“Bloody brilliant.”—Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the TrainInternationally bestselling author Julie Myerson’s beautifully written, yet deeply chilling, novel of psychological suspense explores the tragedies—past and present—haunting a picturesque country cottage.Mary Coles and her husband, Graham, have just moved to a cottage on the edge of a small village. … moved to a cottage on the edge of a small village. The house hasn’t been lived in for years, but they are drawn to its original features and surprisingly large garden, which stretches down into a beautiful apple orchard. It’s idyllic, remote, picturesque: exactly what they need to put the horror of the past behind them.
One hundred and fifty years earlier, a huge oak tree was felled in front of the cottage during a raging storm. Beneath it lies a young man with a shock of red hair, presumed dead—surely no one could survive such an accident. But the red-haired man is alive, and after a brief convalescence is taken in by the family living in the cottage and put to work in the fields. The children all love him, but the eldest daughter, Eliza, has her reservations. There’s something about the red-haired man that sits ill with her. A presence. An evil.
Back in the present, weeks after moving to the cottage and still drowning beneath the weight of insurmountable grief, Mary Coles starts to sense there’s something in the house. Children’s whispers, footsteps from above, half-caught glimpses of figures in the garden. A young man with a shock of red hair wandering through the orchard.
Has Mary’s grief turned to madness? Or have the events that took place so long ago finally come back to haunt her…?
more
This was one creepy story. The fact that Lottie was only 4 years old and said some of the most gruesome tales was very disturbing. And Eddie’s interactions with Mary were so weird. Quite honestly I felt he even invaded my personal space with his actions and questions. But maybe that’s the sign of good writing when characters can get under your skin or in your head!
Wow! What an original work of art! This novel is wonderful. The character development is exceptional. The ability to realistically portray such a difficult concept for most people to imagine was top-notch. Absolutely loved this book. It’s not a “cheerful little escape” read. It’s a completely intriguing (and sad but realistic) read It reminds one of how much you may not really realize – in terms of humanity, spirits, things one just may not truly understand or grasp in terms of “time and space”. To quote Madeleine L’Engle, “Time is a tesseract”. Excellent read.
Gosh this book has it all. What a page turner and the ending was totally unexpected. I couldn’t stop reading, you had to know what was coming next.
Didn’t really make much since to me!
I was so frustrated with this book at times because, in an effort to illustrate the tension between the characters, the author wrote short, moody sentences that were almost laughable. She also has them repeat about half their dialogue because apparently they aren’t listening to each other. After almost every statement, the person it was directed to, says, “what?” I’m glad I stuck with it though, because it turned out to be worth the effort.
This is one I want to read more after it’s finished! I’m still thinking about the characters.
I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.
This is an interesting book told from the perspective of two families living 150 years apart. The book begins in the past with only a tease of a horrific event and then moves to the present. Eliza narrates the story from the past while Mary narrates the story from the present. Within a couple of pages, I realized that Eliza’s narration uses first person and Mary’s uses third person to distinguish between past and present passages. Little by little each page reveals more information about each family and what they are facing. You know that something has happened to both families, but it isn’t revealed until well into the book. As I was reading this, I had the impression that the each family’s story was happening simultaneously and that each could catch a blurry glimmer of the other time period.
I felt that the ending to Mary’s story was ambiguous and I was looking for a more definitive ending. I enjoyed reading about Eliza and her family, especially her sister, Lottie. I didn’t enjoy Mary’s story as much. I ended up only wanting to know what the family tragedy was and why she was such a doleful character.
Interesting and hard to put down once I got the gist of which “time” I was reading about which made it a little confusing at first but don’t give up! Good read and thought provoking parallel world.