Review: ‘We Played With Fire’ by Catherine Barter
With some books you see the title, ogle cover and then read the summary and you just know that you have to let it enter your life. ‘We Played With Fire’ by Catherine Barter was one of those books.
“Maggie has witnessed impossible things. But no one believes her, and now her family has taken her away to spend the winter upstate in a remote, freezing farmhouse.
Bored and angry, Maggie and her younger sister Kate start to play tricks: rapping on the floorboards above their parents’ bedroom, cracking their toes under the table, and telling tales about noises in the night. Then the house starts to make sounds of its own. Neither Maggie nor Kate can explain it, but it seems as though someone – or something – is trying to speak to them . . .
Inspired by the incredible true tale of the Fox Sisters, the girls who made their fortune in nineteenth-century America by speaking to ghosts.”
Any kind of seance vibe and you can count me in.
Because this is based on real people and events, I think you are offered a really interesting glimpse into a time period and their psychology surrounding death and spirituality.
This book sews together the kind of fabric that asks you to suspend your belief completely, to allow yourself to be spooked alongside the girls and maybe even ask you to sleep with the light on later that night (Pssh, not me. That was a friend...) While also suggesting that it all could be a symptom of hysteria, just the product of an elaborate prank.
I love that it could go either way, and that it is self-aware about that fact. The girls play tricks on their family, but there are still those unexplained things that happen that could be paranormal. But also could be explained in any number of ways.
The first half of this book is truly special. I was completely invested.
The second half seems to lose its way somewhere. For me it lacked the same sparkle of mischief and terror that the beginning chapters delivered. I enjoyed the cyclical element; when Maggie revisits her old school and receives answers she didn’t know she was looking for (sorry, I have to be a bit cryptic, spoiler alerts and all that)... That was a great piece of storytelling.
As a horror enthusiast I think this book could have continued to lean into that element for longer. It goes from “eek, sorta scary” to a lot of extrapolation and moral exploration. It lost its sense of urgency.
I thought that overall it was an interesting and new way to explore a slice of history that many may not be familiar with. Those opening chapters are *chefs kiss* wonderful, and even though I was subsequently disappointed in the direction of the narrative, I was still invested enough to complete the read without much fuss.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the origins of what we might consider “modern” communing with spirits, or who loves a historically drawn piece. It’s a solid read and you can feel how much thought and care has gone into striking the right balance between accuracy and fantasy.
‘We Played With Fire’ by Catherine Barter is out February 4th 2021 by Andersen Press (received with thanks through NetGalley)
Written by Sarah
