OTHER WORDS FOR SMOKE - SARAH MARIA GRIFFIN✨🔮
Sarah Maria Griffin has done it. This book is fantastic- I love the style of the writing and particularly the use of Asterisks and footnotes. I love the role that the tarot plays in Mae and Rita’s lives and how it helps add so much depth to the novel - perhaps because Griffin herself dabbles in the art of tarot. I love how spooky it gets and how the suspense builds throughout - amplified by the short chapters and the changed of POV. Perhaps the most interesting part is the exploration of LGBTQ+ relationship in the novel and the role of infatuation - Mae becomes infatuated with Bevan and obsessive. But perhaps the greatest story of obsession is between Bevan and Sweet James: the omnipresent spirit who lives in the walls of this old home who creeps in the wallpaper in the form of an owl.
And I know it’s wrong to judge a book by its cover but i am obsessed with the cover of this book- I love the reference to Sweet James on underneath the shiny petals and I really LOVE the shiny petals. The picture doesn’t do it any justice but I would highly recommend picking up this gem of a book - especially if you’ve ever stayed in an old house and through you could hear a voice calling out to you in the walls or if you’re someone who peeks around contents in fear of a ghost standing down the hall. This is a book for the mystic and superstitious in all of us and it’s brilliant.
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