But the Motherwells may be more than they seem. As Ginger's keen imagination takes up the seductive mystery of their past, she also draws closer to her town's darker history-back to the days of the Salem witch trials-and every new bit of information she thinks she understands leads only to more questions. Who-or what-exactly, are the Motherwells? And what is it they want with her?
Both a lyrical coming-of-age story and a spine-tingling tale of ghostly menace, The Beginners introduces Rebecca Wolff as an exciting new talent in fiction.
Pete says:
"'It must be witchcraft...' sang Frank Sinatra many years ago. And it just may be again for the tiny New England town of Wick, when a mysterious young couple arrives just as bookish, good girl Ginger Pritt is about to come of age. Witches didn't have it so good 400 years ago in those parts; they were drowned, hung, or burned at the stake at the mere accusations from imaginative teenagers. So what are they doing back in Wick? Is it payback time, or possibly to recruit new members? Perhaps they're not witches at all but opportunists intent on robbing the innocence of impressionable young girls.
Ginger is indeed a beginner but certainly no fool. She knows her town, its inhabitants and their secrets, both past and present. When seduction (evil or otherwise) presents itself, it is not entirely without want. As an awkward adolescent living in the shadow of her dead brother, Ginger is essentially invisible in her own life. She comes to find that when you're a ghost the possibilities are endless. The things she wants, to be looked at, to be kissed, to be loved, are suddenly within reach. But then, when real life rears its sometimes ugly head, it turns out that witchcraft becomes the least of her problems.
I could say that the author casts a fine spell, or stirs up a delightfully mysterious potion, but will leave it at 'It must be witchcraft...' Or is it?"
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