The Curse of Madame Petrova
Silke and her twin brother Janis were separated at birth after a dire prophecy by the mysterious Madame Petrova predicted that each would be responsible for the other’s death. Silke grew up on the family estate while Janis was sent into the mountains. Reunited after the death of their parents by their greedy cousins who hope the prophecy will come to fruition so they can inherit the estate, Silke and Janis are forced to make their own fates. They fake their deaths and run away. In the mountains and forests, Silke forages for food and snares rabbits, while Janis carves spoons they hope to sell. Along the way, they encounter dangers possibly as perilous as the prophecy—poachers, a cunning carnival fortune teller who teaches Silke how to read cards, a kindly dancing bear, an inn with soldiers who come and go, and eventually Madame Petrova herself. Not everyone has Silke and Janis’s best interests at heart, but everyone has secrets. Even Silke.
Set in historical Europe, The Curse of Madame Petrova has an engaging fairy-tale feel. Hof places the reader in the setting with beautiful descriptions of a sometimes lovely and sometimes depressed—in other words, realistic—countryside. Black-and-white drawings of the cards Silke learns to read introduce each chapter, and are dark yet whimsical. The characters and the plot, however, feel half-formed. All Janis dreams of is living in the mountains and becoming a woodworker, while Silke yearns to find Madame Petrova. They seem to have little in common except their fear of the cousins, yet their fear is difficult to believe, as the cousins are never shown in scene. The conclusion felt, to this reader, unresolved and unsatisfying. Ages 10 and up.
