Carla
This novel is not what it appears to be: it is not a standard mystery or juicy suburban thriller. If you are looking for a mainstream Ruth Ware/Liane Moriarty/etc., this novel is probably frustrate you.
This is a novel about secrets and choices and keeping your mouth shut when you should speak, and being passive aggressive when you should be assertive, and doing these things over and over until
It is too late and you can't take them back and violence occurs. The main characters both do this, and one of them has done this before as well, in their past—keeping silent and choosing the passive aggressive route of the silent treatment.
The intertwined milieu of therapy greatly interested me, both as a (retired—I am disabled) therapist, and as a therapy client. The author gets technical about therapeutical theories—Jung, Adler, for example—and in doing so really enhances the novel.
If I had known how dour, soused with alcohol, blunt, and so very bleak this novel is, I wouldn't have read it. When I say “soused with alcohol”, I mean the characters are so often drunk out of their minds, getting drunk, planning to drink, or hungover that I feel like I should have a contact high. Were I writing a school paper on it, alcohol would definitely be a theme.
I listened to the soundtrack of the Broadway musical this afternoon, and it helped me connect with the book better...but I shouldn't have needed to do that.
Maybe it's because I'm middle-aged? Or was a therapist? I saw this story from the point of view of a child's entire personhood and agency being hijacked, and it weirded me out so much it was hard to go along with the ride. But when I listened to the same story through song, I could hear, in the lyrics of Evans apology (which was not truly in the book) how Evan got swept in this thing that was bigger than he was and it gave him what he didn't have—a nuclear family and the girlfriend he assumed he could never get on his own. It's wasn't his motive, but it was an after affect. That plot point was very clear in the musical but not in the book.
Plus the added storytelling device of the ghost in the novel was not a good choice at all, in my opinion—I found it jarring. The reader could have learned the same details in a more fluid fashion.
The final, painful truth about Evan's fall from the tree—that it was accidentally on purpose—was stepped on in the novel, to used stage language. I read it and kept going and then had to pause to realize what I had read.
Finally, I really felt like the fact that Miguel and Connor were dating was hidden at the end from Zoe—and by extension, her parents—as a final gift. In this day and age? Really? Evan is supposedly coming clean completely, and...that's how it ended? No bueno.
Musical, from only hearing it: 4
Book: 3, unless that ending...? Can't check, because I have returned it to the library.
I love this book. Episode 52 of There Might Be Cupcakes Podcast will be an interview with the author, [a:Mike Bockoven 14907086 Mike Bockoven https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], and we'll be sharing some cool stuff about this novel. Mike acknowledges there are some editing issues with this novel, and that's the only reason I removed a star. It caused an error at one point that is a little jarring, but I know it will get fixed, because I know the things. ;) Werewolves are my favorite horror creature, and this novel is a fun, scary, gory ride. Have a scratch.
4 1/2 stars—the half removed only because it ended so abruptly. The author started talking about Hell in 20th century film, briefly discussed Aliens as metaphor...I turned the page...and there were the Acknowledgements and the Bibliography. What happened? Where's The Exorcist? Where's The Exorcism of Emily Rose, its motifs of Mary as Intercessor and sufferer as example rampant throughout the book? And those are the easy grabs. Very odd. Otherwise a fascinating book that has lined up about ten more books for me to read, and those are the most fun nonfiction books to read, aren't they?
A definite audiobook choice—delightful read-by-the-author. Stassi might be almost 17 younger than I am—that's teen mom years!—but she is my bff in my head. I want to pour her a glass of wine and tell her all about my personal paranormal experiences. Sure, she can hear them on my podcast, but that's no fun.
Chilling. Truly chilling. Two things really stick with me:
The killing couple. They were masked the whole time, and an urban legend to those who never saw them, so they may have mingled amongst the other kids by day. No one knows who they really were, and they're out there. And there are real people like that, waiting for a chance or an excuse to hurt people. The horror movie The Strangers was inspired by true events—people hurting people because they can, because of the shield of isolation. Then...the postcards. So many ramifications behind those. I actually got chills finishing that chapter.
The new company's choice for the park. Pay to pretend you were there. In our murder-entertainment culture right now, where podcast hosts giggle over stories of murder, this is not far-fetched from reality. Therein lies the deep horror.
3.5
This novel read like a mystery from the sixties, almost like a grown-up Nancy Drew, finding her way in the world...I mean that in the best way: the ambiance, taking breakfast and tea in the winter garden while sorting out clues, not a swear word to be seen, dressing for dinner...
There's only one oddity. So, in this universe, ghosts can eat and drink, or is that a continuity error?
Four stars down to three because this book could have been so much more than it is. Only 95 pages. Only a paragraph or two for each creature. Rowling has so much more creativity to give and share, and so much more than that in her writing notes alone.
Also, structure like a textbook would have been nice, such as questions for discussion and research. I was also surprised at the lack at interlinking in the Kindle edition–one of the major benefits of an ebook, barely used at all!
2 1/2 stars. There is promise here, yes. But there is also pretentiousness. And much of it.
(One should not name-check Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, and Virginia Woolf in their first boom of poetry. Be your own poet for some time first before claiming sisters in the word.)
Also, Amanda's style of naming or footnoting—I could not tell which—each poem with an italicized aside at the end was jolting for me as a reader, and made each of these feel rather like a zinger, like Amanda herself popping up to chortle “See what I did there?” A poem would resonate with me, then be abruptly bookended by this screeching halt to the flow. These extra endings made me feel as if she as the writer didn't trust me as the reader to get it, and had to give me a hint as to each poem's meaning. That violates the contract of the nebulousness of poetry; what the writer meant when she rang the bell may mean something different to every ear that hears its tone, and therein lies poetry's resounding, and compelling, beauty. There must be trust for the readers.
“...the yellow thread of memory...”: very sharp foreshadowing
Note for myself: “Sh-Boom” was written and recorded by The Chords; the white versions that did well were the covers by The Billy Williams Quartet and The Crew-Cuts
The reason it took me so long to finish this book, after a couple of starts and much time, was my misreading of Lisey. The beginning of the novel reads, to me, like a famous widow's bragging to self-soothe through grief: that's right, he was my man, the world was jealous. But it's a false facade if you hang on...and if you pay attention to details, such as how very difficult Scott actually was as a spouse...and the much more subtle fact that Scott and Lisey appear to have no friends outside of each other...
Then it becomes another, richer novel entirely.
Strangely uneven, with a couple of small continuity errors. Also, there's the feminism thing I noted: Diana is always being hovered over or scooped up in someone's arms or watched over or protected or ordered about...
It's five stars in some places, for I love a historical mystery, set at a prestigious university for bonus points! But then it's three or even two stars in some places, for the above strange misogyny and the peculiar coy attitude towards sex.
Will I read the sequel? Yeah, probably. Eventually.