A twisty and complex horror novel with a love story at its center.
In Kent’s supernatural thriller, a young woman’s mother and grandmother suddenly disappear, and her investigation takes her to her widowed great aunt's house.
In the year 2000, Edna Mann is an 81-year-old woman who’s been living alone after the death of her husband, Henry Mann, the previous year. Her only companion is a mysteriously long-lived plant, which Henry gave to her when they were children. Henry’s ailing sister, Ruth, and her niece, Grace Gill, live in another house on the same plot of land; Grace thinks Edna should move on from Henry's death and into an assisted living facility. However, Edna refuses to go as long as she believes that her spouse’s spirit lingers, communicating with her through the plant—in part by blossoming in response to her questions. After Ruth and Grace go missing, Grace’s 32-year-old daughter, Noor, visits Edna, looking for answers. Despite Edna’s assertions that there’s nothing to worry about, Noor isn’t convinced; she looks in Edna’s dusty basement for clues and comes upon an old newspaper (headlined “Local Families Demand Answers: Teens Still Missing One Year Later”) and a trove of old letters that just might be the lead she’s looking for. Kent crafts a compelling, nonlinear tale of supernatural horror. Interspersed throughout the novel are scenes from Edna’s life, including her first meeting with Henry, when they were both kids, to their later engagement and marriage; chapters that focus on their daughter, Betty Lou, reveal a strange and tumultuous childhood. The novel’s exploration of generations of complicated mother-daughter relationships is well-done; Noor has a more positive rapport with her mother, but their dynamic provides a window into generational cycles of resentment and misunderstanding. Overall, this book is tense and heartwarming, by turns, as it switches between past domestic bliss and current, frightening reality.
A twisty and complex horror novel with a love story at its center.Pub Date: May 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781590215241
Page Count: 302
Publisher: Lethe Press
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Answers are hard to come by in this twisting tale designed to trick and delight.
Three siblings on very different paths learn that their family home may be haunted by secrets.
Eldest daughter Beth is alone with her fading mother as she takes her final breath and says something about Beth’s long-departed brother and sister, who may not have disappeared forever. Beth is still reeling from the loss of her mother when her estranged siblings show up. Michael, the youngest, hasn’t been home since their father’s disappearance seven years ago. In the meantime, he’s outgrown his siblings, trading his share of the family troubles for a high-paying job in San Jose. Nicole, the middle child, has been overpowered by addiction and prioritized tuning out reality over any sense of responsibility, much to Beth’s disgust. Though their mother’s death marks an ending for the family, it’s also a beginning, as the three siblings realize when they find a disturbing videotape among their parents’ belongings. The video, from 1999, sheds suspicion on their father’s disappearance, linking it to a long-unsolved neighborhood mystery. Was it just a series of unfortunate circumstances that broke the family apart, or does something more sinister underlie the sadness they’ve all found in life? In chapters that rotate among the family’s first-person narratives, the siblings take turns digging up stories and secrets in their search for solace.
Answers are hard to come by in this twisting tale designed to trick and delight.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9798212182843
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Roberts revisits a favorite theme: The power of community can defeat a great evil.
After escaping from a serial killer, a woman tries to reclaim her life.
After a childhood as an Army brat, Morgan Albright is determined to put down roots. She bought a small house in the perfect neighborhood outside of Baltimore, living with a friend and working two jobs to make ends meet. Morgan’s life is happy and fulfilling, and she is making progress on her financial and career goals. Her perfect world is shattered when someone breaks into her home and murders her roommate. At first, the police assume it was a random act of violence, but after discovering the killer stole Morgan’s identity and her entire savings, they realize the crime fits the profile of a serial killer named Gavin Rozwell. The police inform Morgan that her roommate was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time; she was the real intended target. Morgan’s grief, coupled with the financial devastation from the identity theft, leaves her no choice but to return home to Vermont to live with her mother and grandmother. Morgan reconnects with her family and rebuilds her life, including landing the perfect job and falling in love. The police and FBI pursue Gavin, who continues to stalk and kill women, each time leaving a reminder at the crime scene that shows he’s fixated on Morgan as the one who got away. Roberts shows Gavin’s slow descent into obsession and madness as the inverse of Morgan’s healing journey back to herself and her community. The novel highlights Morgan’s preparations for the inevitable final countdown with Gavin, but the lack of immediacy and urgency of the threat makes for a subdued, restrained thriller.
Roberts revisits a favorite theme: The power of community can defeat a great evil.Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9781250284112
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
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