Review: Witch with a split personality
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 1, 2013
The imagery in The Bell Witch is excellent but the story itself seemed schizophrenic. The story starts like a 'haunted house' story where a family is terrorized by a poltergeist. Then it transitions into a growing 'relationship' between the family and the spirit which is haunting them. This 'spirit' refers to itself as "the Witch" but otherwise I see nothing in common between the spirit and the word 'witch'. The relationship starts when the 'Witch' starts to speak, not just to some people but to everyone, individually and in groups. That part of the story is interesting initially because the novel transitions from a poltergeist story to a mystery about who the 'witch' really is and where she came from and what she wants.But about the time you start to realize what the witch is and why she is here, the witch/spirit seems to transition again into everything: friend, parent, devil, angel, sage, comic, entertainer. And its a little strange how the characters seem to accept her in these roles so readily. I thought that the characters were well-developed but I felt that only one character is fleshed out at a time, while the rest of the fade into inactivity, although the witch is always front and center.I give "The Bell Witch" three stars based on the first half of the book and the imagery.