The Gentling Box by Lisa Mannetti
An Unusual Nightmare
BRAM STOKER AWARD-FINALIST BEST FIRST NOVEL THE
GENTLING BOX by Lisa Mannetti:
The philosophies of the Age of Enlightenment create sweeping changes
throughout 19th Century Europe, but to Hungarys despised nomads, the
gypsies, the world is still a dark and very dangerous landscape.
Adversaries both mortal and supernatural lurk in the shadows, waiting to
strike without mercy. Imre, a half-gypsy horse trader, understands the
danger to his small family all too well.
Cursed with a hideously-disfiguring and fatal disease by the vengeful
sorceress Anyeta, he watches those around him suffer and fall. Mimi, his

wife, who is tricked into cutting off her own arm to create a powerful
talisman. His friend Constantin, struck mute by Anyetas wrath. And
Lenore, his and Mimis young daughter, who has been placed in the
greatest jeopardy of all. With his health deteriorating and death
imminent, his wife possessed by the witchs ghost and Lenore being
groomed for a fate far worse than death, Imre turns to desperate measures
and a hellish memory from his childhood—to still the sorceress and end
her reign of bloodshed. A presence even more powerful and terrifying to
him than Anyeta: the gentling box.
ADVANCED PRAISE FOR THE GENTLING BOX:
A keenly conceived and richly executed cornucopia of the blackest magic.
Mannettis prowess as a writer hauls the reader into a shimmering,
phantasmagoric demesne of relentless suspense and high-creep-factor
chills, and doesnt let go until the final page. This story is a dark work of
art.
–Edward Lee, author of CITY INFERNAL and BRIDES OF THE
IMPALER.
When was the last time you lost yourself in a book? Lisa Mannetti dares
you to enter a realm unlike anything youve dreamed of, a world of gallant
gypsies and ancient evil, of passionate obsessions … and abject terror.
Take that dare. Immerse yourself. The rewards are plentiful. But be
warned. Nothing could prepare you for the horror of THE GENTLING
BOX.
–Robert Dunbar, author of THE PINES and THE SHORE
Mannettis prose has teeth; sharp teeth that grab on and refuse to let go.
–J.A. Konrath, author of FUZZY NAVEL and DIRTY MARTINI
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lisa Mannetti is a former magazine editor and adjunct college English
instructor who discovered she preferred full-time writing to real work when
she volunteered to be the family member who cared for her ailing mother.
Her short story, Hungry for the Flesh (Space & Time, April 2007) was
recommended for a Stoker Award. Additional short stories scheduled for
publication in 2008 include The Blow-Up Job (TRAPS, DarkHart Press)
and Other Rooms (The Pretty-Scary.net Anthology, November 2008) and
Retro-Fit in Lovestrology (Ravenous Romance, December 2008). Most
recently she served as guest editor for Terrible Beauty, Fearful Symmetry,
an anthology scheduled to be published by DarkHart Press in October
2008. She is currently working on a second paranormal novel, The Everest
Hauntings.
When she isnt writing, Lisa works on her haunted website, The Chancery
House (www.thechanceryhouse.com) and constructs macabre gothic
greeting cards based on her cemetery photos. She is also a Tarot reader.
Lisa lives in the house she grew up in Westchester County in New York
with one highly rambunctious cat—Huckleberry Finn—and two charming
and exasperating black kittens, The Houdinis: Harry and Theo.
You can also visit Lisas author page at: www.lisamannetti.com.
Personal Review: The Gentling Box by Lisa Mannetti
Just finished first novel The Gentling Box by Lisa Manetti and wanted to let
you know that I was bowled over.
It's a superb story full of unflinching observation, telling details, and breath-
taking turns of events, written beautifully with a masterful control of
material, pacing, and story structure.
It is set among the Gypsies in Hungary and Romania at the turn of the last
century, a time of change, portent, and dark magic. Imre, a horse trader;
his wife Mimi, whom he loves so dearly; their daughter Lenore; his friend
Constantine; and others among the nomads have their lives changed
irrevocably by the dark magic of Mimi's mother, Anyeta, whose dying wish
is to see her daughter one last time. A talisman must also be passed on, a
kind of Hand of Glory or Monkey's Paw that carries its own kind of twisted
temptation for everyone involved. We see curses, lust for power,
corruption, ghosts, possession, self-sacrifice, and redemption portrayed
with felicity and conviction. It is a remarkable series of portraits presented
in a compelling sequence of well-wrought scenes.
The magic in it is as real as horse sweat and ashes, and the reality
described as magical as any wild dream. What an accomplishment, to mix
such stuff so well and to tell such a brutal tale so beautifully, with such

delicacy of feeling and such empathy. There is real life in it, and the
unblinking way Manetti portrays it all is greatly to be admired in an era
when so many choose to avert their gazes, or to lie, in order to lessen the
sting or to avoid offending prudes. This book tells the blunt truth and
therein lies it's great power.
One of the best books I've read in a long time, The Gentling Box is strongly
recommended.
That it is Lisa Manetti's first published novel bodes well for her career and
for us, her readers. And more good news: she is working on a book about
deaths on Mt. Everest. Our wait, to gauge by this work, will be well
worthwhile.
--Gene Stewart, www.genestewart.com
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