3 Stars
Following her recuperation from an accident that left her in
a near death coma, Emily and her husband, Freddie, seek solitude in a quiet
English town on the moors where Freddie has purchased a large property for her
remaining recovery. But despite the isolation of the landscape, Emily soon
senses they are not alone.
Told via Emily and Freddie’s 1st person POV as well as some
3rd person chapters from the raven—yes, really the bird, this is a
supernatural suspense/haunted house story with distinct element of gothic. As you might guess, there’s also plenty of Poe
references. It’s a slow build and not so much a whodunit as ‘who is haunting
their abode.’
While it’s certainly not a romance, marriage and
relationship (specially relationship struggles) is a strong theme driving the
plot. In fact, given the couples in this book, I don’t think anyone would want
to run out and get married after reading it.
For the most part, I found Emily fairly rootable. She’s not
without her flaws, but I sympathized with some of her issues. Freddie, on the
other hand, what a pathetic douche. He
becomes utterly reprehensible for numerous reasons. Also, their friends were rather flat and not
likeable. They definitely needed to be better developed as did a few plot
points (i.e. the cause of her accident).
The story kept me engaged, but I didn’t have any big reveal
or ‘aha’ moments. While the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the goings-on isn’t too obvious,
I could figure it out as it went along.
All in all, an interesting spin on the haunting part of the
tale, but otherwise the mystery is just okay and the characters are hardly sympathetic
people.
*Title borrowed from the library’s e-loan app. All reviews written by Book-Bosomed Book Blog are honest opinions.
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