THE ROOT WITCH by Debra Castaneda (Second Rodeo Books, September 2022) Trade Paperback, 295 pages. ISBN # 9798848409406
Synopsis on the Goodreads website . . . . .
It’s 1986. Two strangers, hundreds of miles apart, grapple with disturbing incidents in a one-of-a-kind quaking aspen forest.
Knox is a new Forest Service ranger assigned to a vast, remote territory in Utah.
Sandy is a producer fighting for her place in a tough TV newsroom.
Both have heard about the shadowy figure believed to menace visitors to the forest. When a man disappears and reports of the Root Witch begin coming in, Knox and Sandy are plunged into a living nightmare.
Their lives converge on Halloween. Sandy sends a news crew to investigate the sightings. But when the team goes missing, and a shocking video surfaces revealing the ghastly truth, Knox and Sandy face the biggest decision of their lives.
This novel is based on a short story, "The Root Witch: An Urban Legend Caught on Tape."
Content warning: Animal death; anxiety; profanity
My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . .
Despite the slow build-up this was a quick read for me. Even though there is a lot of content devoted to the internal struggles and stress faced by both Knox the forest ranger and Sandy the television news producer their stories were just as fascinating as the slowly developing threat presented by the aspen forest.
It all comes to a head in the final third of the book and the pace picks up immensely, rewarding readers who stayed with it this long. I'm glad I did. The ending is satisfactory and leaves a subtle message.
I appreciate how the author came up with the idea for this story after reading about this unique Utah forest and allowing her imagination to extrapolate from there. Very well developed, and a story that has a good overall flow.
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