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“It could fizzle away to nothing, or it could build itself into a monster.”

Written in the first person voices of our main protagonists, this story essentially follows a place, St Medard’s bay, on Alabamas Gulf Coast, which has been shell shocked by violent hurricanes across the decades. In an interesting twist, the author summons each protagonist to tell a story in a timeline that aligns with one of these major storms. In this way we cross-cross time, backwards and forwards, learning stories or their backstories, across five different timelines — stretching from 1965 to 2025.

At its core, this creepy, atmospheric thriller revolves around three close friends, the self-proclaimed “Witches of Medard Bay”, who enter our story initially at nineteen years old.

Gloria “Lo” Bailey is the gorgeous, sassy teenage mistress of a very rich and powerful man, who somehow ends up dead in a hurricane. Is Gloria, (who exhibits a fluidly uncrackable self-confidence), fun and sweet, narcissistic and careless, or could she actually be a cold-blooded murderer?

Along with her two best friends — Ellen Chambers, “nice” and conscientious, whose family have run the pink and pretty Rosalie Inn on the beach for generations, and Edie, self-possessed, quiet and smart — Lo will come alive between these pages as we follow their stories, back and forth, intertwined and branching, across the hurricanes and decades.

“Not talking about anything unpleasant, ever, is as much as southern tradition as biscuits and gravy.”

A fascinating read, this is a terrific story with a complex and compelling plot, and a mood so authentically southern it will get under your skin. And hold you there.

With characters talking, and yet, not talking, of strange and terrible events, we will find ourselves trapped, again and again, in the shivery onslaught of yet another raging storm.

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.