For the people on the rugged Irish island of Winding Gale, life has always been hard. Now in the wake of the second World War, the island is dying, the young taken away by death or the appeal of better lives elsewhere, leaving behind only a handful of adults.
But on the night the men of the island disappear while fishing in uncharted waters, the women of Winding Gale are forced into a conflict with something both new and unfathomably old.
A strange greenish mist rolls in, cutting the island off from the mainland. Spiral symbols appear in the sand, fashioned from dead fish and stones. Seductive voices lure people from their homes to walk into the sea. Ancient ships materialize in the fog. And specters of the past will rise to take their vengeance in blood.
Because this is Samhain, a time when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest, and there is something rising from the deep that will thrust the women of Winding Gale into a war against an unspeakable evil few of them may survive.
I can always count on Kealan Patrick Burke to pull me out of a reading slump. When I opened The Widows of Winding Gale, it lifted me out of the slumpiest slump I've ever slumped before.
I loved everything about this book, from the isolated island setting to the 1940s time period and the impending spookiness of Halloween. Most of all, I loved the characters. A small group of four tenacious women and their husbands who have endured the hardships of living on the island with only occasional deliveries of goods from the mainland. The men of the island are currently off on the fishing boat. This is not an unusual part of island life, except that this time they have gone out farther than they have ever been, and they have caught more than fish. There is something in their net that is beyond belief, and there is something in the sea that wants revenge. As the women await their husbands' return long past the time they were expected back, the fog rolls in, bringing something sinister that the women will have to face on their own.
Fast-paced and expertly written in such a way that I could picture the island, smell the sea, and feel the terror. I was so heavily invested in this eerie and heartbreaking tale that it was as if I experienced every dashed hope and tragedy that ever befell the current and past inhabitants of the island.
5 out of 5 stars
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