Sweet & Salty Reviews - The Stroke of Thirteen by Carrie Gessner

The Dish
I’ve been good and hit all my deadlines, so I decided to reward myself by cracking open another Carrie Gessner joint. The Stroke of Thirteen is a stand-alone urban fantasy novel. Anyone who has not yet read Carrie’s short-story collection, Empyrea, should immediately stop whatever they are doing, including reading this, and read that instead.

The Sauce
Grace Pembleton is the last descendent of the founders of Witch Wood. When her grandfather dies, she inherits his Bed & Breakfast, as well as his responsibility to rid Witch Wood of its infestation of supernatural entities. Unfortunately, Grace’s resolution to keep the peace through non-violent means is going to be sorely tested when the monsters decide to avenge themselves against Grace for her grandfather’s crimes.

The Sweet
Most urban fantasy stories with this concept would spend a few chapters killing off the grandfather and setting up Grace as the town’s protector. The Stroke of Thirteen catapults us through Grace’s first four months in Witch Wood, picking up when she is already borderline familiar with the place and the job. It’s a refreshing change of pace that chops several chapters of predictability out of the narrative and I think more urban fantasy authors could benefit from seeing how this doesn’t impact the story in a negative way.

As with Carrie’s other novel, Dying of the Golden Day, and her short stories in Empyrea, it is Carrie’s characters that really shine. Carrie’s worlds are awash with weary twenty-somethings torn between strong conviction and vulnerability. They are sassy and self-deprecating, noble and conflicted, and always have great potential for both light or darkness. In short, they are exactly the kind of characters I like to read about. The cast is rounded out by a number of older folk, formidable librarians, dark-haired women with enigmatic smiles and middle-aged mansplaining elected officials who maybe aren’t quite as unreasonable as they first seem.

The nicest thing about Carrie’s characters is the layers each of them have. No one is one-dimensional. Even the villains have their reasons for everything they do and levels even they will not stoop to. A lot is made of Grandpa Pembleton’s violent methods and it isn’t hard to see why the supernaturals would want revenge on him. At the same time, Grace’s conviction to be non-violent causes a lot of moral conflict on both the human and supernatural side.

Witch Wood is also a wonderful location full of weird creatures and unusual characters. It has a soul and a character of its own that I could liken to Beacon Hills from MTV’s Teen Wolf (another great example of urban fantasy). As such, the Stroke of Thirteen universe has unlimited scope for all kinds of creatures to rampage through the sleepy little town and Carrie shows a number of them in this story itself.

I have to give the story an extra point for the relationship between the three central characters, Grace, Rosie and Phee. Grace alone is an excellent central figure. Her willingness to go to hell and back for her friends, her ability to brush off injury and keep pressing forward, all remind me of the most important person in my life.

But, with her two friends, she is truly formidable and the three share some great moments. I enjoy their banter greatly and, while the story itself is pretty clean depicting them as three very close friends, I will confess that I ship them, maybe just a little.

The Salty
My only issue, such as it is, with The Stroke of Thirteen is that the plot could have been sewn up a little tighter. All of the elements are there - a coalition of vicious supernatural creatures out for revenge, a slow countdown to the fateful hour, the legacy of Grandpa Pembleton and the strange history of Witch Wood itself, which all come together in a storm-infused maelstrom of revelations and bloodshed. Unfortunately, I felt that the ending could have made better use of those elements. This might simply have been my own expectations getting in the way, because I had very different ideas about how the story should have ended.

That being said, the aftermath of the story is very sweet and it is, at its heart, a feel-good tale, much like the stories collected in Empyrea. I simply cannot be upset with a story that makes me feel so happy for the characters I have walked with through those chapters.

I’m also subtracting a point for February, Erin and Alison. Carrie knows why.

The Aftertaste
I always come away from Carrie Gessner’s stories with a lot of mixed feelings. I’m sad, I’m happy, I’m exultant, I’m comforted. I empathise so strongly with these characters and the issues they face. Yes, they live in fantastic worlds filled with strange creatures and conflict, but they have been touched by the same issues as I have - disenfranchisement, lack of clarity in life, a need to belong and be loved. They are, despite being fictional, very real.

I sync with these characters very quickly, and with Grace especially. Every death, every laugh, every terrible revelation and every triumph they face moves me deeply. Carrie Gessner’s work shakes me like a soda can and I’d recommend it to anyone. Period.