*Book source ~ Many thanks to Entangled for providing a review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Jade Clarence is an exorcist, but she doesn’t like the way the family business handles exorcisms. Her great-grandfather started the business after his wife was killed by a spirit and his incantations destroy the soul of the spirit causing extreme pain to the ghost. Jade feels that she can find an incantation to send a spirit on without destroying the soul or causing pain. She also feels that a good spirit should have the right to stay if it wants. However, after allowing the spirit of a teen hoodwink her into believing he is benign, he kills the property owner where he is hanging out. A tragedy that falls on Jade’s shoulders since she refused to perform the exorcism. Her older brother is giving her a chance to redeem herself with an exorcism at Hutchinson’s Falls. If she can’t do her job he’ll have no choice but to kick her out of the business. But Jade finds out that Dutch is no ordinary ghost, so she doesn’t do the job. When her brother comes to do what she can’t, Jade is forced to resort to extreme measures to make her point.
This is a great short story with interesting aspects of exorcism and great characters. It could use a bit more character development because I couldn’t get a really good feel for Jade or Dutch, but for a short it is pretty good. I’m a little fuzzy about what Jade did there at the end and how that’s going to work for the long term, but I’ll suspend belief and just go with it. I don’t think I’ve ever read a story involving exorcists, so that aspect of the story was fascinating to me. I look forward to reading more stories by Sarah Gilman.
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