CACKLE by Rachel Harrison – Review

Cackle by Rachel Harrison
Published by Berkley on August 30 2022
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 319
Format: Finished paperback
Source: Purchased
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The nitty-gritty: A sweet, uplifting story about finding yourself, complete with witchy magic and adorable spiders.

Now that I’ve read Cackle, I’m officially caught up on Rachel Harrison’s backlist (except for her short story collection Bad Dolls, which I’m not interested in). And Cackle was a lot of fun! This is much lighter than some of her other novels, with a whimsical feel that sort of reminded me of Practical Magic at times (not sure why, because the stories are very different). Harrison’s usual themes of friendship and finding oneself are front and center, and the witchy plot leans more towards fantasy than horror, so I would recommend this to any reader who enjoys character focused stories with a touch of magic and intrigue.

Annie’s longtime boyfriend Sam just broke up with her, and now she can’t afford to live by herself and keep her current teaching job. She’s accepted another job in upstate New York, but that means leaving everything familiar behind. When she arrives in Rowan, the quaint little town near her new job, she’s charmed by the friendly townspeople, beautifully manicured gardens and cute little shops. And then she meets Sophie, an incredibly beautiful woman who seems to have cast a spell over the entire town. Annie is lonely and missing Sam terribly, so she’s delighted when Sophie takes a keen interest in her.

Before long, Annie is spending all her free time with her new friend, even sleeping over at Sophie’s palatial home. But Sophie doesn’t like it when Annie talks about Sam. And Annie has begun to notice that the people in town don’t actually like Sophie. As Annie’s unease around her new friend grows, she will have to take a deep look into what she really wants in life.

For a story with a rather cozy vibe, I was surprised how much tension Harrison added to her tale, especially when it came to the unsettling friendship between Annie and Sophie. Annie is vulnerable and needy, and Sophie immediately steps into the role of caring for her, as if she knows exactly what Annie needs. And it didn’t help that Annie can’t stand being alone, and this was the one thing that bugged me about her in the beginning. She’s very whiny at times, complaining how she hates being alone—a concept I can’t understand at all, lol. But Harrison really knows how to get to the heart of female relationships, the good, bad and the ugly, and Annie’s emotions are put through the ringer as she deals with not only yearning for Sam, but struggling with Sophie’s overbearing—and ultimately, controlling—personality.

One of the weird things Annie notices when she moves to Rowan is that there are spiders everywhere, especially in the room she’s renting. At first I wasn’t thrilled with this element, but somehow the spiders grew on me, which I wasn’t expecting! There’s even a (dare I say) cute spider named Ralph who becomes sort of a companion to Annie, and although I had to stretch my ability to accept this, I thought it was a nice addition to the story.

Luckily, Annie’s codependence with Sophie changes once she realizes she can make her own choices and live the life she wants, not the one someone wants for her. This character growth was one of the highlights of the story for me, and the ending tied everything together with a feel-good glimpse of what Annie’s future in Rowan will be. Lots of fun, and although I do prefer Rachel Harrison’s grittier books, I’m glad I finally read this one.