Syndrie
A bit slow to start off, "Heap Earth Upon It" takes its time building up tension before throwing the reader right into the middle of what is both a family drama and a haunting tale of obsession. This is a story about a family that is trying to escape their past, even though none of them are actually ready to move on yet.
Starting off I wasn't sure if this was going to be very suited to my tastes, the slow start plus the more classical-styled prose made it a little hard for me to get into. But once things started to pick up around the midway point, my attention was definitely captured! Howarth does a good job of really building up a tense atmosphere around the O'Leary family that makes you wonder if you can really trust them or not. There are many POV shifts between the siblings in here, but each one lasts just long enough for you to get a good look at their—sometimes unsettling—motivations and emotions. And even though I had a general idea of where the story would probably end up, I was still pleasantly surprised by some of the turns that it took on the way there.
I would definitely recommend this to readers who enjoy the classics or even just gothic fiction readers in general!
(Thank you to Melville House for providing me with an advance review copy via NetGalley! I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.)
A bit slow to start off, "Heap Earth Upon It" takes its time building up tension before throwing the reader right into the middle of what is both a family drama and a haunting tale of obsession. This is a story about a family that is trying to escape their past, even though none of them are actually ready to move on yet.
Starting off I wasn't sure if this was going to be very suited to my tastes, the slow start plus the more classical-styled prose made it a little hard for me to get into. But once things started to pick up around the midway point, my attention was definitely captured! Howarth does a good job of really building up a tense atmosphere around the O'Leary family that makes you wonder if you can really trust them or not. There are many POV shifts between the siblings in here, but each one lasts just long enough for you to get a good look at their—sometimes unsettling—motivations and emotions. And even though I had a general idea of where the story would probably end up, I was still pleasantly surprised by some of the turns that it took on the way there.
I would definitely recommend this to readers who enjoy the classics or even just gothic fiction readers in general!
(Thank you to Melville House for providing me with an advance review copy via NetGalley! I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.)