The Wraith Of Carter's Mill

The Curse of the Carter Women

Fiction - Suspense
436 Pages
Reviewed on 03/27/2015
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Author Biography

C. Evenfall grew up in a small fishing village in Eastern North Carolina. The area was rich with history, ghost stories, and unexplained phenomenon, all fodder for the vivid imaginings of a young girl.

She began “collecting” stories at a young age. At age six, C. Evenfall experienced the paranormal firsthand and has been seeking answers ever since. Her fascination with the unexplained and her love for old family ghost stories inspired her to write a collection of novellas. Each story is inspired by the experiences passed down through her family for generations.

She resides on the Carolina Coast with her husband, a self-proclaimed skeptic. She loves him anyway and the two complement each other perfectly.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Amanda Monell for Readers' Favorite

The Wraith of Carter’s Mill by C. Evenfall is a story filled with suspense, horror, and most importantly, family. Set in rural North Carolina, the book opens with young Julia who meets up with a wraith. Later, we find out that the same creature plagues her daughter Libby and her granddaughter Shyanne, as well the origins of the creature, which is told in the second half of the book. As a child, Shyanne discovered that she had inherited the family gift of seeing and talking to the dead and later uses this gift to help spirits find peace. The wraith remains ever present, lurking in the shadows. Will the wraith continue to haunt Shyanne?

Wow. Just wow. I can’t get over how amazing The Wraith of Carter’s Mill by C. Evenfall is as a read. This haunting tale is mixed with the warmth and charm of the south, along with moments of pure terror. The setting is so immersive that you feel as if you are there, walking with the characters. The storytelling is masterfully crafted, starting with the contemporary encounters of the wraith and finishing with those who summoned it, making the series come full circle. I am so grateful that this was a collection of novellas instead of just one of them, because I would be waiting anxiously for the next volume. I have absolutely no words to say how much I loved this book. I cannot wait to see what other literary journeys C. Evenfall has in store for us.

Michelle Randall

The Wraith Of Carter's Mill: The Curse of the Carter Women is a series of four short stories in one book that tells the tale of the Carter family. The first story tells of Libby and her brother Jack as young children with their mother, Julia. This story introduces "the dark man" that seems to plague the Carter family. The second story follows Libby as a married woman, and her young daughter Shyanne, as she becomes the next generation to meet the dark man. This time Libby is able to find out more information because her mother Julia has passed away. The third story follows Shyanne and her daughter Melody as the curse of the dark man becomes even worse and Shyanne finds she has the power to help end the curse. The final story goes back to the beginning and tells us how the curse of the dark man began. C. Evenfall gives us a family saga that follows the women of the Carter family.

Although The Wraith of Carter's Mill is subtitled The Curse of the Carter Women, it is actually the head of the original Carter clan, Zeb, that brings about the curse. The power to end the curse flows through the Carter women, although it is not until Shyanne that someone is able to do anything about the curse. C. Evenfall mixes a ghost story, and a story of revenge and betrayal all together with a family saga that sees five generations of Carters deal with the dark man. This is a great women's book because of the connections that the women in the story carry throughout all the stories. It is also a good read for older teens on up. It was compelling and pulled me along the whole way.

K.C. Finn

The Wraith of Carter’s Mill is a collection of interconnected suspense tales by C. Evenfall. The story centres on different generations of women in the Carter family, all of whom are plagued by a ghostly curse brought about by one of their eldest male ancestors. The decades of the main story range from the 1950s up to the early 2000s, making this an episodic, historical tale of suspense, where everything that can go wrong for the cursed Carters will go wrong. It culminates with a new story to the collection, Carter’s Mill, in which the grisly truth of why and how the curse affects the Carter women finally comes to light.

Fans of historical fiction should not be put off by the idea that this is a horror novel, for though horror elements are present in The Wraith of Carter’s Mill, it is very much a family-saga style tale of births, marriages and deaths through the generations. There is great authenticity in the historical atmosphere and attention to detail that author C. Evenfall gives to the stories, so that when supernatural and suspenseful moments occur, readers are swept away in their seeming realism. I particularly enjoyed all the extra details of this collection, including the meticulously detailed records of the family and the author’s interviews with many of the main characters, which only adds to the humanity and realism of the tale. Overall, I’d say that the novel will please historical fans more than horror fans, but those who love a bit of both will not be disappointed.