Disturbing, intriguing, boundless, horrific, interesting, scary and gripping! What a story! What an author!
The Witch bottle shows is Daniel, a milk man who carries grief and regret with him like the majority of us carry a face mask and hand gel. Having lost his baby brother at the tender age of five and his mother struggling with catatonic depression, he witnessed the horrifically traumatic birth of his daughter and undiagnosed post natal depression of his wife (this last part isn’t mentioned exactly but an email from his wife in one of the last chapters is why I say this) leading him into further turmoil when his mother passes. We see this lonely and odd milk man become haunted a by the strangest of eery spectrums and see a hidden part of our work along side him.
I’m unsure if the book has a happily ever after, but we are made aware that Daniel saved the world as we know it somehow and to me this is an assumption of a happy ending (just not really for Daniel but give the man his posthumous credit where it’s deserved!) as Katherine dreams of Marriane and all is not well in these dreams and she’s aware of something looming outside in the darkness when she wakes. Very much a cliff hanger of epic proportions!
This book gripped and enthralled me, shocked and saddened me and also sickened me (for the right reasons-a good gore scene in a novel can be hard to interpret and the perception varies from person to person) and the hit that has really stick with me is the part where Ryan has joined the Fallen Stock drivers and Daniel is surrounded by them and forced to the steps of the rear of the truck face down and made to drink (spoiler alert sorry!). Needless to say this novel has made me very glad I’m a vegetarian!
Fletcher’s style of writing was good with exceptionally strong descriptive and narratives, but when narration changed from one character to another, it wasn’t always clear immediately and lead to a few sentences having to be re-read. I feel like the description of life as a milk man and it’s routine was accurate but I feel like maybe I didn’t need to take on board all of the information given, but nice to learn new.
Never having read anything from Fletcher before I am keeping a keen eye on him for future releases.
Morelli’s Reads 