emorine13's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Incredible story! The mysteries unfolded in an amazing way and nothing felt rushed. All the questions are answered, and the twists and turns kept me at the edge of my seat!
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Grief, Murder, Dementia, Death of parent, and Death
Minor: Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Emotional abuse, Infertility, and Injury/Injury detail
jrjohnson1408's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Dementia, Suicidal thoughts, and War
sarasbooks's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
The story follows sixteen year old Laurel who one day during a summer party, escapes to her childhood tree house and from there sees a stranger coming up to her family's house. Laurel will witness a shocking crime.
Fifty years later, Laurel is determined to find out the truth behind that crime. The answers to those questions will be found in her mother's past, Dorothy.
I absolutely loved this mystery, the unfolding of secrets, the plot twists-everything.
The character dynamics are also incredible. The historical setting, the scenery also contributed a lot to the depth of the story.
There were alternations in time periods and points of view, which made the book even more interesting. I couldn't get enough of it even though it was a bulkier book. I wanted to keep reading it and for the last 100 paged I really couldn't put it down. The writing style is beautiful and even though there was a lot of information, a lot of turn of events, everything made perfectly sense and I didn't feel confused at all.
All in all, a very good read. Sadly, i haven't seen it on bookstagram ever, so I would definitely say that it deserves way more popularity and hype.
"A true friend is a light in the dark."
Content Warnings
Moderate: War and Death
melplays9000's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Is this book classed as historical fiction? I could have guessed that from the synopsis but for some reason I didn’t. For me, this book is was everything that makes me not read historical fiction very regularly; it was very slow paced and the plot wasn’t particularly exciting. This was more of a fictional biography than anything else which wasn’t really what I needed to be reading right now. However, I wouldn’t say I disliked this book; I liked the reveal at the end which I was not expecting and also how calm this book was in a sense. It meant I could put it down and pick it up and not think about it in between.
Something I must say I was not a fan of is that a lot of the time the reader knew more about the story than the characters which was quite frustrating as it was hard to tell how much the present day characters knew. I also struggled to see how they put together the information for themselves a lot of the time, as although we do see Laurel on her quest to uncover the mystery, most of what we saw was a whole lot of nothing.
Overall this book was somewhat interesting but would have benefitted from being a couple hundred pages shorter. Compared to The House at Riverton (which I loved) it was a bit of a disappointment. It did it’s job of occupying me during my quarantine tho, so for that it gets 3 stars.
Something I must say I was not a fan of is that a lot of the time the reader knew more about the story than the characters which was quite frustrating as it was hard to tell how much the present day characters knew. I also struggled to see how they put together the information for themselves a lot of the time, as although we do see Laurel on her quest to uncover the mystery, most of what we saw was a whole lot of nothing.
Overall this book was somewhat interesting but would have benefitted from being a couple hundred pages shorter. Compared to The House at Riverton (which I loved) it was a bit of a disappointment. It did it’s job of occupying me during my quarantine tho, so for that it gets 3 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, and War
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
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