The Curse of the Cole Women

The Curse of the Cole Women by Marielle Thompson follows generations of Cole Women on Juniper Island off the New Hampshire coast whose lineage has an unusual curse thanks to an ancestor who was branded as a witch.

The curse impacts the Cole women and the whole island. Only two Cole women can live at one time, so when it is time for the next daughter to be born, the mother (grandmother of the new Cole) must return to the sea. Second, the Cole women live and work in the lighthouse on Juniper Island, and if they abandon their post, the island will experience nothing but rough seas and bad weather.

We follow the lives of three of these generations, Mabel, her daughter Rebecca, and her daughter Simone, seeing their lives from their own perspectives but also each others’ which is heartbreaking at times as we watch them have similar struggles but still seeming not to understand each other.

We watch them struggle to communicate with each other as they handle the prejudices of the islanders who brand them as witches and seem to hate them even more because they also depend on them to keep the island safe - they won’t allow them to be part of the community but condemn them if they try to leave it.

The Curse of the Cole Women is a Gothic tale of curses and witchcraft but mostly it’s a love story, of mothers and daughters not knowing how to love each other while trying to find love where they can on an island that feels only contempt for them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the advance copy for my unbiased review.