Helpful Score: 1
I found this book to be slow going until the final few chapters. Everything was quickly resolved at the end of the book. The main character, Grace, was not that likeable and the other characters weren't well developed. I think I would have been more interested in what happened to Adam if one of the early chapters had been about him and Grace before he disappeared. The book was okay but could have been much better.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a modern day gothic that drew me in and cast a spell that I won't soon forget.
The story opens at the home that Grace and her husband Adam inherited from his grandparents. Like a gothic of old, Foster draws upon the classic gothic themes of atmospheric setting, a cast of strange characters, and seething of a few characters that lies just below the surface. The story takes place in the English moors, always a treacherous place where the innocent can so easily be lost. Grace's husband disappears without a trace, leaving the baby carriage with their baby in it on the porch. When the story opens, Grace has returned to the cottage to go through the boxes and belongings of the former owners and of her husband Adam. She is also unwilling to walk away from Adam's disappearance - though the townsfolk do everything they can to discourage her.
Told mostly from Grace's point of view, Foster employs moors, cliffs, a haunting, a clock that stops by itself and restarts, a blinding snowstorm, and a brooding male character in opposition to a female brooding character. The mystery is so well done that it keeps you guessing until the end.
I finished this book a few days ago and it cast such a spell over me that I felt like writing about it, like analyzing it would break the spell. I was so sorry to see this one go.
The story opens at the home that Grace and her husband Adam inherited from his grandparents. Like a gothic of old, Foster draws upon the classic gothic themes of atmospheric setting, a cast of strange characters, and seething of a few characters that lies just below the surface. The story takes place in the English moors, always a treacherous place where the innocent can so easily be lost. Grace's husband disappears without a trace, leaving the baby carriage with their baby in it on the porch. When the story opens, Grace has returned to the cottage to go through the boxes and belongings of the former owners and of her husband Adam. She is also unwilling to walk away from Adam's disappearance - though the townsfolk do everything they can to discourage her.
Told mostly from Grace's point of view, Foster employs moors, cliffs, a haunting, a clock that stops by itself and restarts, a blinding snowstorm, and a brooding male character in opposition to a female brooding character. The mystery is so well done that it keeps you guessing until the end.
I finished this book a few days ago and it cast such a spell over me that I felt like writing about it, like analyzing it would break the spell. I was so sorry to see this one go.
