Customer Reviews

Memoirs of a Fortune Teller

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Interesting story. In fact, when I first ordered this book, I was so looking forward to reading it. I mean, I'm a huge fan of supernatural elements. So I waited 'til I finished my last book so I could tackle this one. And I discovered that I had built it up too much.

I think the writing had massive potential, but the writer should've "appealed more to the senses" in the readings. Meaning, I would've liked to have smelled and tasted everything when she saw the visions. He did a great job describing the smoke break Mary Ann takes. But, on the other hand, he spent too much time describing how she ate a hamburger. Can you say boring?

Overall, this book could've used more editing.

Mary Ann is a fortune teller traveling with a carnival. Her gift, passed on from mother to daughter at the time of death, is as much a blessing as it is a curse. Left behind is a diary of a few of her predictions, some of them disturbing and some of them inspirational. Mary Ann meets people who will have good things happen, who will die, who will molest, who will hurt, and who will be hurt. The major limitation to her power is that she cannot see her own fate but through glimpses in the fates of other people. Her visions make her an unfortunate witness to a murder, which she hopes to stop before it's too late. Aiding a police man named George whose fortune she earlier told, they try to pin down the murderer as a priest tries to save him.

There were things that I really enjoyed about Memoirs of a Fortune Teller and things that I did not enjoy. Overall, Memoirs of a Fortune Teller is a quick and thrilling read. I wish it were a bit more fleshed out, though, with ample detail given to some of the human interactions and emotions experienced by both Mary Ann and her clients. Mary Ann deals with a lot of trauma and personal reaction, so I think the book missed a lot of potential in keeping descriptions of behavior and reaction minimal. Also, it is unbalanced in how details are given. Mary Ann delivering bad news to a client is given in dialogue form with little reaction to heighten the emotion of the scene and make it real, yet we are given an entire page describing Mary Ann eating a carnival sausage, and another of her eating a candy apple. I wish it were the other way around.

Also, I found Mary Ann to be a bit inconsistent as a character. On one hand she is preaching to a preacher about Jesus and forgiveness, yet on the other hand she confesses to not helping a man out when his child's life was on the line because he was rude to her. I wowed at that because that is an awful thing to do! I couldn't imagine someone taking such a strong stand on how people should behave yet at the same time not even caring, indeed justifying, their own horrid action.

If added to and expanded, Memoirs of a Fortune Teller will make a wonderful suspense/thriller novel. With a murderer to catch and her own life on the line, Mary Ann could be developed into a strong, formidable female lead full of complex emotions that are tempered by all of the things she has seen and all the people she has met through her years as a traveling fortune teller. The events taking place could also be a little slower coming to raise anticipation for what is coming. The murderer could also be formulated a bit more, could stand in the background as a deeper, shadowy, and insidious character that hovers like a dark omen of doom, you know? I love a good bad guy and I wish he were more of a threatening presence to Mary Ann for a long period of time. I liked the book, really. But it is bare-bones and needs about another hundred pages of build up, suspense, and description.

Interesting reading. Needed to take a break from my regular reading choices. Sometimes, like a wine taster, you need a cracker in-between. Not all my cracker choices are good ones. I read this short book and enjoyed it. Books like this one get me out of my reading rut and open new possibilities. I enjoyed it.

Mary Ann is a traveling fortune teller. She is one of the few with the real gift. Though she can tell the fortunes of others, she cannot tell her own.

Mary Ann leaves her journal to her daughter, Melissa. It is filled with readings of others' and of her helping to locate a killer.

* This is a short book, told in the first person, by Mary Ann. Later it changes to Melissa's view, still written in the first person. The plot is great and intriguing, but the writing comes across to me as very choppy. I believe better editing and more character development would have helped. *

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

The fortune teller, Mary Ann, kept notes on some of her readings. Although she was entertained by some of her patrons, she was also alarmed by others. Her life was taken over by the pain she felt for the tellers.

See my book, Zoe Lucky and the Green Gables' Mystery, which also deals with the pain of loss. However, Zoe our 13 year old heroine, steps beyond her frightening beginnings and becomes a heroine. You will be lucky to meet Zoe Lucky. See carolcoffey.com for background, video and reviews.

In "Memoirs of a Fortune Teller," author Gary Turcotte gives us a first-hand look at the world of the traveling carnival. Mary Ann, the main character, is a fortune-teller traveling around the country, giving readings to young and old alike. She had a gift for seeing into both a person's past and future, and can tell what the person has done and what the person will do in their life. At one fair, Mary Ann gives readings to a young boy who wants to know about his lost dog, a middle-aged couple who want to know what the future holds for them, and a young girl who wants to know if she will be happy in her future life. The fortunes of all these characters are tied together in a story of both past and future murders. Mary Ann's readings bring her unwillingly into that world, putting her life into danger.

There is an abrupt change of narration close to the end of the book. The narrator changes from that of the fortune teller to that of the fortune teller's daughter. I was totally unprepared for such an event, which is okay; unexpected story twists are fine. However, the narrative would have flowed more smoothly if the point of view had changed at the beginning of a chapter rather than just before the end of one.

The story is an interesting one and is well worth reading. However, in addition to the abrupt change of narrator, dialogue between characters is quite unnatural and stilted at times, the passive verb tense is used much too often, and the text is rife with misspellings and grammatical errors. As a writer, a published author, and an editor, I find that very distracting. Nevertheless, the author offers a story from a unique perspective, that of a fortune teller. 3 stars.

In this book by author, Gary Turcotte, we meet Mary Ann, quite an interesting character. Mary Ann is a fortune teller who travels all over the country with the fair. Wait, before you start shaking your head, let me tell you that this lady is the real-deal. She definitely has a gift that is released when she touches a person, she sees their future and often their past. Mary Ann tells this story and she reveals to the reader what she sees for people, and often in people. Interesting.

Unfortunately for Mary Ann there is a very disturbing evil man who is also traveling with the fair, and as fate would have it, Mary Ann becomes involved in his life in a buzzard way. She is also thrown into the life of a police detective, as murder and mayhem begin to happen all around her.

What does the police detective, George, have to do with Mary Ann? Is he a friend or foe? And just what does the future hold for Mary Ann?

I liked this book. I enjoyed the characters that were brought froth, from Mary Ann to all of her customers. I liked seeing what she saw for them and in them, and when the author weaved the murders and mysteries around the characters I couldn't put the book down. The story truly held my interest., and I was actually disappointed when it ended. However, I am sure the story lives on in other works by this author.

I recommend this book. It is a short read, but one that will definitely hold your attention. Characters are very well developed, settings are described perfectly and you have a taste of mystic and mystery throughout the read. Well done, Mr. Turcotte. Keep them coming.

Mary Ann is a carnival fortuneteller with a problem, her skills at telling a fortune are real, with the simplest of contact, she can learn both the past and future of the people she touches. When she performs her services for a young lady and her man, a carnival worker, she realizes that he is not what he seems. As is often the case with predators, the man immediately understands the threat that Mary Ann is to him and Mary Ann unavoidably learns her dire future as well. This book is a journal of her life and is taken up by her daughter.

The "gift" of second-sight is a hereditary one, Mary Ann inherited it from her mother and she passed it on to her daughter. Fortunately, her daughter finds a competent companion that is able to protect her and act on the knowledge she obtains. This is a tale of the fear that knowledge can generate, betrayal by people that you should be able to trust and the burden that knowledge of other's vile actions can be. I enjoyed it, reading it all in one night.