Alexandra Pierce Reviews The Briar Book of the Dead by A.G. Slatter

The Briar Book of the Dead, A.G. Slatter (Titan 978-1-80336-454-4, $16.99, 368pp, tp) Cover by Julia Lloyd. February 2024.

With The Briar Book of the Dead following up The Path of Thorns, A.G. Slatter shows that her genius for the magical gothic tale is not waning, with witches and ghosts and terrible deeds coming together to create a riveting story.

The Briar witches live in, and govern, the small town of Silverton. One Briar every generation, the most powerful witch, is officially the Briar Witch; she is assisted by a Steward – another Briar. Ellie Briar will be Steward to her cousin Audra, when the time comes, despite the fact that Ellie is an oddity: She is the first Briar for generations to have no capacity for magic. No number of cuts to her arm, in an attempt to pay the red price necessary to work magic, has made magic manifest. Her grandmother expects her to still act like a Briar; her cousins are more ambivalent about her place in the family. Still, when the previous Steward – Ellie’s great-aunt – dies, Ellie takes over, and does her best to prove she can be an excellent Steward even without magic.

All too soon, Ellie encounters odd events: stores are going missing, and so are folks on outlying farms. The strangest thing, however, is Ellie dis­covering that she can see, and speak to, ghosts. This is strange because of Ellie’s magic-less nature, and because for generations Silverton has been a town with no ghosts, thanks to the first Briar Witch. Matters are further complicated for all the Briars by the arrival of a new priest. Silverton is lucky to be far enough away from the center of power that they are rarely bothered by the church; as well, the Briars have been forging letters from the last priest (Ellie’s grandfather) ever since he died. Everyone knows, though, that the church may change its attitude towards Silverton at any time, so there is always an undercurrent of fear – a new priest could have terrible consequences. All these events mean Ellie’s time as Steward starts with difficulty, and it just gets worse as she realizes various problems are connected to one another – and that she is the one to deal with it.

The Briar Book of the Dead is directly con­nected to characters in Slatter’s 2015 novella Of Sorrow and Such (although you don’t need to read it before reading this); they’re set in the same world as many of Slatter’s mosaic novels and short stories (Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bit­terwood Bible and Other Recountings – indeed, the Bitterwood Bible is mentioned here). Many of the same themes and motifs recur across all these stories. There’s a questioning of power and authority, and the price of power in its many forms; there’s a focus on community, on making it and how it operates. The Briars know that their position of power in the town is not guaranteed, and they sometimes need to do difficult things to maintain it. Most significantly for this story, Slatter is always interested in women’s relation­ships, particularly maternal and sororal. Ellie is an orphan, as are her cousins; her relationship with those cousins, and their grandmother and great-aunt, is the fulcrum of the narrative. The difficulties of being odd-one-out, the desire for acceptance, as well as the need to be seen as an individual: All of these things make Ellie a deeply compelling character. Add to that the difficulties of family history, and the power of family secrets – the Briars are a very real family, for all that they are complicated by magic.

The Briar Book of the Dead is evidence that Slatter keeps going from strength to strength. She writes complex characters, who are utterly believable in their relationships and attitudes; she creates vibrant worlds whose details show there’s so much more to them than appears on the page. And her prose is so beautiful and absorbing that 350 pages fly by, and you’re left wanting more.

This review and more like it in the March 2024 issue of Locus.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the science fiction and fantasy field.

©Locus Magazine. Copyrighted material may not be republished without permission of LSFF.