Lettia and the Family Jones Wouldn’t Leave Alone

Lettia and the Family Jones Wouldn’t Leave Alone Lettia is somebody I would have completely missed if I had only been looking at the main Grimm Fairy Tales books. She comes out of Salem's Daughter: The Haunting, and at first she seems like the person who knows more about the haunted house than she's willing to say. Her mother wants to keep her away from the trouble, and you're left wondering exactly how involved this family is. Spoilers for Salem’s Daughter: The Haunting. When Lettia was a child, William Ray Jones used her as a vessel in his attempts to contact the dead. Her family wasn't sitting around helping him because they liked the guy. He threatened them and exploited her gift. Years later, she's still dealing with what he did, and now his surviving son is trying to use her all over again. That changes how I read her hesitation. Anna and Braden are trying to figure out a mystery. Lettia is being pulled back into something that already happened to her personally. Her mother knows what getting involved could cost them, too. There's a scene where she warns Lettia about helping Anna, and Lettia basically says she would help even without the possibility that Anna could stop what's happening. Her mother taught her to do the right thing. She's taking that seriously. Lettia can communicate with spirits, serve as a vessel, and show Braden the past through contact. When she treats Anna's curse, her ritual buys time without actually removing the source. I like that distinction. She's powerful, but the book doesn't have her wave a hand and make the entire problem disappear. She still has to work out who is maintaining the connection and how to stop it. Lettia has every reason to protect herself and leave. Instead, she helps Anna, goes back toward the danger, and eventually offers herself in Anna's place when a supernatural bargain is on the table. That last offer is a pretty big deal when you remember her childhood. She already knows what being used as somebody else's vessel means. She isn't volunteering because she doesn't understand the cost.