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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
4.5 stars rounded up to 5
What a gripping book. Really investigates how memory is unreliable and mostly what we think of other people is how we are told to think about them. Historic mystery plus modern day existentialism, runs a little long in the middle (when I guessed parts of the end and started skimming ahead to comfirm my guess, thats when I knew it was too long) but I read it all in one night so you know it was a page turner.
What a gripping book. Really investigates how memory is unreliable and mostly what we think of other people is how we are told to think about them. Historic mystery plus modern day existentialism, runs a little long in the middle (when I guessed parts of the end and started skimming ahead to comfirm my guess, thats when I knew it was too long) but I read it all in one night so you know it was a page turner.
Homecoming by Kate Morton is a sprawling novel set in Australia containing dual timelines and a horrific crime from the past.
*
It’s Christmas Eve in 1959 and by a creek in Adeline Hills a shocking discovery is made.
*
December 2018 in London, Jess receives a call that her grandmother, Nora is in hospital. When Jess arrives at her grandmother’s house in Sydney, she finds out that in the weeks before Nora fell on the steps to the attic, she was distracted. Jess wants to know what was so important that Nora needed from the attic, but her grandmother is in no position to answer her questions.
*
Then Jess finds a true crime book tucked away in her grandmother’s house about the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. A crime that involves her own family. A crime she never knew about.
*
This book was incredible! It could very well be my favourite Kate Morton book to date. It’s got all the things I love about her other books, dual timelines, a mysterious house, a strong sense of place, and so much more.
*
This one has a huge cast of characters, and each one is handled with such care that you feel like you’re reading about people you know personally. This is also a book within a book. As Jess reads the true crime book that she finds in her grandmother’s house, you get to read along with her. It’s a very smart way of telling the story, but it also makes for an astounding reading experience.
*
I especially enjoyed all of the references to birds, including the fairy wren. I love birds and there is nothing like the movements of birds and birdsong to set a scene.
*
I was the winner of the #KateMortonBiggestFanCA giveaway held by Simon and Schuster Canada. Thank you @simonschusterca for sending me an advance copy. I’m still pinching myself!
*
Kate Morton’s brilliant new book, Homecoming comes out on April 4 2023.
*
It’s Christmas Eve in 1959 and by a creek in Adeline Hills a shocking discovery is made.
*
December 2018 in London, Jess receives a call that her grandmother, Nora is in hospital. When Jess arrives at her grandmother’s house in Sydney, she finds out that in the weeks before Nora fell on the steps to the attic, she was distracted. Jess wants to know what was so important that Nora needed from the attic, but her grandmother is in no position to answer her questions.
*
Then Jess finds a true crime book tucked away in her grandmother’s house about the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. A crime that involves her own family. A crime she never knew about.
*
This book was incredible! It could very well be my favourite Kate Morton book to date. It’s got all the things I love about her other books, dual timelines, a mysterious house, a strong sense of place, and so much more.
*
This one has a huge cast of characters, and each one is handled with such care that you feel like you’re reading about people you know personally. This is also a book within a book. As Jess reads the true crime book that she finds in her grandmother’s house, you get to read along with her. It’s a very smart way of telling the story, but it also makes for an astounding reading experience.
*
I especially enjoyed all of the references to birds, including the fairy wren. I love birds and there is nothing like the movements of birds and birdsong to set a scene.
*
I was the winner of the #KateMortonBiggestFanCA giveaway held by Simon and Schuster Canada. Thank you @simonschusterca for sending me an advance copy. I’m still pinching myself!
*
Kate Morton’s brilliant new book, Homecoming comes out on April 4 2023.
My bookclub read this book and we loved it, some members were intimidated by the amount of pages but once you start you can’t put the book down!
Jessica is an investigative journalist who lives in London, she receives a phone call , that informs her that her grandmother Nora who raised her , has had a horrible fall and is in the hospital. She takes the next flight to Australia back to 'Darling House' her grandmother's beautiful home atop a cliff. She’s immediately flooded with past memories, but when she’s told that her grandmother was distraught about a solicitor's letter right before her fall, Jessica’s curiosity soon has her looking into her families past . Jessica discovers a book that her grandmother hid under her pillow called "As If They Were Asleep" by a true crime journalist named Daniel Miller. As Jess reads this book for herself, we follow along with her as facts and clues are revealed about a horrible tragedy that occurred back in 1959. The tragedy took place at another home called 'Halycon' in Southern Australia's Adelaide Hills. On Christmas Eve a woman and her four children were mysteriously killed while having a picnic on the property. We soon uncover how this tragic event is linked to Jess and her family and what secrets that have been kept all these years. This story is filled deception, parenting, jealousy and forgiveness. I can’t stop thinking about this book and the characters.
Jessica is an investigative journalist who lives in London, she receives a phone call , that informs her that her grandmother Nora who raised her , has had a horrible fall and is in the hospital. She takes the next flight to Australia back to 'Darling House' her grandmother's beautiful home atop a cliff. She’s immediately flooded with past memories, but when she’s told that her grandmother was distraught about a solicitor's letter right before her fall, Jessica’s curiosity soon has her looking into her families past . Jessica discovers a book that her grandmother hid under her pillow called "As If They Were Asleep" by a true crime journalist named Daniel Miller. As Jess reads this book for herself, we follow along with her as facts and clues are revealed about a horrible tragedy that occurred back in 1959. The tragedy took place at another home called 'Halycon' in Southern Australia's Adelaide Hills. On Christmas Eve a woman and her four children were mysteriously killed while having a picnic on the property. We soon uncover how this tragic event is linked to Jess and her family and what secrets that have been kept all these years. This story is filled deception, parenting, jealousy and forgiveness. I can’t stop thinking about this book and the characters.
For reasons to do with my own obstinacy I rarely DNF a book, but I really struggled with this. Like other reviewers I wondered if perhaps I had somehow 'grown out' of her work, but on reflection I think it is more to do with:
- the unsympathetic modern day characters - Jess was so uninteresting, and every step of her 'investigation' (do we really need to read about her typing search terms into Wikipedia) was boring and had no tension. And as for Nora, it was so difficult to get a handle on her as she lay comatose in hospital.
- the bloated feeling to the middle section of the book.
- the lack of an actual mystery.
On the plus side, I was invested in the story set in 1959 and loved the SA setting. As with her earlier work I feel that her modern day characters do not have the verve and fizz of her historical characters.
This book has been a long time coming (and also mixed up with some well publicised agent issues she's had) and it felt like an age reading it. She's so talented but I could sense her struggling with the material.
I will not give up on Kate, and await her next work, because I'm sure she'll get her mojo back.
- the unsympathetic modern day characters - Jess was so uninteresting, and every step of her 'investigation' (do we really need to read about her typing search terms into Wikipedia) was boring and had no tension. And as for Nora, it was so difficult to get a handle on her as she lay comatose in hospital.
- the bloated feeling to the middle section of the book.
- the lack of an actual mystery.
On the plus side, I was invested in the story set in 1959 and loved the SA setting. As with her earlier work I feel that her modern day characters do not have the verve and fizz of her historical characters.
This book has been a long time coming (and also mixed up with some well publicised agent issues she's had) and it felt like an age reading it. She's so talented but I could sense her struggling with the material.
I will not give up on Kate, and await her next work, because I'm sure she'll get her mojo back.
A slow burning masterpiece that builds itself up page by page until you’re so caught up in it you don’t realize how long you’ve been reading and oh god I’ve been fired for no-showing 8 work days in a row
This is a return to form for Kate Morton. The House at Riverton is one of my favorites and I’ve enjoyed some of Morton’s other works as well. However, I’ve not felt the magic of Riverton until I finished Homecoming this afternoon. The mystery is pretty predictable. I had most of the pieces at the midway point but you almost don’t care about that because the writing itself is beautiful and you get lost in the characters that Morton creates. I felt real loss at the end of this story for what could have been for the characters.
The only reason this isnt a perfect review is because it’s a bit too long. Morton could have tightened up some of the narrative. Otherwise, this book lived up to my higj expectations.
The only reason this isnt a perfect review is because it’s a bit too long. Morton could have tightened up some of the narrative. Otherwise, this book lived up to my higj expectations.
Mixed feelings on this one, a bit of a slog, but a very intriguing multi-faceted mystery that I just had to know "who dun it and why."
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fantastic mystery. Complex unraveling of a family’s secrets. I enjoyed this one quite a bit, but it was a little dull in the middle.