BLOOD AND SALT

Ash finds herself trapped in the cult her mother grew up in, surrounded by carnivorous corn and possibly destined to have her body inhabited by an immortal ancestor.

Ash has always been haunted by visions of a hanging girl, from whom her peculiar, mystical mom protects her with a series of invisible tattoos. But when her mother disappears, Ash and her twin brother, Rhys, suspect she’s been taken back to her ancestral cult, and they set out to rescue her. Upon arriving, Ash is immediately drawn to Dane, who meets them in the car junkyard just beyond the boundaries of the corn. Turns out these cars foreshadow the fact that people who wander through this cornfield end up being eaten (unless they are magical like Dane). Once in the cult, Ash’s visions begin revealing a fantastical back story that involves true love gone wrong, immortality, black magic, and plenty of bloodshed, all of which is difficult to follow. Equally confusing is how quickly Ash accepts the strange cult rituals and how her concern for her mother and brother only rarely surfaces. Stylistically, metaphors abound, but characters and their relationships are given far less attention and development. The end sets readers up for another installment.

The combination of underexplained plotting, baroque setup, and inconsistent characters creates a bewildering read.