Author: Kate Moretti
Publication Date: 1 November 2020
Publisher: Thomas and Mercer
Page Count: 304
Reading Method: Digital ARC
Synopsis:
When Hannah Maloney’s aunt dies in a car accident, she returns to her family’s castle in the Catskills and the epicenter of a childhood trauma: her sister’s unsolved disappearance. It’s been seventeen years, and though desperate to start a new life with her fiancé, Hannah is compelled to question the events of her last summer at Brackenhill.
When a human bone is found near the estate, Hannah is convinced it belongs to her long-lost sister. She launches her own investigation into that magical summer that ended in a nightmare. As strange happenings plague the castle, Hannah uncovers disturbing details about the past and startling realizations about her own repressed childhood memories.
Fueled by guilt over her sister’s vanishing, Hannah becomes obsessed with discovering what happened all those years ago, but by the time Hannah realizes some mysteries are best left buried, it’s too late to stop digging. Overwhelmed by what she has exposed, Hannah isn’t sure her new life can survive her old ghosts.
Review:
Thrilling, exciting, and very mysterious – I was hooked from the start! I really love the idea of a creepy, old estate being passed down through generations, with each generation adding their own secrets and mysteries to house. It really makes you wonder just how much has actually happened in that house.
The story is told through the eyes of Hannah, who spent a few summers at Brackenhill with her sister until it all went wrong. She hasn’t been back since. I found Hannah to be a wonderfully unreliable character. Her decisions were equal parts completely reasonable and terribly frustrating. These characteristics blend together to lend a bit of mystery to Hannah and make certain things more believable in the end. Throughout the story we also learn a lot about her sister, aunt, and uncle.
We are presented the story in two timelines: past and modern day. The flashbacks to the past were just little sprinkles of memories that made it all the more clear why things are the way they are now. I feel like the pacing and unraveling of the truth was done very well. I still feel like I have questions after completing the book, but it’s intentional. We do get a tiny bit of resolution, but there still seems to be a big “what if” hanging over my head. The pacing of the story was great and the reveals were equal parts expected and shocking.
You can purchase a copy of Girls of Brackenhill here (amazon) or here (book depository)
You can learn more about the author, Kate Moretti, here
