The atmosphere is pitch-perfect but glaciers move faster than this story. It takes forever to go anywhere - even at the 50% mark there wasn't a whole lot happening. It's a lot of living inside the heroine's head as her paranoia increases and dark secrets come spilling out into the light. When it finally starts going somewhere (anywhere!) the various secrets take a lurid turn. On the plus side, it's queer - with the heroine and fragile daughter entering into a relationship. I didn't know that going into the book and it was a pleasant surprise. But seriously, this was slow and very much meh. YMMV but seriously....meh.
Final Grade = C
In 1947 our heroine with Big Secrets grabs the brass ring of a governess job at Winterbourne on the rocky shores of Cornwall. Her employer is a scarred, haunted widower with two precocious (and creepy) twins (a boy and a girl). Their mother died tragically, as did the last governess. In present day New York, our other heroine, her adoptive parents gone, has just opened an art gallery and is in a superficial relationship with a billionaire playboy-type. Then she gets a letter that she's inherited Winterbourne. That biological family she's always yearned to know? Yeah, they've found her - albeit she's the only one left. And now she has a giant crumbling Gothic manor on the Cornish coast.
This is standard issue Gothic. The "hero" with dark secrets, a heroine whose mental state is unraveling, a creepy house, two creepy kids, and supernatural shenanigans. The present day story line anchors it all, gives that heroine a local Cornish love interest, and eventually everything converges as 21st century heroine unravels the supernatural mystery.
So what's the problem? Well, it all comes to a head, evil is vanquished, things don't end well in 1947 but 21st century heroine is on her way to a happy ending. But then the author couldn't leave well enough alone. She tacks on a couple more chapters and basically yells "Gothca!" That "happy ending" that our 21st century heroine was getting? Yeah, she's screwed. In the final couple of chapters. And not in a good way. The whole affair ends on a dark, depressing downbeat and now I want to burn everything to the frickin' ground. In short? Evil is not vanquished. Wendy Mad! Wendy Smash!
If you don't think Gothics are genre and you don't think they carry a promise to the reader - then you might like this one. Me? I wanted to storm the manor gates with an army carrying torches and pitchforks.
Final Grade = D-
2 comments:
Well.
DAMN.
Robin asked on twitter about forgiving an author that kills a beloved character, and the question of trust and the author/reader contract came up (I brought it up). I cannot trust an author who, aiming for cleverness/gotcha, betrays the trust contract.
Ah, well.
AL: Imagine the expression on my face when the author walked back on the "evil supernatural force dealt with" happy ending. It's a minor miracle I didn't yell "YOU. ARE. EFFING. KIDDING. ME." out loud.
This one is a bit of gray area though, especially if you feel like Gothics aren't genre. I'd tell you you're wrong LOL but that's because I've always felt Gothics were one of the original "genre benders" which means, in my mind, they need to adhere to appropriate genre promises. In the end though this could have been Lit Fic and I'd still have had the same reaction. I'm fairly intolerant of fiction that ends on a downbeat.
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