Pattern Scars

By: Caitlin Sweet

Narrated by: Claire Christie

Nola is born into poverty in Sarsenay City. When her mother realizes that Nola has the gift of Othersight and can foretell the future, she sells her to a brothel seer, who teaches the girl to harness her gift. As she grows up, she embraces her new life, and even finds a small circle of friends. All too soon, her world is again turned upside down when one of them is murdered. When a handsome, young Otherseer from the castle promises to teach her, she eagerly embraces the prospects of luxury beyond what she can imagine and safety from a killer who stalks girls by night. Little does she know that he will soon draw her into a web of murder, treachery, and obsessive desire that will threaten the people and land she holds dear, and that she will soon learn the harshest of lessons: that being able to predict the future has nothing to do with being able to prevent it.

©2011 Caitlin Sweet (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Dark fiction

if you are into murder in the name of magic, you may enjoy this. otherwise I would steer clear

Christie can't cover up the plodding

What would have made Pattern Scars better?

There's all these vivid scenes about Otherseeing, but they're not really essential to the story. The story would be basically unchanged if they were just wise magicians, for example. Having the Otherseeing be the driver of the story rather than the weird relationship between the two main characters would have lifted the book out of the slice-of-life rut it's in now.

What was most disappointing about Caitlin Sweet’s story?

I kept expecting something exciting to happen, from about an 1/8th of the way in, through to the end.

Have you listened to any of Claire Christie’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is the first of Claire Christie's performances I've listened to.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Malaise.