From Bram Stoker Award nominee Ronald Malfi comes a chilling novel of childhood revisited, memories resurrected, and fears reborn . . .After years away, Laurie returns to the home where she was raised by a cold, distant father who recently exorcised his demons. But no amount of cleaning can wipe away the troubled past. She feels it lurking in the broken moldings, sees it staring from an empty … from an empty picture frame, hears it laughing in the moldy greenhouse deep in the woods . . .
At first, Laurie thinks she’s imagining things. But when she meets her daughter’s new playmate, she notices her uncanny resemblance to another little girl who used to live next door. Who died next door. With each passing day, Laurie’s uneasiness grows stronger, her thoughts more disturbing. Like her father, is she slowly losing her mind? Or is something truly unspeakable happening?
“Much more than a haunted house story.” —Cemetery Dance Magazine
“Takes well-known tropes and completely turns them around.” —IHeartReading
“Slowly but surely creeps under your skin.” —The Horror Bookshelf
“The perfect ghost story.” —HorrorBuzz
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i couldnt put the book down…i was so scared but i kept reading…i couldnt sleep with the lights out the first night after i read it@imaqueen24 check it out
I read this book within two days, which considering the many books and projects I am juggling, is a testament to the book being well written and gripping. It started out a bit slow, but in a way that didn’t turn me off. It felt more like the plot was slowly building up for some major climax, so I was excited and intrigued. The problem is that the climax didn’t really happen, or at least wasn’t as hyped as I wanted it to be. Also, there were some confusing parts that left me wondering what the heck happened.
SPOILERS below: To start with: I did not feel emotionally attached to any of the characters at all. Laurie, the main character, is in “la la land” most of the time. I want to feel bad for her and I often sympathized with her daughter being a little detached from her and so enamored with her father, but I couldn’t, because I didn’t feel sympathy as her role as a mother. She was detached as equally as her daughter and her character never really improved or evolved.
For me, these were the confusing parts of the story:
It turns out that Laurie had actually pushed Sadie down the tree, bringing her to her death. Does that mean she had known all along that her father had been accused by Sadie of molesting young girls? How did Laurie happen to forget that “small” revelation through her whole life?? How? Why?
I didn’t buy Sadie’s sadistic ways being only a part of Laurie’s father molestation. I just didn’t. There was something so evil about her that I couldn’t even reconcile it to the one storyline of Myles’s molestation.
The greenhouse: why on earth would a little girl die there and no one tears down the greenhouse but instead leave it ” as is”?
From what I understand Sadie is inhabiting Abigail’s body. Or was she “reborn” as Abigail? How did Rosewoods not realize there was something wrong with the child? It was super obvious. And how is it that Laurie sees as clear as day that Abigail looks exactly like Sadie, even has a photograph to prove it, and no one else does?
Hated Ted’s character and I had no sympathy for the man, and to be honest I didn’t like Susan’s either.
And then there is the big finale…which really puzzled me. Did Susan die? Did she fall/get pushed down the well? Did Sadie want revenge on Laurie because she killed her or because she didn’t believe her when she told her father was molesting her?
This was the first book I’ve read by this author. Although I didn’t really enjoy this book as much as I wanted to, I think Malfi is a great writer. I will give his other novels a try and hope I can enjoy them better.
This book was unpredictable