BOOK REPORT.....

The Book of Speculation - Erika Swyler

Product Description(Amazon.com)
Simon Watson, a young librarian, lives alone in a house that is slowly crumbling toward the Long Island Sound. His parents are long dead. His mother, a circus mermaid who made her living by holding her breath, drowned in the very water his house overlooks. His younger sister, Enola, ran off six years ago and now reads tarot cards for a traveling carnival.
One June day, an old book arrives on Simon's doorstep, sent by an antiquarian bookseller who purchased it on speculation. Fragile and water damaged, the book is a log from the owner of a traveling carnival in the 1700s, who reports strange and magical things, including the drowning death of a circus mermaid. Since then, generations of "mermaids" in Simon's family have drowned--always on July 24, which is only weeks away.
As his friend Alice looks on with alarm, Simon becomes increasingly worried about his sister. Could there be a curse on Simon's family? What does it have to do with the book, and can he get to the heart of the mystery in time to save Enola? 
Hardcover: 352 pages 
Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1St Edition edition (June 23, 2015) 
Language: English 
ISBN-10: 125005480X 
ISBN-13: 978-1250054807

MY THOUGHTS:  New author for me.  I enjoyed this book once it got started.  It was kind of slow getting to a point I could get interested in the story line.  But once it took off it was really good.  It kind of put me in the mind of Sarah Gruen's Water For Elephants.  Simon is worried about his sister.  He has found a link in his family of the women committing suicide.  On July 24th and that time is coming up.  Someone sends him a book and the hunt is on for all the information Simon can find.  He thinks the family line is cursed in some way and decides to burn the book, thus breaking the curse.  But that's not what is cursed.  It's the Taro Cards.  They are handed down from mother to daughter.  And does he save his sister?  You'll have to read the book to find out.  I give this book 4.....

This book is also for the Full House Reading Challenge.