Book Review: The 53rd Card by Virginia Weiss

Wow.

I don’t know how else to start. Wow. This book was an incredible ride, full of unexpected delights and horrifying moments and a smattering of jaw-dropping, head-scratching moments where I had no idea which end was up – and I mean that in the best possible way.

It’s the tale of a frightened, timid, horribly agoraphobic young woman who inadvertently summons the Devil. Sounds intriguing right there, but there’s so much more to this story, and much of it defies description (without spoilers). The writing is gorgeous – lush and evocative yet also papercut-sharp in its concise analysis of the human mind/soul/heart. The characters are brilliantly devised, full of quirks and foibles and heartbreaking decisions (and non-decisions) that shape their individual lives but also the world around them. There is philosophy and religion and spirituality and humanism galore, and it’s all interspersed with a narrative that is engaging and believably unbelievable and that kept me engaged throughout.

And suddenly she noticed that life as it is, is far more interesting than life as she’d have it, for the extraordinary hides within the ordinary. “You can get there from anywhere,” the devil once told her about hell. As it turns out, you can get home from the same place – even if that place happens to be hell.

There was a bit of a bump in the ride for me near the end when things came to a head, and that was the only hiccup keeping this from a 5-star review. The card game lost me a bit for a while, and the ending felt a little tidy and rushed afterwards, like the author realized she was over 450 pages in and had to finish up already. It’s a shame, because I would have loved to see the depth and breadth of the early chapters continued throughout, even if it meant another 300 pages – the story was that engaging and well-crafted. Still, the book as a whole was thought-provoking and evocative and I would absolutely love to see more about these characters either in a direct sequel or an ancillary interconnected title…

Thanks to the Independent Book Publishers Association for my review copy – I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to more from the author!