Cursed Be The Child

Cursed Be the Child by Mort Castle is a classic horror novel of possession and revenge. Lisette has been dead for nearly a century, but she is very determined to get payback on the big, cruel world that betrayed her. This is not a book for the faint-of-heart. It is a story of a tormented soul, that of a murdered child, Lisette, who was raped and killed when she was only five years old. Terribly ill, Lisette's dying mother sends her to live with her uncle. But, it is 1918 and his family is also in the grip of the Spanish influenza. Still, it is Lisette's savage uncle who rapes and murders her when she is only five. The monstrous circumstances of her death has changed the child into a tormented spirit. Now, another five year old girl, Missy, has moved into her new home, supposedly haunted, with its huge basement. Missy has no realization that her new imaginary playmate, Lisette, is looking for revenge for crimes that can only be taken against Missy and her family.

Cursed Be the Child is a chilling experience. The story is filled with dark, most horrifying magic. Children are abused, adults are tortured, lives are lost, while others are changed forever. This is a tale of ghostly possession and terrible tragedy. Overwhelmed by the evil spirit of Lisette, Missy plots horrible vengeance against her parents, Vicki and Warren; Vicki's sister Carol Grace and her husband, a TV evangelist, Evan Dean; as well as their friends, a child therapist raised as a gypsy, Selena, and Selena's boyfriend, David. Each character is attacked by Lisette, and each one of them fights in the battle to defeat her. Gypsy magic plays a large part in the story and the Romani people and culture are described with complete accuracy. The various adult characters in this book are real, they are believable, and they find themselves confronted by an evil they must destroy - or be themselves destroyed.