By Amy Engel
Genre Adult Contemporary
Rating ⭐️⭐️
Synopsis
Lane's mother never talked fondly of her childhood home. When her mother commits suicide Lane has no other options. She must go to the strange estate in Kansas to live with her grandparents. That summer the secrets are revealed and Lane can't get away fast enough but when her cousin Allegra goes missing Lane must return to the home she spent a summer in as a teenager and confront the families secrets to find out what happened to her cousin.
First Sentence
The Second time I saw Roanoke was a month after my mother committed suicide.
Oi! I'm not sure what I expected when I decided to read this one but it isn't what I got.
I was blown away by the beautiful writing in this one. Not just the style but the way everything came together with the past and present story telling and glimpses of the Roanoke girls.
Thus I gave it an extra star. Without that writing this one would have been a one star for me. The plot was just so disturbing and cringe inducing and I felt sick just reading it.
And then I asked myself why. Why did the author decide to write this twisted little story? There's nothing to be learned from it. No hope to offer or message to be learned. It was just gross and crass and pretty graphic.
So while I really didn't like this one I want to try something else the author wrote. As long as it's not a disturbing story like this one.
Should you read it
Can't recommend it. Just can't.
I often wonder when I read things that really freak me out if the author was going for something in particular or if they just wanted to write a really sick, twisted story! It's hard when the writing is so good but the story is so bad. I normally can't go on with books like that.
ReplyDeleteIt was quite torturous to get through.
DeleteI'm curious about this book. I think there're mixed reviews of it so I'm really intrigued. Hopefully my library has a copy.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I feel like most people liked it. I just struggled with the content.
DeleteWill be avoiding this one!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a plan.
DeleteHmmm. I wanted to read this one just for it's title, but I don't know if I'll like it or not.
ReplyDeleteYeah, It wasn't worth it.
DeleteWill pass this one up! Sounds like one I would not enjoy. I'm surprised you finished it.
ReplyDeleteI stuck with it hoping for a redeeming ending. Sigh!
DeleteI'm so disappointed that you didn't enjoy this! When I first heard of it, I was excited because from the title, I thought it would be about those missing settlers on Roanoke island back when the America's were being settled by Europeans but upon reading the blurb, that's not really case which is really disappointing. Since you couldn't find any point to it, I doubt I would enjoy it either. I am glad it wasn't a complete wash though (beautiful writing does have a way of redeeming things). Lovely review, Jenny!
ReplyDeleteLaura @BlueEyeBooks
Yeah, I thought it might be about the lost colony of Roanoke too. It wasn't even about that. It was horrible. The writing was beautiful though.
DeleteI read a book that was disturbing and gross and graphic, a few years back, and I can't remember the name of it because it upset me so badly I put it out of my head. It gave me one of the most frightening nightmares I've ever had (still remember the nightmare) and I came out of it with the same questions you had with this one because the writing was really very good. I couldn't help but wonder why on earth the author had chosen to write something so horrifying when she had such stong writing. Why not use her talent for good? It was made into a movie, so she probably made good money from her novel but it was so, so dark.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't get it. Why bother on such a horrible story.
DeleteIncidentally, if you're interested in the colonization of Roanoke and Jamestown, Big Chief Elizabeth by Giles Milton is excellent.
ReplyDeleteI actually find that part of history interesting. So fun to speculate on. I'll have to check this one out.
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