More Than You Know

by Beth Gutcheon

In a small town called Dundee on the coast of Maine, an old woman named Hannah Gray begins her story: "Somebody said 'true love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.' I've seen both and I don't know how to tell you which is worse." Hannah has decided, finally, to leave a record of the passionate and anguished long-ago summer in Dundee when she met Conary Crocker, the town bad boy and love of her life. This spare, piercing, and unforgettable novel bridges two centuries and two intense love stories as Hannah and Conary's fate is interwoven with the tale of a marriage that took place in Dundee a hundred years earlier.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Ghosts, Book Club, Paranormal, Romance, Mystery

269 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Beth Gutcheon grew up in western Pennsylvania. She was educated at Harvard where she took an honors BA in English literature. She has spent most of her adult life in New York City, except for sojourns in San Francisco and on the coast of Maine. In 1978, she wrote the narration for a feature-length documentary on the Kirov ballet school, The Children of Theatre Street, which was nominated for an Academy Award, and she has made her living fulltime as a storyteller (novelist and sometime screenwriter) since then. Her novels have been translated into fourteen languages, if you count the pirate Chinese edition of Still Missing, plus large print and audio format. Still Missing was made into a feature film called Without a Trace, and also published in a Reader’s Digest Condensed version which particularly pleased her mother. Several of her novels have been national bestsellers, including the most recent, Leeway Cottage. All of the novels are available in new uniform paperback editions from HarperPerennial.

Reviews

[Jacquelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I stated in my profile, I enjoy historical paranormal mysteries, and this is one of the best I've read in a long time. It is a murder mystery, a ghost story, and a romance set on the coast of Maine. It is also a tale of love turned to hatred; blame nurtured while responsibility is ignored; sad children and poor parenting. Told from the point of view of an old woman reminiscing about young love, the story weaves between the time of her youth, the depression era, and that of a troubled girl from the previous century. One of my co-workers recently told me he believes in ghosts because that kind of energy doesn't die. The emotions that are described in this tale are the kind that do not fade easily: anger, betrayal, disappointment, and sorrow. As one character falls in love, the other feels only bitterness towards her spouse. Someone has brutally murdered this disagreeable man. Is the culprit his accused daughter? Is it the specter who haunts the schoolhouse? Our narrator relives her youth and the mystery unfolds as we turn the pages.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This woman knows how to write. I enjoyed this. It has a present day story and then another storyline in the 1800s which attempts to explain some of what is taking place in the present. Both are equally appealing, which is unusual in my experience.

The main character's voice (present day) felt so real, right off the go. And Maine. I'd have to say the author must have lived in Maine, or spent a lot of time there because she really captures the wildness, the unique Maine-ness of the place, and its people.

If you've never been to Maine, you should go. I can recommend the Inn at Southwest Harbor, especially if you want to visit Acadia National Park, which you should. And Demuros' Inn at the Top of the Hill restaurant, where I ate the best steamed mussels and chicken parmigiana I've ever had.

Anyway. A believable ghost story as well, here. Interesting characters, insightful writing, and the pages keep turning. A solid, recommended read. An engaging love story off to the side, too. Not a prominent feature that would have me adding this to my "love stories" shelf, but compelling and real. I would say the author is an HSP, because there are tons of observations in here that come not just from age and experience but from having a soul that is open to possibly more than one wants to be open to, at times.

If you read this, let me know what you thought of it!

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should serve as the blueprint for how *all* ghost stories should be written. At least one of the main characters should be the restless spirit in question and at least show glimpses of how they once lived. Part of the thrill of any quality ghost fiction should be watching the path of the spirit's untimely death as its former existence is slowly revealed. The ghost should be a mysterious creature that doesn't communicate easily with the living character's conscious state of mind; otherwise we are left with Casper The Friendly Ghost or Nearly Headless Nick from the Harry Potter series (and no, I am not knocking Potter - I love Harry Potter). How believable is any spirit that can walk and talk with you and really, the only difference between you, the living and he/she, the dead is that the spirit can pass through walls? How much mystery and suspense is wiped right out of that novel when the spirit is about to talk with, touch or simply enteract with the living character at any time? If you ask me that's when a novel ceases to deliver a spine tingling, suspenseful adventure and reads more like a run of the mill story about two friends/frenemies and the only difference in characters is that you can see through one of them - and don't sell me that overdone You're-The-Only-One-Who-Can-See-And-Hear-Me crap.

Beth Gutcheon has delivered the ideal ghost story. My only complaint (though certainly not with her!) is that I cannot find another ghost story quite like this one. Most other writers seem to prefer Casper The Friendly Ghost or its variant, Casper The Demonic Entity...but both versions are able to walk/talk/touch you at any time while having that really cool ability to pass through walls! It makes me wish that Gutcheon wrote more ghost stories because at least that way I'd have more than a meager handful of quality ghost fiction. (Christopher Pike's Remember Me, told entirely through the dead girl's perspective, was another "good one", BTW, though I was strongly opposed to his two sequels; if you ask me it should have ended at the first book - not that book 2: Oh goodie, I'm dead but I get to live again inside the body of someone who tried to kill herself! No, you're dead, you do NOT get to "live" again.)

More Than You Know combines two time periods, the Depression era which is "present day" in the story and (glimpses of the spirit's life) the mid to late 1800s, in alternate chapters like "two stories in one book" except the lives in the alternate time periods connect with each other. I understand that some were put off by this alternate present day and past but for me it just intensified my involvement in the story. From the very start I was curious about what life events molded this spirit into the restless and malignant entity it became in death - and let me tell you, that was one scary ghost! Why is it so hateful? Why is its despair and rage so powerful that the living characters, in mere seconds of seeing it right before it fades (that's how spirit apparitions should be shown in a ghost story, BTW, in brief flashes that fade as quickly as they appear) can literally feel it rolling off the entity in waves, as though its only substance is comprised of evil energy? Gutcheon did not disappoint! I got to witness the spirit's life unravel with each flashback, bit by bit, alternate chapter by alternate chapter and if you pay attention the spirit's life will also carry with it a parable. Gutcheon does not spoon feed the spirit's motive but she shows you enough that you can draw your own conclusions and once you do that, you will hunger for someone else to read this book just so that you can discuss it with another person (preferably a living one).

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this book last night. It took me a few chapters to get into it because books that go back and forth chapter to chapter between what at first seems like two unrelated stories kind of get on my nerves. Then, I stayed up way to late last night reading the whole thing because I got so engrossed in the story. It was so scary that after I finished reading it I got up and turned the hallway light on to sleep. I guess that this book was a mystery but it wasn’t one it kept you guessing “who dun it” until the end necessary, although it was somewhat of a surprise ending. For me it was a book about motherhood and marriage. In our society we see mothers as caring, loving supportive people but that is not what everyone gets. I’m trying not to give any spoilers but it makes to shudder to think of my son not having me or what it would have been like to be raised by a resentful, bitter mother. Yet it also makes me think of how often we forget that mothers are people too and none of us are perfect. Well all come into motherhood with our particular issues and even “ghosts”. Whatever else one may say, I enjoyed this book and think that it was written by a very talented story teller. I will probably try to read more of her books sometime.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although very well written- ultimately I did not care much for this book. The only reason for that is that there was no closure or redemption at the end. Bad things happen to people, the people turn bitter and rotten, they do more bad things and those last into the future causing more pain- the end. No chance for the cycle to be broken, no point trying? It was creepy for sure and there was a chance for more there but the author had her reasons for not doing anything redeptive or even interesting. Perhaps it is just not my genre.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Struggling to rate this book fairly.

On the one hand, the writing was top notch; really superior (5 stars for that alone). On the other hand, the actual ghost story was anticlimatic and underwhelming for my taste. Namely, I was expecting a more horrific "umph" from the ghost; more chills, goosebumps and a keep-the-lights-on kind of feeling. Some readers got that from this book, but for me it wasn't there. Perhaps it was too nuanced for my taste - I think I need a more direct approach when it comes to the supernatural.

Had I gone into this novel not expecting a ghost story, I would have liked it more for what it really was - a story of family disfunction, love, hate and loss. Gutcheon knows how to pen those feelings. But as a ghost story, I was left wanting more.

Overall, a 3 - 3.5 star book.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second read of this lovely, poignant work and I only loved it more. Haunting and atmospheric.

[Alex Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first ghost story I've ever really enjoyed.

[Linda Branham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hannah Gray, an elderly woman, returns to the house she summered in as a young woman and decides to tell us the story of the summer she spent falling in love and being terrorized by a ghost. Her story is separated by the story of a family who lived on the island across from Hannah's old summer house over 100 years prior to that fatefull summer. The love story is intense and unforgettable, the ghost story is scary as all get out(the scene with the ghost in the rocking chair kept me awake the night after I read it!), and the connection between Hannah's ghost and the old island family that slowly emerges as the stories progress will totally surprise you. I could not put this down once I picked it up. It's FANTASTIC.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a pretty clumsy book... There's little consistency with the narrative voice, there are problems with referring multiple houses that come into play as "the house" at various points, literary devices like themes, motifs, etc. are all way too obvious...

But what can I say? I'm a sucker for teenage angst, ghost stories and Maine, so I zipped right through this and enjoyed myself most of the time.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall it was a depressing book. It dealt with murder, sexual assault, fatal motor vehicle collisions, domestic violence and oh yeah scary ghosts. The story dragged on and on and never reached any great heights. No one was happy, life was terrible, true love was broken up and despite all of this the story just meandered along. The book was only just OK.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An elderly woman recalls her first love when as a teen she spent a summer in a small town on the coast of Maine. Living in what used to be a schoolhouse with a dubious history, she was haunted by the spirit of one of its former residents.

As a ghost story, this was very well done. It went at an easy pace with switching timelines. Very atmospheric in tone and setting.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a small town called Dundee on the coast of Maine, an old woman named Hannah Gray begins her story: "Somebody said 'true love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.' I've seen both and I don't know how to tell you which is worse."

Hannah is recounting the story of the summer when she moved to Dundee and met Conary, the town bad boy. At the same time, Hannah is living in a house that is haunted by a vengeful ghost. She finds out that it belonged to the Haskell family where the patriarch was murdered in the 1800's.

We get the two stories where we follow Hannah and Conary and then the other story where we learn the backstory of the Haskells. I liked both stories and thought they were told in an interesting way.

I did not like the ghost story addition. You were supposed to be in the dark about who the ghost was and why they were so angry. And that did happen, but when we finally find out near the end, I didn't understand why that person had become the ghost or what the purpose was. It was a perplexing addition to what was otherwise a really good story.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ooooh That Was Good

This is the story that Hannah Grey has waited a long time to tell. It's the story of what happened to her the summer she was seventeen, living in Maine. The summer she met Conary Crocker, the wild boy she fell in love with.

It's also the story of what began to happened with the Haskell family who lived in isolation on an island off the mainland of Dundee, Maine back in the late 1880s.

It's part love story, part ghost story.
And the two stories eventually collide...

I thought this was very well done. The characters were realistic, and well developed and I found it to be an easy and satisfying read. I will look for more books written by Beth Gutcheon.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it would be hard to get into a book after finally finishing the Twilight series. Cole brought this book home for me and it is GOOD! It's a love story and a ghost story intertwined. So far, I'm really enjoying it...

Edit: The book turned out to be kind of creepy and sad but wasn't depressing, strangely enough...I really liked it. It made me want to regress to a seventeen-year-old and spend a summer in a Maine fishing village falling in love with a boy named Conary Crocker.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a few years ago because my local library was reading it for their bookclub. Too bad I ended up missing the meeting because I deperately wanted to talk about it. It's part journey story and part ghost story, which at first was distracting as it moved back and forth between the two. But as one does when watching a movie with subtitles, I adjusted and soon became caught up in the story, especially as the two stories began to merge. This is one I really want to read again.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book, Hannah Gray, now old and alone looks back on the first love in her life, Conary Crocker. We see through the eyes of Claris, one hundred years before the story of her marriage. Throw in a ghost(Claris) and a murder and off you go.
I liked the way Beth Gutcheon pulled me into the lives of the characters, her desciptions of beautiful and desolute places,this story kept me thinking about it for days.

[Catherine Davison · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a waste of paper and ink. How on earth it got the reviews it did is beyond me! Don't bother, a total mess of plot and language. Absolute drivel. And Gutcheon steals her idea of the crime from the film Lizzie Borden starring the great Elizabeth Montgomery....I can honestly say that was the only passage in the book that gripped me and only because it put me in mind of Liz Montgomery. This is a rubbish book.

[Antonella Albano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing plot and beautiful narrative style. I did, however, felt that the book lacked something. The mirroring of the two stories (the contemporary character being haunted by events and characters of the past), each told in alternating chapters, seems somehow disconnected. There was no closure, no reconciling for what really happened. I actually enjoy open ended stories, but in this book there wasn’t enough to connect the dots.

[Jamie Derr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars. One of the best books I've ever read. Ever. It was heartbreaking. Chilling. Beautiful. But even in the most beautiful moments, you didn't want to look back to see the featureless face that haunts so much of the story. And you knew you would too. There was no escaping the ghost. It would have its way.

Freaking genius.

[Jennifer McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect summer read. Part ghost story and part love story. Beautifully written with nostalgia, a love of family, history, and a great cast of characters. Gave me great shivers and couldn't put it down.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't read this all the way through...got too scary! I live by myself and have an overactive imagination, so I don't read ghost stories anymore.

[Bitsy Briones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eerie, captivating, lovely, chilling, solemn, and utterly gripping.

[Nat Kaemmerer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my mother’s favorite books, and she gave it to me with her annotations from a childhood in Maine. The writing is just gorgeous; in one instance that sticks out to me nearly a paragraph is spent describing the way a boat’s wake hangs on the water even after it leaves. I stared at this book on my mom’s bookshelf so often as a kid, wondering what sort of story it was. I never guessed it would contain a ghost, especially one like the hateful spirit here. I also never guessed it would be a deeply affecting story of generational trauma. The bite-sized chapters of each alternating story pulled me deep into it — I kept wanting to get back to the other story because I was so drawn to them both. The Hannah story for its emotion and the Claris story for its magnetic suspense that lasted a lifetime. I sobbed at one end and was then wide awake for the other. It’s a magnetic read that didn’t take much more than a sitting. Of course, I’m biased because of my mom. But it’s haunting and lovely nonetheless.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

One summer while on the coast of Maine, a young woman falls in love but soon finds herself haunted by a mysterious tragedy that occurred a century earlier.

2.5 stars - A few eerie scenes and writing like this: "Somebody said 'True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about, and few have seen.' I've seen both, and I don't know how to tell you which is worse", turned a rather dry story into an interesting read.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like I wasn’t rooting for this book to be as good as it was in its early chapters. But by the end I felt sorrow for its younger characters, those who were teenagers in the 30s and being haunted by ghosts from the previous century.

Two teenagers find each other in the midst of a summer that is turmoil for both. They share experiences of dealing with the same ghost separately and then together twice.

Very readable.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I expected the two storylines to weave together more tightly by the end of the novel than they did, but even so this is beautifully written, and the Maine setting especially is evoked really vividly

Also I just really like the first line:
Somebody said 'true love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about, and few have seen.'

[Brandi Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this story. I enjoyed reading about Hannah's old love and the story of Claris Osgood from the past. The paranormal elements and Maine setting only added to the novel's appeal. The writing style was straight forward and easy to follow, and the interesting details made the book hard to put down. I am looking forward to reading more work from this author.

[Tracy Fitzpatrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Mimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure how this hit my radar as I am traditionally not a ghost story reader. I enjoyed the two stories and the way that Gutcheon tied them together. I am a wuss and thankful that it wasn't too creepy, more sad.