The Witchstone
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
An unforgettable, high-stakes, laugh-out-loud funny novel, The Witchstone blends the merciless humor of The Good Place with the spellbinding fantasy of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.
Meet Laszlo, eight-hundred-year-old demon and Hell’s least productive Curse Keeper. From his office beneath Midtown, he oversees the Drakeford Curse, which involves a pathetic family upstate and a mysterious black monolith. It’s a sexy enough assignment—colonial origins, mutating victims, et cetera—but Laszlo has no interest in maximizing the curse’s potential; he’d rather sunbathe in Ibiza, quaff martinis, and hustle the hustlers on Manhattan’s subway. Unfortunately, his division has new management, and Laszlo’s ratings are so abysmal that he’s given six days to shape up or he’ll be melted down and returned to the Primordial Ooze.
Meet Maggie Drakeford, nineteen-year-old Curse Bearer. All she’s ever known is the dreary corner of the Catskills where the Drakeford Curse has devoured her father’s humanity and is rapidly laying claim to her own. The future looks hopeless, until Laszlo appears at the Drakeford farmhouse one October night and informs them that they have six days—and six days only—to break the spell before it becomes permanent. Can Maggie trust the glib and handsome Laszlo? Of course not. But she also can’t pass up an opportunity to save her family, even if it means having a demon as a guide …
Thus begins a breakneck international adventure that takes our unlikely duo from a hot dog stand in Central Park to the mountains of Liechtenstein. As the clock ticks down, tough-as-nails Maggie and conniving Laszlo will uncover a secret so profound that what began as a farcical quest to break a curse will eventually threaten the very Lords of Hell.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
YA fantasy novelist Neff (the Tapestry series) makes his adult debut with this incandescently funny glimpse of hell on Earth, starring Paul Newman look-alike and 800-year-old demon Laszlo. A Class III Curse Keeper, Laszlo's responsible for the torment of 19-year-old human Maggie Drakeford, a plucky Catskills Curse Bearer. Maggie's family has largely adjusted to the centuries-old curse hanging over their heads that dooms each member to transform into a horrible monster by 20. Indeed, lounge lizard Laszlo's so ineffective at inflicting despair that his new boss gives him six days to shape up or be liquefied back into the primordial ooze from whence all demons crawl. Laszlo's next move? To reveal himself to Maggie and offer to help her break the curse. To do so, they must free a mighty spirit locked in the legendary Witchstone. Maggie's eager to avert her fate, but Laszlo has his own agenda, which involves both his job and his relationship with his fiendish father, Lord Baal, who is Lucifer's top rival. Maggie and Laszlo quest across Europe and back to the Catskills amid both belly laughs and heart-tugging moments as Laszlo, aided by an Italian priest, gradually becomes more human and Maggie takes on magical energies to protect her family. The result is a glorious romp that's clever enough to keep readers infernally entertained.
Customer Reviews
Spectacular
So different from his other books and yet it might be my favorite!