran like myself (haha), it was pretty boring. Moloney does have excellent writing skills though, otherwise I would have just stopped reading, but she needs to come up with some more unique stories.

P.S. - I forgot to mention the cats. The witches all have cats… in fact the whole town is overrun by cats (who would have thought… another total cliché). It’s, like, a totally evil town with the 13 witches and cats and the devil and sleeping spells
~Laura