Sweet poison

A character named Poe. A ghost. Way too much sugar. Happy Halloween from Louise.

A character with the last name Poe.  Bones in a field.. Costumes, sugar. Lots of sugar. And a tragic ghost. If you too are a Halloween horror-averse lightweight, Louise Erdrich’s The Mighty Red makes a surprisingly appropriate seasonal read. 

On the surface, this is a love triangle story. High school senior Kismet Poe, daughter of Crystal Frechette who drives the night shift for a local sugar plant, feels a strong connection to a brilliant outcast named Hugo. But Gary Geist, quarterback of the football team and son of the owners of the biggest sugar beet farm in the Red River Valley of North Dakota, has become obsessed with marrying her.

Kismet is one of the smartest and most formidable girls at school, and also one of the poorest. She’s got college plans but Gary– and his mother–won’t take no for an answer. Kismet has reservations about Gary, but she can’t help but notice how her status has improved with his interest, despite his own problematic social dilemma. 

A party he hosted became…