Strange things happen to Anna throughout the book and there is talk of even stranger things that have gone on before. Did you think there was a logical explanation for everything, or did you believe in the strangeness?
I thought the whole ‘Veles’ the Forest God storyline was not only implausible, but unnecessary as it was completely in her head. Her dad told her about it to defend his actions, as if ‘Veles’ was compelling him to kill all the women, and sacraficing them to Veles. He said he made a deal with Veles to do this in exchange for his life. So it was his way of protecting her from his actual life and actions as a serial killer. Which makes you wonder if his wife knew what was going on. She was jealous of their relationship. So Anna then thinks that she must follow in her father’s footsteps and do the same thing, which messes her up psychologically and detracts her attention from finding the real killer.
I believe the author wants her readers to grapple with whether there is a logical explanation or supernatural goings-on.
I never subscribed to the god of the forest nonsense. It was mental illness, in my opinion. And in Anna’s case, her exposure to PCP was a huge contributing factor to her paranoia, blackouts, and confusion.
The part of the story about Veles was just weird. I thought her father made that up so he would tell stories to his daughter. Similar to fairy talks but with a sinister twist. Her father was mentally ill.
I thought of it as a way that Anna was dealing with what her father did. Thinking that something else caused the actions of her father rather than someone she may have loved and respected was a way of accepting the feelings she had at the time.
.I thought th is was a well written mystery, I really did not like the references to supernatural as an explanation for the occurrences. I accept that Anna was very young when her father with whom she was very close started to involve her in his fantasy, but felt this use was one of the books short comings.