readhikerepeat's review against another edition
3.0
Reviewed at: The Book Wheel.
A few years ago, The Longings of Wayward Girls by Karen Brown hit the streets running, generating a lot of early positive reviews. I remember it clearly because I didn’t read it, which is a perpetual problem for avid readers. But when the publisher reached out to see whether I wanted to try out her latest, The Clairvoyants, I vowed not to let Brown pass me by again.
The Clairvoyants is predominantly a mystery, peppered with the otherworldly and a dash of romance. At an early age, Martha Mary saw ghosts. Some she knew, others were strangers, but all were very real to her. Though she was given a respite in her teenage years, a violent incident and her sister’s subsequent collapse catapulted her childhood “friends” back into her life. In an effort to start fresh, she heads off to college only to find herself haunted by her past. Only this time, it’s the new dead that haunt her, particularly a young woman named Mary Rae, a local college girl who went missing when Martha Mary arrived on campus.
Martha Mary, for her part, is too preoccupied with shedding her past and her new and intense relationship with William, a local professor and photographer. He injects such a vigor into Martha Mary’s life that she easily chalks up his oddness and emotional distractions to his being an artist. Too distracted by the Stepford Wives-like behavior of the local girls and her sister’s reappearance in her life, she does what most college students to: experiments with who she will be when she grows up.
All of these things – the romance, the new vigor, the odd characters, and the ghosts – come together shape a mystery that will have you questioning everything and trusting no one. If I could change one thing, it would have been to incorporate additional aspects about the characters’ lives that are independent of each other. Simple things, such as how people made a living, were missing and it felt as if the characters lived in a world where things like paying rent were a non-issue (which is clearly not the case for a college student). This didn’t minimize the story, but it would have provided a more three-dimensional view of the characters.
Overall, The Clairvoyants is a pleasant read. Despite the ghostly aspects, the most tense moments are between those who are living, as secrets are found out and mysteries unfold. Brown’s writing style keeps pace with the plot, rushing when the pace picks up and slowing down for the descriptive sections, which makes it easy to turn the pages.
A few years ago, The Longings of Wayward Girls by Karen Brown hit the streets running, generating a lot of early positive reviews. I remember it clearly because I didn’t read it, which is a perpetual problem for avid readers. But when the publisher reached out to see whether I wanted to try out her latest, The Clairvoyants, I vowed not to let Brown pass me by again.
The Clairvoyants is predominantly a mystery, peppered with the otherworldly and a dash of romance. At an early age, Martha Mary saw ghosts. Some she knew, others were strangers, but all were very real to her. Though she was given a respite in her teenage years, a violent incident and her sister’s subsequent collapse catapulted her childhood “friends” back into her life. In an effort to start fresh, she heads off to college only to find herself haunted by her past. Only this time, it’s the new dead that haunt her, particularly a young woman named Mary Rae, a local college girl who went missing when Martha Mary arrived on campus.
Martha Mary, for her part, is too preoccupied with shedding her past and her new and intense relationship with William, a local professor and photographer. He injects such a vigor into Martha Mary’s life that she easily chalks up his oddness and emotional distractions to his being an artist. Too distracted by the Stepford Wives-like behavior of the local girls and her sister’s reappearance in her life, she does what most college students to: experiments with who she will be when she grows up.
All of these things – the romance, the new vigor, the odd characters, and the ghosts – come together shape a mystery that will have you questioning everything and trusting no one. If I could change one thing, it would have been to incorporate additional aspects about the characters’ lives that are independent of each other. Simple things, such as how people made a living, were missing and it felt as if the characters lived in a world where things like paying rent were a non-issue (which is clearly not the case for a college student). This didn’t minimize the story, but it would have provided a more three-dimensional view of the characters.
Overall, The Clairvoyants is a pleasant read. Despite the ghostly aspects, the most tense moments are between those who are living, as secrets are found out and mysteries unfold. Brown’s writing style keeps pace with the plot, rushing when the pace picks up and slowing down for the descriptive sections, which makes it easy to turn the pages.
iamlobstronomous's review
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It was slow paced, Martha Mary is an unreliable narrator, and her ties to her sister Dell are borderline toxic.
wordsmithlynn's review against another edition
3.0
Karen Brown won acclaim for her debut The Longings of Wayward Girls, a suspenseful novel about two missing girls. Although her new book, The Clairvoyants, is also billed as psychological suspense, it’s really more accurate to describe it as a coming-of-age story with dark, supernatural overtones.
Martha and her sister Del grow up on a farm in Connecticut. When Martha is only 7 years old, she has a vision of her great aunt. Unfortunately, her great aunt has already been dead for many years when they “meet.” As a child, Martha is only mildly disconcerted by the event. It seems to be an isolated, intriguing fluke. But in her late teens, a harrowing incident triggers her strange gift again. She begins experiencing more visions of the dead — most not as pleasant as her great aunt.
Hoping to leave the dead behind, Martha flees to college in Ithaca. There she finds romance with a brooding photographer named William. But her idyll is disrupted when the past comes calling in the form of her impulsive sister Del. Just as Martha tries to reconcile herself to being her unstable sister’s caretaker, a fellow student on campus vanishes. Martha’s visions return with a vengeance.
Although the missing girl is pivotal to the plot of The Clairvoyants, Brown’s story is too leisurely paced to feel like suspense. Her focus is less on finding the missing girl and more on understanding Martha’s unwillingness to use her “gift.” Indeed, Martha’s reluctance to get involved in the case becomes a symbol for her reluctance to take charge of her own life.
Readers who enjoy women's fiction with a dash of magical realism, such as Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic and Sarah Addison Allen’s The Peach Keeper should enjoy The Clairvoyants. Like these authors, Brown uses the suspense genre to explore the rivalries that shape women and their relationships with one another.
This review originally appeared at "Between the Covers," the book review blog for the Baltimore County Public Library. For more great reading ideas, check out all the reviews there.
Martha and her sister Del grow up on a farm in Connecticut. When Martha is only 7 years old, she has a vision of her great aunt. Unfortunately, her great aunt has already been dead for many years when they “meet.” As a child, Martha is only mildly disconcerted by the event. It seems to be an isolated, intriguing fluke. But in her late teens, a harrowing incident triggers her strange gift again. She begins experiencing more visions of the dead — most not as pleasant as her great aunt.
Hoping to leave the dead behind, Martha flees to college in Ithaca. There she finds romance with a brooding photographer named William. But her idyll is disrupted when the past comes calling in the form of her impulsive sister Del. Just as Martha tries to reconcile herself to being her unstable sister’s caretaker, a fellow student on campus vanishes. Martha’s visions return with a vengeance.
Although the missing girl is pivotal to the plot of The Clairvoyants, Brown’s story is too leisurely paced to feel like suspense. Her focus is less on finding the missing girl and more on understanding Martha’s unwillingness to use her “gift.” Indeed, Martha’s reluctance to get involved in the case becomes a symbol for her reluctance to take charge of her own life.
Readers who enjoy women's fiction with a dash of magical realism, such as Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic and Sarah Addison Allen’s The Peach Keeper should enjoy The Clairvoyants. Like these authors, Brown uses the suspense genre to explore the rivalries that shape women and their relationships with one another.
This review originally appeared at "Between the Covers," the book review blog for the Baltimore County Public Library. For more great reading ideas, check out all the reviews there.
wahine2748's review against another edition
2.0
I expected a lot more and a lot less from this book--more murder mystery solving using clairvoyant powers and less weird building of characters that really don't pay off, except to add to the creepy layer of the setting. The story was confusing at times and I found myself constantly questioning if Martha Mary's powers were even real or just imagined. Based on her childhood trauma and her exposure to clairvoyant texts and people in her childhood, it's definitely possible that her supernatural ability is all in her head.
Even knowing all of this, Martha Mary still never felt quite built out but seemed a bit removed and distant to the story--not a great experience for a main character and narrator. Resolution comes a bit too quickly and is hastly brushed over, and even big reveals are treated more as asides than revelations. With the slow pace and the story's disappointing conclusions, I would not recommend this book.
Even knowing all of this, Martha Mary still never felt quite built out but seemed a bit removed and distant to the story--not a great experience for a main character and narrator. Resolution comes a bit too quickly and is hastly brushed over, and even big reveals are treated more as asides than revelations. With the slow pace and the story's disappointing conclusions, I would not recommend this book.
kbfrantom's review against another edition
3.0
Martha leaves her hometown for college hoping to leave behind the ghosts she starting seeing as a teenager. Her first night in her new town she sees a ghost of a missing young woman who leads her to a party. Martha meets people in town and becomes pulled into the mystery of the missing woman.
jewelianne's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars
Martha Mary is a girl who can see the dead. In an attempt to start a new life free from her past, she goes away to college in another state. Here she rents her first apartment, and begins her first love affair. But the past is not so easy to escape. Her unstable sister leaves the institution she has been staying at for the last three years, and comes to stay with Martha. And a local missing girl named Mary Rae (read: a ghost) begins appearing to Martha as well.
I was pretty excited about this one because, while it takes place in the present, it was described as "an old-fashioned, Gothic ghost story" with shades of Rebecca and the works of Shirley Jackson. It also sort of sounded like The Turn of the Screw, which is one of my favorites. And I definitely see where those comparisons come from. It is a highly atmospheric character study, where things are not quite as they seem, and everyone has a secret. While I didn't find any of the characters particularly likable, they were all complex and intriguing. Martha Mary is an unreliable narrator if there ever was one. (Really big spoilers under the tag!)
But I also felt there were some places that could have been developed more. I'm not saying that the book had to go in the direction that I wanted for it to, but there were several things that I didn't really understand in the context of the story. More big spoilers.
So while I did like the overall mood and theme of the book, and I appreciated the uncertainty of events, it also wasn't quite what I was hoping it would be. I supposed that's not too surprising, since I had such high expectations.
Martha Mary is a girl who can see the dead. In an attempt to start a new life free from her past, she goes away to college in another state. Here she rents her first apartment, and begins her first love affair. But the past is not so easy to escape. Her unstable sister leaves the institution she has been staying at for the last three years, and comes to stay with Martha. And a local missing girl named Mary Rae (read: a ghost) begins appearing to Martha as well.
I was pretty excited about this one because, while it takes place in the present, it was described as "an old-fashioned, Gothic ghost story" with shades of Rebecca and the works of Shirley Jackson. It also sort of sounded like The Turn of the Screw, which is one of my favorites. And I definitely see where those comparisons come from. It is a highly atmospheric character study, where things are not quite as they seem, and everyone has a secret. While I didn't find any of the characters particularly likable, they were all complex and intriguing. Martha Mary is an unreliable narrator if there ever was one. (Really big spoilers under the tag!)
Spoiler
Particularly interesting in this regard were two parts near the end of the book. A little while after it was revealed that she killed David Pinney because he raped Del, there were a few lines where Del said that she was NOT raped, and that she knew what she was doing, but then she changed her story to match Martha's. While it's perfectly possible that in her shock Martha may have THOUGHT she was witnessing her sister's rape and still acted accordingly, I also wondered if she was motivated by rage and jealousy and then later told herself it was to protect her sister. I think there is a pretty good argument for this based on several factors. First, Martha said several times that Del was her mother's favorite and seemed to be pretty needy in general. Second, she said that Del had been trying to take everything of hers at that point in their adolescence. I imagine this would have been particularly threatening when earlier in their childhood she described Del as always including Martha. Third, she was still pretty jealous of her sister later in the story. Like who marries a jerk like William, just because you don't want him to leave you for your sister? If you think he's cheating on you with your mentally ill sister, than you should probably dump him. Even after they were married, she kept referring to little looks and moments between Del and William, which I accepted as real. By the end of the book I was not sure if there was any basis for them at all, particularly when it is revealed HOW Del became pregnant. Finally, in the last chapter one of her older sisters mentioned the time when they were kids when she was "punished" by being sent to stay with her grandparents overnight after a fight with Del. But early in the novel, Martha described that same event as being a special treat because it was her birthday, and that her sisters were envious. HMMMMMBut I also felt there were some places that could have been developed more. I'm not saying that the book had to go in the direction that I wanted for it to, but there were several things that I didn't really understand in the context of the story. More big spoilers.
Spoiler
What was really the point of the ghosts at all? As a child, Martha sees the ghost of her dead great-aunt who was a nun, but nothing comes of it, and then she stops seeing ghosts until after David dies. Afterward, for some unexplained reason, she sees ghosts quite often, but she never speaks to them, and isn't particularly afraid of them. She also never tells anyone about them (although William somehow knows about them, which is revealed in their final confrontation). She does sometimes get angry at their presence, such as when she goes to the Skid Row part of town and the ghosts (or family who was looking for ghosts?) try to speak to her, but it never really goes anywhere. Even the ghost of Mary Rae doesn't serve much point, besides leading her to William and the Miltons but I feel like that could have been accomplished in some other way. I guess she did have the dream visions, which showed her the truth about William, but even that could have been basically deduced from the negatives at the back of his portfolio. I was expecting more of a Sixth Sense thing, where she learned that her curse was actually a gift. Or maybe that some of Del's "craziness" was actually that she too had visions, but that never materialized. It was sort of brought up with Del's son, but I kind of thought that whole last chapter with him was pointless. Was he supposed to be a blind seer or something? Martha's final observation about the dead, about just being a witness to their longing didn't really make any sense to me either. Where was this sudden observation coming from, and how did it fit into the larger context of the story?So while I did like the overall mood and theme of the book, and I appreciated the uncertainty of events, it also wasn't quite what I was hoping it would be. I supposed that's not too surprising, since I had such high expectations.
saschadarlington's review against another edition
4.0
4 1/2
After reading the blurb and having a fascination with paranormal stories, I was definitely coming to The Clairvoyants expecting something different from what I received, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, does it?
There is something dreamlike about the way in which Karen Brown has conveyed this story, a feeling of timelessness. As I was reading, I felt an old-fashioned quality rise, from the use of “old” names like Martha and Delores to the gatherings at Anne’s, where artists and intellectuals met for drinks, and even the drinks were “old” drinks for young people in their late teens and early twenties, martinis, g&ts.
read more: https://saschadarlington.me/2017/02/28/review-of-the-clairvoyants/
After reading the blurb and having a fascination with paranormal stories, I was definitely coming to The Clairvoyants expecting something different from what I received, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, does it?
There is something dreamlike about the way in which Karen Brown has conveyed this story, a feeling of timelessness. As I was reading, I felt an old-fashioned quality rise, from the use of “old” names like Martha and Delores to the gatherings at Anne’s, where artists and intellectuals met for drinks, and even the drinks were “old” drinks for young people in their late teens and early twenties, martinis, g&ts.
read more: https://saschadarlington.me/2017/02/28/review-of-the-clairvoyants/
devonlfallon's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting plot, but I found a lot of the characters annoying and not very believable. It took me a long time to get through this one, but I did enjoy the ending. A solid “meh.”