Review of The Early Fox Gets The Bird by Kelly Lidji
A.E. Jackson Review Score: 3 / 5 Ravens
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If you faced a painful and difficult problem, how far would you go to seek help to get the solution you want? Kelly Lidji examines how far people go, and the high costs they pay, to get what they want in her latest book The Early Fox Gets the Bird: The Curse of Old Mol.
The novel is another intriguing exploration of local Delaware folklore. This time the author escorts readers into the storied past of Millsboro and the forests surrounding the Indian River region.
Young Mollie Kehonk marries young. At the birth of her first child, a son, the midwife announces that twin girls were lost during the difficult labor. The tragedy is followed by a story that can only be described as the making of a witch - and the source of local folklore.
The spirit of an ancient witch haunts in the woods outside Millsboro, Delaware. For two hundred years children have heard warnings about the old woman who would steal you away if you roamed her woods, never to return. What if the stories are true? What if she still does?
Gifted child psychic Maggie Mumford thinks she is and is determined to stop her.
But what would you do if you lost your child? It's a terrible question to even consider. Mollie Kehonk had to face a future without her daughters in it. When the opportunity to snatch them back from the cold hand of death requires her to turn her back on God and learn the darkest of all dark magic, who can blame her for trying?
After a quick reintroduction of Claire and Maggie, the main characters in a series of local ghost story mysteries by Kelly Lidji, the reader is enveloped by the novel’s world. Lidji does a fine job of painting a living picture for readers. Not only the contemporary settings, but even more important scenes of the past which shape the purpose behind the story. As is often the case, the tragedies people live through and how they are handled, end up becoming the lore and legends of modern day.
There is good deep point-of-view storytelling through observation and internal thought. This time readers are treated to even more of Maggie’s character development throughout the novel. Claire, Mollie Kehonk, and the witch Old Mol all contribute to the tension and horror within these pages.
While Claire is still reluctant to approach ghosts, or get involved with the supernatural, her young daughter Maggie seems very comfortable with things in the spirit realm. As a result, Maggie gets bullied by a boy in her class about her special abilities. Still, Young Mollie who becomes Old Mol is by far the most interesting character in this installment of the entertaining series.
Readers familiar with Lidji’s work will find a familiar tempo and pattern to her ghost storytelling. I always enjoy how the author weaves Claire’s modern concerns with issues tragic figures of the past faced. The interwoven tales mirror one another but are dealt with in different ways in their respective time periods.
Themes of missing children, loss of innocence, and the high cost people often pay to force their will on tragic circumstances are all explored. The story intensifies to a moment of ghastly horror as Young Molly follows through with an act reminiscent of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary.
The visceral and emotionally charged scene brings Lidji’s premise to a head. Readers will be left asking what high cost they’d be willing to pay to get back what they loved and lost. In fact, this entry into the collection of Delaware legends is more shocking than the last few books. A steady escalation of writing craft, style, and themes from a local author who is quick becoming a local legend herself.
Kelly Lidji lives in Lewes, Delaware with Jason and her two macaws, Rufus and Finn. She grew up in the 80’s trying to raise the ghost of Maggie Bloxom with her friends out at Maggie’s Bridge in Woodland, DE.
‘Maggie I Have Your Baby’ is her first novel. She followed it up with ‘That Devil Knows My Name’, ‘Where The Eidolon Sleep’, and ‘81 Miles’.
Read more from Kelly Lidji at http://kellylidji.com and find her on social media at Facebook(kellylidjiauthor).