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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
stilted and one dimensional characters and relationships. ending was unsatisfying. some serious similarities with Gillian Flynn's "dark places". different stories with similar story telling devices
I couldn't put down this Gothic mystery about the disappearance of Arden Arrowood's twin baby sisters when she was a young girl. definitely got my heart pounding a few times and had me guessing in the wrong direction a few times. overall very readable and entertaining.
Atmospheric and mesmerizing. The pace is delicious; slow enough to savor, yet still a page-turner. More literary than most mysteries, less twisted than most thrillers, more realistic than genre fiction.
Like novelists of Appalachia, McHugh convincingly portrays decaying wealth in contrast with poverty.
Questions of trust--in others, in memory--pepper this novel, in which the familiar is off-kilter and intuition wraps itself in thin cloaks of optimism and transparent, haunting grief.
Keokuk makes a marvelous setting, though it will strike so many as familiar, for there are myriad river towns of former industry and society in our nation.
I would have relished another 50-100 pages worth of characterization and tangled relationship-building, though that would likely have tampered with the pace I so enjoyed.
My trifling complaint is that I would have liked knowning what the minister wanted to say. There are a few minor signposts with incomplete messages, such as that.
If I had to choose a favorite between this and The Weight of Blood, I couldn't. They're both riveting, with settings that steer the story and lost-girl characters who seek truth, and remain in mind long after the last page.
I look forward to whatever McHugh concocts next.
4.5
Like novelists of Appalachia, McHugh convincingly portrays decaying wealth in contrast with poverty.
Questions of trust--in others, in memory--pepper this novel, in which the familiar is off-kilter and intuition wraps itself in thin cloaks of optimism and transparent, haunting grief.
Keokuk makes a marvelous setting, though it will strike so many as familiar, for there are myriad river towns of former industry and society in our nation.
I would have relished another 50-100 pages worth of characterization and tangled relationship-building, though that would likely have tampered with the pace I so enjoyed.
My trifling complaint is that I would have liked knowning what the minister wanted to say. There are a few minor signposts with incomplete messages, such as that.
If I had to choose a favorite between this and The Weight of Blood, I couldn't. They're both riveting, with settings that steer the story and lost-girl characters who seek truth, and remain in mind long after the last page.
I look forward to whatever McHugh concocts next.
4.5
Since McHugh is a local author who showed so much promise in her first novel, I am rooting for her to succeed and was eager to read her next work. Unfortunately, I found this to be rather underwhelming and poorly paced. The first half is quite slow as McHugh painstakingly sets the stage with an abundance of superfluous details that don't add much to the story. I determinedly stuck with it, sure that the momentum would pick up during the second half, which it barely did. Although I wouldn't label the plot as predictable, very little of what happened surprised me. There is one shocking revelation near the end, but McHugh disappointingly negates the possibility almost immediately. I failed to feel any connection to Arden and wasn't interested in her tragic backstory, finding her to be a rather aimless blank slate. The tone of the book felt off and like it was aimed toward a young adult audience despite the protagonist being in her late twenties. McHugh may very well end up penning something truly amazing, but she has some problematic kinks to work out of her system first.
Well this book was a disappointment. I so throughly enjoyed McHugh’s previous book and I wanted desperately to feel that same connection here. It’s not here. This book is disjointed, slow, and inevitably extremely predictable in every way. Reasons to read... the setting. That’s it. 2/5 from me.
I was in a book slump and this book got me back on track! Quick read and I really liked the end.
mysterious
slow-paced
Slow start but very engaging story
Subtle, well-written, and difficult to put down.
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A great mystery book, wasn't able to put this book down. I liked how the time travel back and forth was done, but main character was a little annoying. Overall a great read.
Arden has lived away from the town of Keokuk for many years, haunted by the disappearance of her twin sisters when she was 8. On the death of her father Arden inherits Arrowood, the family mansion on the banks of the Mississippi, and at a crossroads in her life she moves in. The mansion is old and hides many secrets but Arden is determined to solve the mystery of what happened to her sisters. Helped by both her high school sweetheart and a man interested in local mysteries Arden struggles to make sense of memory and place.
Laura McHugh is developing into an outstanding writer of intelligent mysteries that lie on the popular side of fiction but actually have a lot of depth and interest to them, her debut 'The Weight of Blood' was excellent. Here the setting is a mid-West town full of faded grandeur and hidden secrets and Arden is a troubled woman. the source of her troubles is only revealed in the final section of the book but the lead up is both suspenseful and sympathetically written. Little hints of the supernatural do nothing but add to the air of mystery, points aren't laboured to death here and characters are drawn lightly but with enough detail to allow the reader to see perspectives and fill in gaps. Altogether a hugely satisfying novel to read and I eagerly await more.
Laura McHugh is developing into an outstanding writer of intelligent mysteries that lie on the popular side of fiction but actually have a lot of depth and interest to them, her debut 'The Weight of Blood' was excellent. Here the setting is a mid-West town full of faded grandeur and hidden secrets and Arden is a troubled woman. the source of her troubles is only revealed in the final section of the book but the lead up is both suspenseful and sympathetically written. Little hints of the supernatural do nothing but add to the air of mystery, points aren't laboured to death here and characters are drawn lightly but with enough detail to allow the reader to see perspectives and fill in gaps. Altogether a hugely satisfying novel to read and I eagerly await more.