Cackle by Rachel Harrison

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Reader Friends, this book is delightful. Now, if like my husband, you think spiders are murderous little monsters intent on eliminating all humankind, you may not find this as delightful as there are A LOT of spiders in this book. But I loved it and flew through it the other night.

Annie has been dumped by her long time boyfriend Sam and is now on her own for the first time in nearly a decade. Breaking up with Sam also means leaving New York City for a new town, new job, and new apartment. Devastated by the break-up, Annie spends her time obsessed with reading old text exchanges from Sam and scrolling through old photos while wine drunk on her couch. As if that wasn’t enough, her new job is plagued with clique-y coworkers, unruly students, and a nosy boss. It’s an all-around crap-tastic situation.

But then Annie meets Sophie. A beautiful, interesting, intriguing woman who lives alone in a mansion in the woods. The more time they spend together, the more Annie realizes that the people in the small village of Rowan seem genuinely afraid of Sophie. She rarely pays for anything in the stores and diners and the townspeople seem very nervous around her. But Annie is enthralled by Sophie’s grace and independent lifestyle. As the two become closer, little things start to make Annie uneasy about their budding friendship. The more Sophie pushes Annie to stop apologizing and live her life as she please, the more Annie realizes that there is a cost to that kind of living.

This was so good! Harrison did such a great job building the tension between Sophie and the people of Rowan. So many of the interactions felt just that littlest bit off from normal so it was easy to brush it all off as people just not liking her, or the complete opposite, like they had such respect for her that they couldn’t possibly do anything that would insult her. Also, Annie isn’t used to small town living and can’t tell if it’s just how the villagers are with each other or if there is something bigger going on. Annie’s break up with Sam runs really close to the line of obsession and threatens to become all consuming which definitely clouds her judgement when it comes to Sophie. There were quite a few times that I was definitely on Team Sophie and wanted to Annie to just get over him and move on but I also understand how hard it was for her to completely sever that tie. Cackle also shows how hard it is to make new friends as an adult and the struggles that come along with moving to a new town where you don’t know a single person.

Not going to lie, I would move into Sophie’s woodland mansion in a heartbeat. I loved how Annie had to travel through the woods, past a run-down, abandoned hut, and a graveyard to get there. Knowing there was no direct route to Sophie’s made it feel very eerie, but also quite magical. And this house was magical. Enormous, with a grand ballroom and many guest rooms, Sophie’s mansion was as run-down as it was expansive. I loved how it was covered in dust and cobwebs but still full of crystal chandeliers and an indoor swimming pool. How do you pass up an indoor swimming pool?

And possibly full of ghosts? Possibly.

This was a delightfully spooky and eerie tale that was full of surprises. It’s definitely on the lighter side if you’ve spent the past month immersed in all things horror, this may be a great book to lighten things up a bit. This would be a great choice for those that love watching characters grown and change throughout a story. Annie’s life and attitude changes dramatically in really interesting and compelling ways.

If you would love to add this charming and chilling book to your shelf, you can find ordering information here:

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