The Night Country
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15
Ratings4
Average rating4
A ghost story that begins in everyday tragedy, from a distinctly American master of both forms: a "scary, sad, funny . . . mesmerizing read" (Stephen King) At Midnight on Halloween in a cloistered New England suburb, a car carrying five teenagers leaves a winding road and slams into a tree, killing three of them. One escapes unharmed, another suffers severe brain damage. A year later, summoned by the memories of those closest to them, the three that died come back on a last chilling mission among the living. A strange and unsettling ghost story, The Night Country creeps through the leaf-strewn streets and quiet cul-de-sacs of one bedroom community, reaching into the desperately connected yet isolated lives of three people changed forever by the accident: Tim, who survived yet lost everything; Brooks, the cop whose guilty secret has destroyed his life; and Kyle's mom, trying to love the new son the doctors returned to her. As the day wanes and darkness falls, one of them puts a terrible plan into effect, and they find themselves caught in a collision of need and desire, watched over by the knowing ghosts. Macabre and moving, The Night Country elevates every small town's bad high school crash into myth, finding the deeper human truth beneath a shared and very American tragedy. As in his highly-prized Snow Angels and A Prayer for the Dying, once again Stewart O'Nan gives us an intimate look at people trying to hold on to hope, and the consequences when they fail.
Reviews with the most likes.
A fascinatingly philosophical take on a ghost story.
The story is following the denizens of town approaching the one year anniversary of an accident that took the lives of 3 teenagers and left another permanently brain damaged. Only one survivor was largely unhurt. The accident happened during a police chase and the police officer involved has been left deeply affected as well. We follow the ghosts of the 3 who died, who are in turn following the people who were impacted by the crash. The subtext is that the ghosts who haunt you are largely made of your own mistakes, your own experiences. The trauma of the past is very much alive and the struggles to deal with the guilt is an especially strong theme.
This was a beautifully told story, deeply affecting in its subject matter. Losing children, friends or being the cause of an accident are deeply seated fears. Guilt is a powerful emotion. This is not a light read and the crushing sense of inevitability that is produced is fantastically powerful.
