THE THIRTEENTH SACRIFICE by Debbie Viguie

The Thirteenth Sacrifice
Debbie Viguie

Grade: A-
Release Date: 04/03/12

Synopsis from goodreads.com:
When young women start dying, Boston cop Samantha Ryan is the perfect person to investigate, for only she knows what the archais symbol carved into their flesh means. The last in a long line of ruthless witches, she grew up in a coven seduced by power and greed. And now she's sure that bad witches have returned to Salem. Reluctantly, Samantha goes undercover-into a town obsessed with black magic, into her terrifying past, and into thedark, newly awakened heart of evil.

My thoughts on the book:
The Thirteenth Sacrifice is a thrill ride that you do not want to miss! This was the creepiest, most suspenseful book I've read in a long time. The mystery is there, but it's pretty straight forward. We know, that a coven of witches that is practicing human sacrifice are the bad guys from the beginning. We just don't know why they're sacrificing humans, and then once we find that out, we don't know how bad it can really get. This is a book that I couldn't put down.

Viguie kept the action and reveals to a maximum in this book. Every time I thought I had something figured out, she'd add something else and throw me for a loop. I had what, exactly, the coven was trying to do figured out pretty early on, but I had no idea who the high priestess was. That was a huge shock, and so were her sidekicks. The Thirteenth Sacrifice is also heavy on the paranormal, and I loved that. It is light on the romance, which was also refreshing. The character developments were HUGE, especially for Samantha. She really grew and changed a lot throughout the novel.

Samantha is a strong, yet flawed character. She's broken down, but I don't believe she's fully broken. She's putting herself back together the best she can, and she faces her nightmares every day. She was raised in a coven of witches, and they were really bad witches. Her childhood entailed witnessing human sacrifices, being forced to sacrifice animals, extreme abuse from her mother and the coven leader, and coming into contact with demons (the real ones, not the figurative ones). She locked all of that, along with her magical powers, neatly away after the massacre of her coven in which she was the soul survivor. She went to the police station, and her current boss/captain was only an officer at the time (she was 12). He placed her in a foster home with a psychologist and his wife, and this family helped her heal. She is an excellent cop, and she has no problem not using her powers until murders start happening that are very obviously real human sacrifices. That is when the real character development begins. She is thrown back into the world of the coven, and she has to go back to her hometown of Salem. Samantha has to face her past and all of her greatest fears. Does she make it out alive and unscathed? Well you'll just have to read the book to find out.

Anthony grew quite a bit throughout the novel as well, and it's always nice to see a secondary character well-developed and taking part in character growth. He ended up being a better person, and I really hope to see more of him as the series progresses. The other characters in the novel, aside from the coven, weren't as well-developed, though they still had their own distinct personalities. Also, when the supporting characters changed over the course of the novel, which they did, I didn't like how they ended up. Maybe that was the point, though. It certainly didn't affect how I felt about or read the story, so maybe it didn't even matter how they changed.

The plot for this novel was extremely complicated. It was action and mystery driven. There was very little romance, and that was perfectly fine in my book. Sometimes I feel that I can't get to know a character's emotions very well if there's no romance at all. The books seem to fall flat emotionally. That wasn't the case with The Thirteenth Sacrifice. This book was still an emotional roller coaster, even without much romance. The pacing was spot on, and nothing dragged or felt rushed. It was literally one tragedy after another. Furthermore, the ending wrapped up all of the major questions of this novel nicely, but left room for a sequel. I didn't feel like I was left hanging in any means, but I can't wait to see what happens in the next book. That's how authors should end their novels. Cliffhangers are obnoxious. Also, you do find out why the book is called The Thirteenth Sacrifice. I was wondering that for awhile, but I finally found out toward the end. It's not as simple a concept as you'd think, so don't judge my inability to figure it out, haha.

The one thing I didn't like in this book is that it had a lot of religion in it. Not only Christianity, but also Wicca. The message seemed to be religious tolerance, but it was a bit too obvious. I felt like I was being lectured at some points. Religious tolerance is an extremely important thing, and more people need to embrace it. However, in the middle of a story it just gets on my nerves. It's never good to feel like the author has an agenda when crafting a work of fiction. It not only sidetracks you from the story, but it makes you feel like you're being preached at throughout the novel. I read fiction to escape reality. Therefore, I really don't want the world's problems thrown in my face while I'm reading. I'd have to recommend that Viguie either make her messages more subtle or just eliminate them all together in her next novel. It didn't offend me, but it did annoy me at certain parts.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone who has a strong stomach and doesn't scare extremely easily. It's not as scary as Steven King by any means, but it is creepy and can freak you out if, say, you're reading it when massive storms are going through your area and it's the middle of the night. Yea, I did that. I still slept like a baby afterwards, but I was a bit jumpy every time it thundered for about an hour after I finished the book, haha. Anyway, this is a book you do not want to miss (as previously stated). Viguie has a wonderful voice. It's easy to sympathize with Samantha, even though the book is written from a 3rd person limited POV (following Samantha). It's suspenseful and well-written, and you won't be able to put it down until the very end. You definitely want to pre-order The Thirteenth Sacrifice today!

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