“I guess […] we all do what we think is best. Sometimes we make terrible mistakes, sometimes we do the right thing. Sometimes we never know. We just have to hope.”

This book was my long-distance book club choice for this November/December book (we combined the months because…Holiday Season). Anyways, the theme was some kind of Holiday/cold weather situation and this one was the winner!

This is a dual timeline story, unfolding in both the early 1900s and the “present day” in West Hall, Vermont. In 1908, Sarah Harrison Shea is found dead (murdered), near her home, just months after the untimely and sudden death of her daughter Gertie. In the present day, Ruthie lives with her family in the same farmhouse that Sara lived in once. Her mother Alice, has gone missing and she and her younger sister, Fawn, come across sections of Sara’s old diary hidden in the floorboards of the house while looking about clues for where their mother may have gone. And with that, they are sucked in a mystery much deeper and darker than they ever expected.

I had no idea what it was about really, when I started, having kind of just skimmed the blurb before picking it up. I had a vague idea that it was a sort of a mystery with a farmhouse vibe of some kind, and looking back now (and reading the blurb more carefully) that was a pretty accurate idea. But it ended up being quite a bit creepier, more thriller-y, than that. There were some very legit paranormal feels from the very beginning that I hadn’t expected. That was likely the best part of this novel, the ambiance McMahon created. There was a strong sense of unsettlement while reading…very atmospheric. And it was enough to get me a little jumpy, but, for this big baby (as far as my ability to handle scary things) never too much.

Along with that, the pacing was very smooth, developing and increasing in tension in past and present together. We have Sara’s story in the past, focusing on the loss of her daughter and the slow unraveling for herself and her husband after that, as well as her search to figure out exactly what happened to Gertie and, even, perhaps, if there’s a way to bring her back. (Content warning here for death of a child and – really well written – representations of mental health breakdowns due to grief.) In the present, we have a couple different characters story-lines developing simultaneously, the main one being Ruthie and Fawn’s search for their mother. But also, we hear a lot about West Hall’s history of disappearances, how that ties in with the legend of Sara’s death, and a few other present-day characters…actually, kind of a lot of present-day characters…whose stories all come together in the end in a very smooth way. And, while there were a few little twists that I sort of predicted, there were definitely a few that I hadn’t seen coming. Nothing too intense or big, but satisfying little things all the same. This is more a thriller of ambiance, like I said, than a thriller of twists and surprises.

One other thing I enjoyed was the mix of paranormal in the story. I am always a sucker for that, honestly, so I am definitely biased. But I liked how much it was woven into the story, and I really loved how much of it ended up being explainable in other ways, while other parts were definitely only explainable by the supernatural elements. That “uncertain whether it’s real or not” while reading is a device I always love (Once Upon a River does it the best I’ve ever read), and it was pretty solid here. And it was cool how the legends of Sara’s story continued to survive present day in myriad ways, with various levels of actual belief in them, from both locals and outsiders. I will say, I felt like the use of an Indigenous woman as an originator for these supernatural powers/aspects was a bit culturally insensitive (especially calling her “Indian”). Auntie’s character could easily have just been a generic witch-type woman and there wouldn’t have been any loss to the story itself, while also not playing into stereotypes.

Finally, I think the main message of the novel, about respecting the natural order of things, respecting death was just…alright. It’s a good message. A bit overdone, but there’s a reason for that, as it’s a strong and important one. But I don’t feel like anything particularly unique that this novel added to the cannon. So, it was fine, just nothing special. However, the ending conveyed why, in this case, it is especially important to let the dead lie...and it was done in a particularly ominous way, with an eerie spin, that I did enjoy.

Overall, I liked this book. It had some sensitivity issues and, like I said, was nothing particularly original as far as ideas or style. However, it was well written and paced, and it kept my interest. This isn’t a genre I usually read, and I totally know why. I think this was a solid book, but nothing about it makes me want to pick up another one just like it anytime soon. So, take my “good but nothing special” commentary with that caveat in mind. And, to be fair, I will say that it was a good escapist read and will provide some pretty cool topics for us to talk about during book club. Plus, like I said, solid “unnatural” vibes.