kbranfield's review against another edition
4.0
Set in a rural town in the Appalachian Mountains,The Barrowfields is a melancholy yet interesting debut by Phillip Lewis.
After tragedy strikes their family, young Henry Aster reminisces about his father, also named Henry, who managed to leave his rural roots only to return with his pregnant wife, Eleonore, when his mother's health begins to fail. Henry Sr is a prodigious reader with dreams of writing of his own novel and works as a lawyer to support his family. After winning a lucrative case, he purchases a rather spooky house that overlooks the town where he works on his novel while drinking heavily. Following a tragic loss, young Henry eventually follows in his father's footsteps as he leaves for college only to eventually return to his birthplace where he must finally come to terms with the events that occurred before striking out on his own.
The flashbacks from Henry Jr about his childhood offer a somewhat bleak portrait of his rather dysfunctional family. Henry Sr spends night after night writing his novel and drinking which leaves Henry Jr. taking on paternal duties with his much younger sister Threnody. Most of Henry's reminiscences focus on his dad with only passing mention of his mom, Eleonore, who is apparently quite devoted to her husband. After Henry's paternal grandmother passes away, Henry's family undergoes a few changes that end in tragedy and culminate with Henry Sr.'s continued downward spiral.
The pacing of the novel picks up when Henry Jr goes to college where he also goes on to law school. He spends a lot of his time drinking and mooning over Story, the young woman who has stolen his heart. However, Story has her own drama to contend with but Henry is a willing participant in her quest to attain answers that no one is willing to give. It is not until Henry returns to face his own past that he figures out the truth she has searching for. In the process of coming to terms with his family's history, Henry attempts to repair his long fractured relationship with Threnody.
Although a bit slow paced, The Barrowfields is an imaginative debut novel. Phillip Lewis brings the setting vibrantly to life and it is quite easy to visualize the rural town and its inhabitants. The characters are richly developed and life-like with all too human frailties and foibles. An atmospheric coming of age novel that leaves readers hopeful Henry Jr and Threnody will find a way to avoid repeating the mistakes that took their father down a somewhat dark path.
After tragedy strikes their family, young Henry Aster reminisces about his father, also named Henry, who managed to leave his rural roots only to return with his pregnant wife, Eleonore, when his mother's health begins to fail. Henry Sr is a prodigious reader with dreams of writing of his own novel and works as a lawyer to support his family. After winning a lucrative case, he purchases a rather spooky house that overlooks the town where he works on his novel while drinking heavily. Following a tragic loss, young Henry eventually follows in his father's footsteps as he leaves for college only to eventually return to his birthplace where he must finally come to terms with the events that occurred before striking out on his own.
The flashbacks from Henry Jr about his childhood offer a somewhat bleak portrait of his rather dysfunctional family. Henry Sr spends night after night writing his novel and drinking which leaves Henry Jr. taking on paternal duties with his much younger sister Threnody. Most of Henry's reminiscences focus on his dad with only passing mention of his mom, Eleonore, who is apparently quite devoted to her husband. After Henry's paternal grandmother passes away, Henry's family undergoes a few changes that end in tragedy and culminate with Henry Sr.'s continued downward spiral.
The pacing of the novel picks up when Henry Jr goes to college where he also goes on to law school. He spends a lot of his time drinking and mooning over Story, the young woman who has stolen his heart. However, Story has her own drama to contend with but Henry is a willing participant in her quest to attain answers that no one is willing to give. It is not until Henry returns to face his own past that he figures out the truth she has searching for. In the process of coming to terms with his family's history, Henry attempts to repair his long fractured relationship with Threnody.
Although a bit slow paced, The Barrowfields is an imaginative debut novel. Phillip Lewis brings the setting vibrantly to life and it is quite easy to visualize the rural town and its inhabitants. The characters are richly developed and life-like with all too human frailties and foibles. An atmospheric coming of age novel that leaves readers hopeful Henry Jr and Threnody will find a way to avoid repeating the mistakes that took their father down a somewhat dark path.
gracescanlon's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Abandonment
Moderate: Death of parent and Child death
Minor: Suicide
lola425's review against another edition
4.0
This is the kind of book that you just get lost in. The characters are just quirky enough to be interesting, but also just honest enough to be believed. Examines the complexity of family ties: how closely they bind, how they unravel, how arbitrary and tenuous they can be, how sometimes they are too much and sometimes not enough.
rglossner's review against another edition
3.0
Beautifully written family and coming of age story. The narrator relates his growing up in the strange, enormous house built into the mountain near a tiny North Carolina town. His father, who makes his living as a lawyer, is obsessed with books and literature and spends his nights drinking and writing a novel which is never finished. Tragedy splits his family and drives him away for college, and law school, where he meets a fellow law student named Story, with whom he falls in love. She has secrets and tragedies of her own. This novel was enjoyable, although I thought the women characters--his mother Eleonore, his sister Threnody, and Story--were all still mysteries to me at the end. Character and place take center stage here, so if you are looking for plot you will be disappointed.
thebooktrail88's review against another edition
4.0
This is a book of some of the most atmospheric settings ever evoked in a novel. The mountains, the stunning Appalachian Mountains is the setting as well as the overall character and the scenes are symbolic to the action of the plot. The mist on the mountains stops people seeing clearly, the high level houses are remote and claustrophobic,all-seeing but seeing nothing.The house they live in is a grand cold place and the house has more secrets than any one in the book combined!
Full review and BookTrail to follow
Full review and BookTrail to follow
jaclynday's review against another edition
5.0
Shockingly beautiful. I wasn’t prepared for how deeply these characters would worm their way inside me. It features some of the best writing about setting I’ve read in a long time. Thank you to Crown Publishing for the opportunity to read this advance copy in exchange for a review.
lee's review against another edition
4.0
I had a difficult time starting this review because there are so many things I liked about this book that it was hard for me to just choose a few things to focus on. But since I must choose, I would have to say that the beautiful writing, first and foremost, is what got me completely drawn into this book. From the very first page to the very last one, the writing was lyrical, descriptive, engaging. The author Phillip Lewis has a unique skill in being able to render vivid descriptions of people, places, events, etc. in a few short sentences, sometimes in a mere few words, and do it in a way that the reader feels fully immersed in what he is describing. Some of my favorite descriptions in the book were of the old mansion situated on the side of the mountain in the fictitious town of Old Buckram, North Carolina – a formidable, intimidating structure that had seen its own fair share of tragedy in its decades of existence, which succeeded in giving the house a perpetually macabre, haunted aura. The detail with which the house was described made me feel as though I was right there alongside the members of the Aster family as each of them either explored the house for the first time or had to bear witness to some tragic event that inevitably occurs in the house during the time that the family reluctantly occupies it.
In addition to the writing, another aspect I loved was the huge role that books (both reading books and writing them) as well as music had in the story. As a book lover myself who also has a great appreciation for music, I could not help but become completely immersed in the narrator’s story, especially the parts about his family, specifically his father with whom he shared a similar passion for reading and also playing classical music. As I followed the narrator’s story, I felt at times that I was riding on a roller coaster of emotions, especially during the first third or so of the story when books of all kinds were front and center and the characters seemed to play only supporting roles. Even when the main characters became the focus of the story again, books and music continued to play a prominent role and were interwoven seamlessly throughout the rest of the story, which I loved.
This is an excellent book with an engaging story and relatable characters which easily would have been a 5 star read for me if it hadn’t been for the middle section of the book (roughly 30% to 40% if I had to quantify it) -- the entire segment where the narrator (Henry Aster the son) goes off to college and subsequently to law school. While I understood the need for this segment to exist (as a means for Henry to flee from all the tragedy and pain of his past as well as a conduit for him to meet his true love), I felt that the way this section was written was very different from the rest of the book. It felt very out of place to me, almost as though the entire section was taken from another story and dropped into this one. I definitely felt that this portion of the book interrupted the flow of the story and I wanted nothing more than for the narrator to hurry up and finish school so the focus could shift back to his family and his hometown and everything that had happened that was part of the past he was desperately trying to flee. After much consideration, I ended up begrudgingly giving this book 4 stars instead of the full 5 stars.
I decided to keep this review relatively short, as I feel like nothing I write can do justice to this book. This is a book that needs to be “read” rather than “described” because that is the only way to properly experience and appreciate the story that the author has to tell (and yes, I am still in shock that this is the author’s debut novel – I will surely be on the lookout for subsequent works by this author). Highly recommended read that is absolutely worth the time!
Received advance reader’s copy from Hogarth / Crown Publishing via Blogging for Books
In addition to the writing, another aspect I loved was the huge role that books (both reading books and writing them) as well as music had in the story. As a book lover myself who also has a great appreciation for music, I could not help but become completely immersed in the narrator’s story, especially the parts about his family, specifically his father with whom he shared a similar passion for reading and also playing classical music. As I followed the narrator’s story, I felt at times that I was riding on a roller coaster of emotions, especially during the first third or so of the story when books of all kinds were front and center and the characters seemed to play only supporting roles. Even when the main characters became the focus of the story again, books and music continued to play a prominent role and were interwoven seamlessly throughout the rest of the story, which I loved.
This is an excellent book with an engaging story and relatable characters which easily would have been a 5 star read for me if it hadn’t been for the middle section of the book (roughly 30% to 40% if I had to quantify it) -- the entire segment where the narrator (Henry Aster the son) goes off to college and subsequently to law school. While I understood the need for this segment to exist (as a means for Henry to flee from all the tragedy and pain of his past as well as a conduit for him to meet his true love), I felt that the way this section was written was very different from the rest of the book. It felt very out of place to me, almost as though the entire section was taken from another story and dropped into this one. I definitely felt that this portion of the book interrupted the flow of the story and I wanted nothing more than for the narrator to hurry up and finish school so the focus could shift back to his family and his hometown and everything that had happened that was part of the past he was desperately trying to flee. After much consideration, I ended up begrudgingly giving this book 4 stars instead of the full 5 stars.
I decided to keep this review relatively short, as I feel like nothing I write can do justice to this book. This is a book that needs to be “read” rather than “described” because that is the only way to properly experience and appreciate the story that the author has to tell (and yes, I am still in shock that this is the author’s debut novel – I will surely be on the lookout for subsequent works by this author). Highly recommended read that is absolutely worth the time!
Received advance reader’s copy from Hogarth / Crown Publishing via Blogging for Books
nikkiethereader's review against another edition
5.0
Henry grows up in a small town in the mountains. He lived with a family in a house that everybody believed to be haunted because the previous family was murdered and the case went unsolved. His father had grown up in the town and was an outsider because of his devotional love of reading.
I really enjoyed this story. I sadly had to put it down quite a few times in light of pressing matters around me. Those times were really hard for me. If I could have, I would have finished this book in one sitting. It was really amazing and emotionally charged. I loved watching Henry grow up and the experiences he had.
I didn't really dislike much about this book. Other than the typical typos in the book, there wasn't really anything wrong with it. I mean at first, I had a problem with Henry's detached sense of connection with his family and his hometown. That passed when I figured out why. I don't want to spoil the book, but I wish some things had been talked about a little more in the book as well.
I do fully recommend this book. I do feel it needs to be warned, this book will catch a person right in the feels and hold tight all through the book. It's emotionally charged. It's inspirational. It really makes you think about life and family dynamic. I'd like to get a physical copy to put on my shelf. Maybe even read it again!
I really enjoyed this story. I sadly had to put it down quite a few times in light of pressing matters around me. Those times were really hard for me. If I could have, I would have finished this book in one sitting. It was really amazing and emotionally charged. I loved watching Henry grow up and the experiences he had.
I didn't really dislike much about this book. Other than the typical typos in the book, there wasn't really anything wrong with it. I mean at first, I had a problem with Henry's detached sense of connection with his family and his hometown. That passed when I figured out why. I don't want to spoil the book, but I wish some things had been talked about a little more in the book as well.
I do fully recommend this book. I do feel it needs to be warned, this book will catch a person right in the feels and hold tight all through the book. It's emotionally charged. It's inspirational. It really makes you think about life and family dynamic. I'd like to get a physical copy to put on my shelf. Maybe even read it again!
thelastcatbender's review against another edition
3.0
I wouldn't have stuck through this book all the way through if it wasn't for the beautiful writing and the intriguing character that was Henry Sr, the narrator's father. The book would have been much more compelling had the author focused more on him and their lives at the house rather than exploring so much of Henry's college days and the whole tangent with his eventual girlfriend (?), Story. I would have much rather fast forwarded through all that trivial fluff and spent more time reading about Henry and Threnody's complicated relationships later in life, and their mother, etc. The book started off really well, but by the time it became more about Henry in college/Story, it felt like it was trying to be two books in one -- then suddenly remembered where it began and tried to hastily tie up some of the loose ends.
The writing was good enough, however, that I'd still like to look out for more in the future.
The writing was good enough, however, that I'd still like to look out for more in the future.
peekaboostitches's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0