A review by the_coycaterpillar_reads
The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen
3.0
The Shape of Night is a story about guilt and loss. It tells the story of Ava Collette, a woman that is running from her past. She distances herself from her family, her work, and predominately her memories. I don’t think you can outrun your past, you can just maybe stall it for a while. A food writer that has become hooked on alcohol to deal with her emotions. It all gets too much and she decides to rent a house, Brodie’s Watch, a large stately home overlooking the sea in a remote coastal peninsula of Maine. Will it provide Ava with the distance to get her head straight and finish writing her much-anticipated cookery book or is she walking further into the lion’s den?
The Shape of Night is very different from Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles series. For me, some aspects just didn’t work well together. I love a gothic horror/thriller but whilst reading some scenes I just found myself uttering WTF? BDSM is one of them (I’m no prude, believe me, but it was the combination in which it was utilised that had me scratching my head.) it was by no means a bad story there were just little niggly things that bothered me.
Once Ava enters Brodie’s Watch she feels a presence, but soon it seems to accept her. Quickly she comes to realise that some aspects of the house make her feel uncomfortable. After researching she discovers that the house was built by Captain Jeremiah Brodie. A seafaring man with a bit of a reputation. Late one night she is visited by an apparition that promises her safety and things that she never quite imagined. Her experiences within the house lead her to look into the previous owners more and she is faced with a harrowing decision.
That said, The Shape of Night isn’t a bad story, not at all. The storytelling and compelling narrative kept me reading. I was intrigued to find out what the backstory of the house was and just how that played into the present events. The unreliable narrator in Ava had me guessing for a while and trying to decide whether the events were occurring or it was all in a drink-fuelled mind. Some small-town stereotypes just felt a bit too unoriginal.
The Shape of Night is very different from Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles series. For me, some aspects just didn’t work well together. I love a gothic horror/thriller but whilst reading some scenes I just found myself uttering WTF? BDSM is one of them (I’m no prude, believe me, but it was the combination in which it was utilised that had me scratching my head.) it was by no means a bad story there were just little niggly things that bothered me.
Once Ava enters Brodie’s Watch she feels a presence, but soon it seems to accept her. Quickly she comes to realise that some aspects of the house make her feel uncomfortable. After researching she discovers that the house was built by Captain Jeremiah Brodie. A seafaring man with a bit of a reputation. Late one night she is visited by an apparition that promises her safety and things that she never quite imagined. Her experiences within the house lead her to look into the previous owners more and she is faced with a harrowing decision.
That said, The Shape of Night isn’t a bad story, not at all. The storytelling and compelling narrative kept me reading. I was intrigued to find out what the backstory of the house was and just how that played into the present events. The unreliable narrator in Ava had me guessing for a while and trying to decide whether the events were occurring or it was all in a drink-fuelled mind. Some small-town stereotypes just felt a bit too unoriginal.