The hook:
In 1988, young Beth goes to stay with the wealthy family at Raven Hall as a companion for their little girl. In 2019 an actress named Sadie is hired to participate in a Clue-like mystery night party at Raven Hall. Over the course of their alternating perspectives, the connections between the two girls are slowly revealed, as well as the dark secrets Raven Hall has kept hidden all these years.
My impressions:
This book was about as tailored to my tastes as it gets!
The combination of alternating timelines and semi-reliable narration make for an unsettling read in the best way. I really loved the fractured feeling of the narrative, tension hyping up in one timeline only to leave you hanging for a while when the narrative leaps back to the other timeline.
With a glamorous backdrop and secretive cast of characters, this book felt like an invitation to a murder mystery dinner party, just like the one Sadie attends. As each new twist surfaces, the sense that there’s something we’re not being told grows more intense. When the pieces all finally fall into place and the twists are all out in the open, that unsettling feeling becomes surprise and horror and half a dozen other reactions as the characters react to the secrets that have, for better or worse, been revealed.
What really struck me about this book was that I didn’t find myself actively rooting against any of the characters, even once their dirty secrets started coming out. I don’t know that I was rooting for them either, but I was fascinated by the whole cast of characters, and I wanted to know everything they were hiding.
I highly recommend this book for fans of The Haunting series on Netflix, or for anyone who enjoys games like Clue and Betrayal.
Happy reading!
Kat Pollock 