The Coven Review
Author: Corvina Sweeney
Rating: 8.0 GREAT
What’s it About?
A spell gone wrong. A demon who won't leave. A zombie with a bad attitude.
When three witches move into the abandoned Pritchard House, they expect whispers from the small-town locals. What they don't expect? Raising the dead, unleashing a demon with a flair for chaos, and becoming the town's number-one enemy overnight.
They needed answers. What they got was a supernatural disaster.
Now, with a flesh-hungry zombie roaming the streets, a demon stirring up trouble, and an angry mob sharpening their pitchforks, they have one night to set things right-before the town, or something far worse, takes them down.
Review
The Coven by Corvina Sweeney was the perfectly zany horror comedy that I needed. It’s a great palate cleanser or for anyone looking to shut their brain off and just have fun. I flew through this entertaining romp that’s filled with small town gossip and larger-than-life characters all spinning in a tornado of chaos. If the often deadpan humor is your jam, you’ll fully enjoy your stay in the sleepy town of Albany, Luisiana. Just maybe steer clear of the old Pritchard place…
“At least if anyone accuses us of being witches, we can tell them we’re more about sparkles and penis statues than dark magic.”
The small town setting of Albany was the perfect setting for a simple premise. Once the cast of witches move in, the gossip begins. There’s a charm and a sense of unease of constantly being watched. Often times, it’s a local passerby with curious eyes. But once one local knows, they all know. There’s a subtle unease to the gossip and prying eyes that really worked for me. There were so many knowing nods and unspoken whispers throughout the town. It made me feel like an outsider, and I related to the newcomers (or outsiders) quite quickly. Who knew that the unsettling calm and mundane would be the perfect setup for the insanity that was about to boil over. Sweeney does a great job at keeping you guessing as to where the narrative is headed. The scene is perfectly set, all the players are in place, and for several chapters there’s a tense feeling that things are going to go south really quickly. When the chaos hits, it hits hard. It’s wild, insane, funny, and entertaining as hell! The author is clearly in their element while orchestrating the chaos like a deranged puppet master. I mean this in the most positive and complimentary way. It was around this point, that it all came together for me. The mundane, the slow pace, the small town, it was all a brilliant setup for the author to take the gloves off and go wild. It’s clear that Corvina Sweeney had a blast writing The Coven. I felt the same way about reading it.
The author is extremely adept at setting a scene. I felt like I was living in the old Pritchard house right along side these colorful characters. Perhaps it’s the healthy combination of snappy dialogue and descriptive writing that pulled me in so much. For the most part, the main cast of witches had me chuckling with a continuous smile on my face. Although, not all of the humor landed with me. Several versions of the same quips took me out of it from time to time. There were also some redundancies used where the author should have trusted the reader a bit more. This criticism aside, most of Sweeney’s humor is right up my alley. Even though everything didn’t stick the landing, it still lead to deepening my connection to this quirky Coven. The town of Albany itself has a personality of its own. Everyone has a believable name and backstory no matter how minor of a character they are. They all felt like real people you could run into at the market. I really appreciated the detail that went into each resident. It really made a difference for me. Especially due to the slow pace of at the beginning of the book. Getting a side glare from a random person at a diner is much different than getting a side glare from Doreen Phelps, the church organist and town’s leading expert on who was going straight to Hell. I would be remise if I didn’t specifically mention Kevin. He is by far my favorite character in the book. He was a walking cliche that had me laughing every time he sauntered or shambled into a room.
I feel like The Coven is a tale of two stories. The first third, a restrained slow burn contemporary horror. The final two thirds is an off-the-rails, over-the-top, dark comedy where anything and everything goes. To put it into perspective, the first third of the book took me over a day and a half to read. The final two thirds took me a few hours. (I am a slow reader who takes a lot of notes) Hopefully this gives you a sense of how I viewed the pacing and my interest in the plot. The more the lunacy snowballed, the more engrossed I became. I went from thinking The Coven had way too slow of a pace, to frantically flipping the pages out of pure joy and bewilderment. It was the best case of whiplash. I could certainly see not everybody connecting with The Coven. It can have a very distinct dry sense of humor and the beginnings pacing could be a barrier for some. However, after finishing the book, it’s clear to me that the author has hand crafted a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day style horror comedy that I enjoyed immensely. It takes horror and comedy and sprinkles in a heavy dose of quips and cliches, throws it all into a blender to be poured over an unsuspecting small town. It’s almost as unhinged as this review. I definitely recommend The Coven by Corvina Sweeney.