A Southern teen moves from Alabama to New York and discovers she comes from a long line of witches.
With one look at her you would think that Cera Singer from Saraland, Alabama is your typical teenage girl from a rural Southern Gulf town. That is, she faces all the problems you would expect a seventeen-year-old would face; boys, drugs, fitting in, her upcoming senior year, and on top of that getting her first car on the road. But what Cera doesn't know yet is what will ultimately set Cera apart from all the other girls her age. Cera is a witch.
In this supernatural thriller, you’ll be taken along as Cera recounts her experiences in her memoir of how she discovered that the women in her mama’s family lineage were actually a long line of witches responsible for the protection of her new home and community. As Cera writes she will explain to you how her honest curiosity along with her rebellious, down-to-earth nature quickly got her into more than she could handle, mentally and physically, as she uncovers the many deep and well-hidden layers in her relationships with her mother and grandmother.
Synopsis:
After the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill shut down the fishing industry in the Gulf causing Cera’s Step Daddy Cade to lose his job, Cera and her parents find themselves in dire straits when they learn that their local bank is planning to foreclose on their home. Now just when Murphy's Law seems to be at its all time worst for Cera and her family, news comes that Cera's grandmother, Lyanna Barrett, has passed. But soon, Cera and her family quickly find out her passing isn't all bad news. In an inheritance letter that Cera's mama (Janine) receives in the weeks that follow her mother’s death, she is informed that she is to receive all of her mother’s assets which are to include a house in New York, a new Cadillac, and a substantial amount of cold, hard cash.
Reluctant to leave Saraland and move back to New York, Cera's mama is torn but sees no other option other than accepting the inheritance that her mother bequeathed to her and make a fresh start back in her place of birth, Mount Harrison.
After arriving in Mt. Harrison, a picturesque, little Western New York village nestled in a valley below the forest covered mountain from which it gets its name—Cera quickly comes to the understanding as to why her mama, at age eighteen, had elected to run away from her home and head for the Deep South.
Nearly all the village’s residence, acting under a curse put upon them by Abellona Abbott (a three hundred-year-old witch that still resides in the forest atop Mt. Harrison and takes the embodiment of her teenage former self) treats Cera and her mama with utter contempt for bringing the Barrett blood line back into the village and thereby angering Abellona Abbott even further because of a grudge the witch still carries against the Barrett family that stretches back to the time of her death.
As Cera and her family try their best to settle into their new home and community, Cera immediately finds out, even before her very first day at her new school, that she along with her mama are not going to be welcomed in their new village which quickly becomes evident to Cera by the lack of acceptance she receives from several of her new classmates and her neighbor’s disdainful attitudes towards her and her family.
If Cera hopes to survive her senior year of high school, then together with the help of another village outcast named Katelyn, she has to piece together her family’s history in Mt. Harrison in connection with Abellona Abbott, and quickly develop her newly found magic skills before it’s too late.
Professional Reviews
Alexander Gabriel
In The Forrest of light and Dark MORE than becomes its title. Opposite ends of the visible spectrum being an apt analogy of the course of this Mysterious Thriller. The story starts out in the all too well envisioned south coast of gulf shore Alabama. Where the main protagonists(Cera Singer-Barret) largest concern is not becoming another episode of 16 and pregnant.
Some of the early build in the book is well spent establishing a southern girls world viewpoint, and the dire straits that can drive a familly to abandon all they know in pursuit of a good life. It seems the story is going to be about excaping generational curses, and overcoming societal convention, however, a change of scenery, and an intriugeing mystery begins to emerge.
A journey into the history of collonial era America, and the mislead agression of a fearful, and developing community tells the tale of tragedy, betrayal, and shameful deeds. The past comes back to haunt the citizens of Mount(Morris)Harrison New York in a more than metaphorical sense.
In the shockingly powerful conclusion of In the Forest of Light and Dark the building flow of the story reaches off the page and threatens to bash the reader into submission, This final showdown could have easily been a feature length Tarantino film, complete with the kind of powerful imagery , and deliciously filthy descriptive language Grind-house fans love.
I have a suspicion much of the setting from this novel may be easily visited, with a trip up to the Letchworth State Park for a 4d reading experience. the southern setting is probably based around somewhere between Dothan AL, and Gulf Port Miss in the NASCAR loving area surrounding Mobile(pronounced Mo-bull not mo-beel)
All in all I have to say the story is bada$$. It may start like a typical teen angst piece, but hold on to your seat, and grab a box of salt.
Alexander Gabriel.
PS No cats were harmed in the making of this review.
Don Sloan
If you like a good, eerie witch story -- complete with hundreds of cats running around with the souls of children imprisoned in them -- then In the Forest of Light and Dark is your kind of book. It's a superb YA/teen read that will appeal to older readers as well.
Its narrator, Cera Singer, is a spot-on example of a down-home, countrified Southern girl, sixteen, going on seventeen, with plenty of attitude and eye-rolling sarcasm, though she's basically a good person stuck in awful circumstances.
Her mama and step-daddy are both unemployed and on the verge of having their home repossessed when, out of the blue, a certified letter arrives with the news that Cera's grandmother in New York state has died, leaving them a Cadillac, more than $400,000 in cash -- and a huge house that comes with a peculiar stipulation -- they must move from their home in Alabama and occupy it for a full year, or the inheritance is null and void.
After much soul-searching, the family decides it would be best to make the trek to the tiny village of Mount Harrison, N.Y., and have a go at it. Only problem -- it's Cera's senior year in high school, which means she'll have to endure the agony of making new friends. However, this turns out to be the least of Cera's obstacles to a happy life up North.
Right away, the persecution begins for Cera and her poor mama. Their return to the small town heralds a fresh surge of deadly occurrences -- deaths and unexplained illnesses -- allegedly owing to a long history of witchcraft in Cera's mother's family. The townies recall more than two hundred years of bad happenings, all blamed on the supposed spells cast by the female members of the family through the years.
As a result, Cera is persecuted at her new school and actively harassed before finally making a friend -- Katelyn, who stuns Cera with the news that she herself is, in fact, a practicing witch, and had been the apprentice of Cera's grandmother before the old woman died.
The story gets progressively scarier as the two teens ditch school for the day and Katelyn confirms that the 280-year-old spirit of the first girl convicted of witchcraft in Mt. Harrison -- Abalona Abbott -- still haunts the forest bordering the property, and -- even after all this time -- she's still pissed at the villagers for drowning her all those years before.
It's a good premise for a spell-binding story, one that teens and many others will undoubtedly enjoy. The author does a magnificent job of making Cera and the other Southerners speak as though they've never heard of proper grammar and he also either has a teen -- or is not far out of his teens himself -- because Cera and her young friends use the universal language of youth everywhere effortlessly. Whatever!
Five stars to In the Forest of Light and Dark. It's a story of triumph over supernatural tribulation and a tribute to the awesome power of family and friendship
Joe Prentis
Witch/Fantasy stories are very difficult to write and many writers do a less than admirable job of putting the events together in a logical plot. The main character and narrator of the book is Cara Singer, a high school student from the Gulf Coast of Alabama. Kasniak does a good job of sketching her character from the first paragraph through the language Cara uses. She has plenty of attitude and isn’t afraid to express it. The Singers are a working class family, and when the Gulf oil spill destroys the local economy, her family become desperate as they seek a way to keep from losing their home. Cara is somewhat rebellions, because of her strong will and a desire to find herself in a difficult world.
There is plenty of black magic in the book, but the author wisely leaves it until he has hooked the reader into suspending disbelief. As the story unfolds, you find yourself liking Cara and her friends which is what carries the action of a good book along to a satisfactory conclusion. I was delighted when I read the author’s note at the end and found that there will be a sequel. This is a great Teen/YA book that the reader will find difficult to put down. I give Mr. Kasniak a well-deserved 5-stars and wish him every success with this and his other books.
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