The Witch of Napoli by Michael Schmicker

This is a book I received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book caught my eye because I’ve always been interested in witchcraft and the occult, ever since high school. Loosely based on the real-life story of Eusapia Palladino (1854-1918), a controversial and famous Italian medium, it blends fact and fiction to tell the story of Allesandra Poverelli through the eyes of her friend and believer, Tomaso Labella. Just 16 when he photographs one of her table levitations for the newspaper, Tomaso becomes enthralled with Allesandra, who is in her 40s. I won’t go into great detail on the story synopsis, as plenty of other reviewers have done so, but the gist is that Allesandra’s powers are challenged publicly, and she and Tomaso embark on a tour of Europe with Camillo Lombardi, a psychiatrist/professor who was a skeptic but became a believer after his own mother appeared to him in a séance. Lombardi arranges the tour so Allesandra can prove herself to the doubters, who do their best to make it impossible for Allesandra to play tricks. Meanwhile, her abusive husband Pigotti is after her, the Vatican is trying to discredit her, and Allesandra is sick. The stress of the tour and her illness make it increasingly difficult for her to perform.

The book is well-written and kept me turning the pages. It made me want to look up Eusapia Palladino and learn more about her, and I found that Allesandra’s story pretty much parallels Eusapia’s. It is an interesting read and would make a cool film.

In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume

This is a book I received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I got this book, I moved it up to the top of my reading list because, well, Judy Blume. I was excited to get started. But once I got into it, I thought maybe it was a YA novel. Until the first sex scene, anyway. The writing seems juvenile, for lack of a better term, and it is choppy, with short sentences and switching POV every few paragraphs. I lost track of how many POV characters there were. Too many to keep straight.

The fictional story revolves around three actual plane crashes that took place in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in just a few months in 1951-52. The many characters are all intertwined somehow, with the main focus being on Miri, a ninth grade Jewish girl who lives with her single mother, her grandmother, and her uncle, who happens to be the newspaper reporter who covers the crashes. One plane narrowly misses Miri’s school before crashing. The book tells how people’s lives are changed by the crashes – not only that of Miri and her family, but also her boyfriend, her friends, their families, their employers, and so on.

The story was compelling enough to keep me reading, and the characters likeable and believable. It’s just the writing style that I didn’t particularly care for.