Perfectly Preventable Deaths
By Deirdre Sullivan
Blurb:
Everyone in Ballyfran has a secret, and that is what binds them together…
Fifteen-year-old twins Madeline and Catlin move to a new life in Ballyfran, a strange isolated town, a place where, for the last sixty years, teenage girls have gone missing in the surrounding mountains.
As distance grows between the twins - as Catlin falls in love, and Madeline begins to understand her own nascent witchcraft - Madeline discovers that Ballyfrann is a place full of predators. Not only foxes, owls and crows, but also supernatural beings who for many generations have congregated here to escape persecution. When Catlin falls into the gravest danger of all, Madeline must ask herself who she really is, and who she wants to be - or rather, who she might have to become to save her sister.
Dark and otherworldly, this is an enthralling story about the bond between sisters and the sacrifices we make for those we care about the most. For fans of Frances Hardinge and Laure Eve.
I received this book in Book Box Club in June, I've never heard of the author before so it was nice to be introduced to someone new. I really liked her other book, so I had high hopes for this one. In a way I'm so pleased I read them in the order that I have because otherwise I really don't think I would have read Tangleweed and Brine.
This book was really slow, not much action and it was actually quite predictable sadly. The book was a solid 2 stars for about 60% of the book, this was down to not much happening. Basically the 2 girls in this book are twins they move from their town to a really small village because their mother was just remarried and she has quit her job so she can move and just enjoy life. The village that they moved to has a history of girls going missing or being killed.
So these two girls start going to school and this one guy befriends one of the twins, they end up falling in love and it's sickly love where all they do is talk about this one person. Madeline has these sort of instincts where she has to use everyday items to protect herself and her family. She finds that this quite normal in this little village as they each have something special about themselves.
Madeline is possibly classed as the main character because it is told in her perspective as such and all the chapters are called after herbs and it tells you their uses. So it actually quite sweet that they match each other to be honest that's possibly like the only thing that I like about the book. Madeline also ends up discovering herself in this little village as we discover that she is a lesbian. She is also really protective over her sister Caitlin which gets a bit messy now she is interested in a boy.
Basically things go spiraling with relationships between everyone and then there is this huge discovery and a plot twist, once you make this huge discovery things just keep falling in place for this event to happen and then with Mamo and her magical powers it sort of all fits together. That's all I'm saying but it is just really predictable, there are also parts in this book where animals are being cut up so it's not exactly the enticing sweet book you expect it to be, as the scenes are quite gruesome and detailed.
The characters majority of the time really annoy me, the only one that didn't exactly annoy me was Madeline because she seemed down to earth and her habits to protect her family were quite normal in my eyes. So she is the only one that stands out to be honest.
This book is really good if you enjoy sisterly love and discovery of oneself. But other than that it's not really worth the read. I know next time I'll be wary of this author sadly and won't just automatically purchase her books. I will be willing to try more of her stuff though when she releases some. I believe this book is just a standalone so I'm pleased. And I apologies it took me so long to read I was just really struggling with it and I was close to getting into a reading slump again sadly.
Favourite Character: Madeline
Read: 27/07/19 - 08/09/19
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