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Turtle Valley
My memories are so like that hat full of butterflies, some already deteriorating the moment they are collected, some breathed back to life now and again, for a brief moment, by the scent on a passing wind–the smell of an orange, perhaps, or a whiff of brown-sugar fudge–before drifting away, just out of my reach. How much of myself flits away with each of these tattered memories? How much of myself have I already lost? (Turtle Valley, p. 289)
Kat has returned with her disabled husband and young son to her family’s homestead in Turtle Valley, in British Columbia’s Shuswap-Thompson area. Fire is sweeping through the valley in a ruthless progression toward the farm and they have come to help her frail parents pack up their belongings. Kat’s mother, Beth, (the now elderly protagonist of Anderson-Dargatz’s first novel, the award-winning The Cure for Death by Lightning) is weighed down by her ailing husband, Gus, and by generations of accumulated detritus. But there is something else weighing her down, a secret she has guarded all her life. Kat is determined to get to its source before fire eats up all that is left of the family’s memories.
Kat has her own burdens. Her father is dying, and the family has chosen to keep him home as long as possible in defiance of the approaching flames. Beth is showing signs of early dementia. And her husband, Ezra, is a husk of his former self, stolen from her years ago by a stroke and now battling frightening mood swings and a trick memory. Once filled with passion and hope, their relationship has become more like that of nursemaid and invalid.
Now thrust into contact with her parents’ neighbour Jude, her lover before Ezra, Kat finds his strength attractive, as well as his ongoing passion for her. As she considers her choices in love, Kat discovers that her grandmother, Maud, to whom she bears an uncanny resemblance, was once faced with a similar dilemma when forced to choose between the capricious violence of her shell-shocked husband, John Weeks, and the rugged constancy of their neighbour Valentine Svensson. Leafing through Maud’s scrapbooks and long-hidden love letters, Kat begins to unravel the mystery of her grandfather’s disappearance in the mountains. She is to find that like most family secrets, this one is tangled amidst generations of grief.
As sparks rain down upon them, Kat tries to hold her family together, soothing Ezra’s rages, comforting their son, Jeremy, tending to her mother’s fragile mental state and striving to keep her father at home and comfortable as he nears death. Masses of ladybugs swarm through the house and panicked birds smash windows. Shadowy ghosts flit in and out of the encroaching smoke. All around them the landscape burns and terrible choices must be made. What can be salvaged? What will survive after Turtle Valley has burned?
Turtle Valley is a novel of reconciliation and hope in the midst of terrible loss. Part ghost story, part mystery, part romance, the novel transcends these genres and carries its readers into new territories of forgiveness and acceptance of the difficult choices we all must make in finding our way through life and love.
From the Hardcover edition.
Kat has returned with her disabled husband and young son to her family’s homestead in Turtle Valley, in British Columbia’s Shuswap-Thompson area. Fire is sweeping through the valley in a ruthless progression toward the farm and they have come to help her frail parents pack up their belongings. Kat’s mother, Beth, (the now elderly protagonist of Anderson-Dargatz’s first novel, the award-winning The Cure for Death by Lightning) is weighed down by her ailing husband, Gus, and by generations of accumulated detritus. But there is something else weighing her down, a secret she has guarded all her life. Kat is determined to get to its source before fire eats up all that is left of the family’s memories.
Kat has her own burdens. Her father is dying, and the family has chosen to keep him home as long as possible in defiance of the approaching flames. Beth is showing signs of early dementia. And her husband, Ezra, is a husk of his former self, stolen from her years ago by a stroke and now battling frightening mood swings and a trick memory. Once filled with passion and hope, their relationship has become more like that of nursemaid and invalid.
Now thrust into contact with her parents’ neighbour Jude, her lover before Ezra, Kat finds his strength attractive, as well as his ongoing passion for her. As she considers her choices in love, Kat discovers that her grandmother, Maud, to whom she bears an uncanny resemblance, was once faced with a similar dilemma when forced to choose between the capricious violence of her shell-shocked husband, John Weeks, and the rugged constancy of their neighbour Valentine Svensson. Leafing through Maud’s scrapbooks and long-hidden love letters, Kat begins to unravel the mystery of her grandfather’s disappearance in the mountains. She is to find that like most family secrets, this one is tangled amidst generations of grief.
As sparks rain down upon them, Kat tries to hold her family together, soothing Ezra’s rages, comforting their son, Jeremy, tending to her mother’s fragile mental state and striving to keep her father at home and comfortable as he nears death. Masses of ladybugs swarm through the house and panicked birds smash windows. Shadowy ghosts flit in and out of the encroaching smoke. All around them the landscape burns and terrible choices must be made. What can be salvaged? What will survive after Turtle Valley has burned?
Turtle Valley is a novel of reconciliation and hope in the midst of terrible loss. Part ghost story, part mystery, part romance, the novel transcends these genres and carries its readers into new territories of forgiveness and acceptance of the difficult choices we all must make in finding our way through life and love.
From the Hardcover edition.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
6 people are currently reading
516 people want to read
About the author
Gail Anderson-Dargatz
29 books339 followersWatch for Gail's new novel, The Almost Widow, a thriller, released May 2023.
GAIL ANDERSON-DARGATZ’s first novel, The Cure for Death by Lightning, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and won the UK’s Betty Trask Award, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Vancity Book Prize. Her second novel, A Recipe for Bees, was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award and was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. The Spawning Grounds was nominated for the Sunburst Award and the Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award and short-listed for the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for Fiction. Her thriller, The Almost Wife was a national bestseller in 2021, and her most recent novel, The Almost Widow, is out in May 2023.
Gail also writes young adult and hi-lo books for the educational market. Her book Iggy’s World was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and shortlisted for the Chocolate Lily Book Awards. The Ride Home was short-listed for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize, as well as the Red Cedar Fiction Award and the Chocolate Lily Book Award.
She taught for nearly a decade in the MFA program in creative writing at the University of British Columbia and now mentors writers online. Gail Anderson-Dargatz lives in the Shuswap region of British Columbia.
GAIL ANDERSON-DARGATZ’s first novel, The Cure for Death by Lightning, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and won the UK’s Betty Trask Award, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Vancity Book Prize. Her second novel, A Recipe for Bees, was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award and was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. The Spawning Grounds was nominated for the Sunburst Award and the Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award and short-listed for the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for Fiction. Her thriller, The Almost Wife was a national bestseller in 2021, and her most recent novel, The Almost Widow, is out in May 2023.
Gail also writes young adult and hi-lo books for the educational market. Her book Iggy’s World was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and shortlisted for the Chocolate Lily Book Awards. The Ride Home was short-listed for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize, as well as the Red Cedar Fiction Award and the Chocolate Lily Book Award.
She taught for nearly a decade in the MFA program in creative writing at the University of British Columbia and now mentors writers online. Gail Anderson-Dargatz lives in the Shuswap region of British Columbia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
September 2, 2016
Turtle Valley is a disappointing follow up to The Cure For Death By Lightning taking place many years later. The main protagonist in the Cure for Death by Lightning, Beth Weeks, is now an old woman. Turtle Valley is told from the point of view of her daughter Kat. Gail Anderson-Dargatz's writing is still superb, for she has the ability to transport the reader into her universe. However this book lacks the magic of the first and without giving away spoilers I can only say that what she has done to Beth is disheartening. I'd rather have not known what happened after The Cure for Death by Lightning and imagined a different outcome for her. However I will still check out other books by this author.
October 15, 2019
It took awhile because this book was hitting a little close to home with MY Dad.
I read a couple of other in between, needing to take a breather...
But when I finally sat down and decided I needed to read this I truly enjoyed it, even through all the tears.
I read a couple of other in between, needing to take a breather...
But when I finally sat down and decided I needed to read this I truly enjoyed it, even through all the tears.
May 12, 2012
After reading Robert Morgan's Gap Creek, I went on a hunt of other works of literature that had similar characters who are realistic, hard, and genuine. Yet, it was not until I stumbled upon this novel that I found Morgan's match. Gail Anderson-Dargatz is a beautiful writer who knows how to balance plot and character. What emerges is a fantastic story about love, hardship, redemption, family, and the power of one's own character.
When Kat returns to her hometown of Turtle Valley, it is under the duress of impending fire. Yet it is clear that the fire is not the greatest hurdle Kat will have to combat. Upon her return, she is faced with her unresolved feelings towards her ex-lover. Accompanying her on this return to Turtle Valley is her invalid husband and overly emotional son. To add to her stress, she must pack up her parents' house and move them to another location while the fire rages. Additionally, her mother is suffering from memory loss and her father is on his death bed. Kat must deal with her past and present while the fire rages and threatens her future.
While Kat is contemplating the choices available to her, she stumbles upon her grandmother's papers. In these papers, Kat finds that her grandmother once battled with the same internal demons as she is. This second storyline can be confusing at times and I found myself wishing to go back to Kat's plot, however, it all came together beautifully. Clearly this book is character driven, so if you are not interested in personal growth and development then this novel may not be for you. However, if you like psychological books that challenge your emotions then this is right up your alley! It is a strong novel written by a strong author about strong characters meant for a strong reader.
www.iamliteraryaddicted.blogspot.com
When Kat returns to her hometown of Turtle Valley, it is under the duress of impending fire. Yet it is clear that the fire is not the greatest hurdle Kat will have to combat. Upon her return, she is faced with her unresolved feelings towards her ex-lover. Accompanying her on this return to Turtle Valley is her invalid husband and overly emotional son. To add to her stress, she must pack up her parents' house and move them to another location while the fire rages. Additionally, her mother is suffering from memory loss and her father is on his death bed. Kat must deal with her past and present while the fire rages and threatens her future.
While Kat is contemplating the choices available to her, she stumbles upon her grandmother's papers. In these papers, Kat finds that her grandmother once battled with the same internal demons as she is. This second storyline can be confusing at times and I found myself wishing to go back to Kat's plot, however, it all came together beautifully. Clearly this book is character driven, so if you are not interested in personal growth and development then this novel may not be for you. However, if you like psychological books that challenge your emotions then this is right up your alley! It is a strong novel written by a strong author about strong characters meant for a strong reader.
www.iamliteraryaddicted.blogspot.com
February 6, 2019
This book was a chore to get through. It’s filled with many descriptions of animal cruelty and very disturbing incest memories. The plot is implausible and depressing. There’s elements of the supernatural that ultimately lead to nothing at all. In the end it’s about trapped women who do absolutely nothing to help themselves.
August 27, 2016
https://ayearofbooksblog.com/2016/08/...
Gail Anderson-Dargatz is a Canadian author presenting at the fantastic Grimsby Author Series this fall. Prior to this event which will be promoting her latest book The Spawning Grounds, I am reading previous novels. I have already enjoyed the A Recipe for Bees which also has a British Columbia setting and have The Cure for Lightening in my to be read pile.
In Turtle Valley, Kat returns home to help her parents pack up their belongings in preparation for evacuation orders to escape a fast-moving forest fire. As she assists her parents, she reflects on her own past while coming to terms with her parent’s aging and a family secret which has been buried since her infancy. She learns the real truth about her grandfather’s disappearance and the resilience of both her mother and sister.
Like A Recipe for Bees, this story depicts both illicit love and the dependable love of a marriage past its’ prime. As the story unfolds, Kat remembers her love affair with the neighbour and struggles with her own marriage to Ezra who is living with the effects of a stroke. Kat has been a caregiver for both her husband and their young son and is exhausted.
I enjoyed the pace of this book and the pictures that began each chapter gave a little hint as to what would follow. The intrigue of the past keeps the reader engaged, wanting discover more about the mysterious man and woman that keep appearing and to learn the story of what happened to her damaged grandfather as the family races against the pending fire. I am definitely looking forward to meeting Anderson-Dargatz in Grimsby and having my books signed.
Gail Anderson-Dargatz is a Canadian author presenting at the fantastic Grimsby Author Series this fall. Prior to this event which will be promoting her latest book The Spawning Grounds, I am reading previous novels. I have already enjoyed the A Recipe for Bees which also has a British Columbia setting and have The Cure for Lightening in my to be read pile.
In Turtle Valley, Kat returns home to help her parents pack up their belongings in preparation for evacuation orders to escape a fast-moving forest fire. As she assists her parents, she reflects on her own past while coming to terms with her parent’s aging and a family secret which has been buried since her infancy. She learns the real truth about her grandfather’s disappearance and the resilience of both her mother and sister.
Like A Recipe for Bees, this story depicts both illicit love and the dependable love of a marriage past its’ prime. As the story unfolds, Kat remembers her love affair with the neighbour and struggles with her own marriage to Ezra who is living with the effects of a stroke. Kat has been a caregiver for both her husband and their young son and is exhausted.
I enjoyed the pace of this book and the pictures that began each chapter gave a little hint as to what would follow. The intrigue of the past keeps the reader engaged, wanting discover more about the mysterious man and woman that keep appearing and to learn the story of what happened to her damaged grandfather as the family races against the pending fire. I am definitely looking forward to meeting Anderson-Dargatz in Grimsby and having my books signed.
April 25, 2012
I was excited, when I started reading Turtle Valley, to realize that some of the characters in Anderson-Dargatz's first book (A Cure for Death by Lightning) had resurfaced (much older) in this novel. The author did not disappoint. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the narrator, Katrine's, life experience with the life experience of Maud Weeks, her dead grandmother (featured in the first novel, and well remembered in this book). I also enjoyed the feeling of 'a race against time' - Katrine is trying to put together the pieces of the past as an out-of-control forest fire moves closer to Turtle Valley, threatening evacuation. I did, however, miss the native characters from the first book, and wish there had been an 'update' on Bertha Moses' clan. Despite this absence, this was definitely a novel I'm glad I read.
November 6, 2009
The plot was very implausible and the characters were bizarre. But when the author started introducing elements of the supernatural, that's when she lost me.
Despite my eyerolling, I did manage to finish the book. It was an interesting story, but not one I would wholeheartedly recommend (this author's other book, The Cure For Death By Lightning, was excellent and a better choice)
Despite my eyerolling, I did manage to finish the book. It was an interesting story, but not one I would wholeheartedly recommend (this author's other book, The Cure For Death By Lightning, was excellent and a better choice)
November 6, 2009
Not as good as the first one (Cure for Death by lightning). Oh well. It was kind of like waiting for answeres in LOST.
February 22, 2021
I didn’t feel a connection to any of the characters and really didn’t care much who Kat really loved.
I enjoyed the back story of her grandparents but the brain injury story was a as bit hard to follow.
The fire and house evacuation should have been big but felt like it was just thrown in there for... I’m not sure what.
Despite my not loving this book at all, I was drawn to continue to read it. I also thought the writing was interesting, especially when she would have Ezra talk.
I enjoyed the back story of her grandparents but the brain injury story was a as bit hard to follow.
The fire and house evacuation should have been big but felt like it was just thrown in there for... I’m not sure what.
Despite my not loving this book at all, I was drawn to continue to read it. I also thought the writing was interesting, especially when she would have Ezra talk.
May 20, 2025
There were so many delicious twists in this novel with an overall urgent mood set by the forest fire threatening the family’s home and lives. As she clears out the family’s valuables Kat learns more and more about their buried secrets and works towards an understanding of her own childhood trauma.
June 24, 2016
The bitter-sweet tale of a family and their secrets that is woven by Gail Anderson-Dargatz has left a lasting impression on my memory. A beautiful crafted story of past and present that leaves the reader as breathless as the smoke of the fire on the mountain that the family must escape from, but not before life threatening circumstances come down upon them from from all sides. They discover hidden truths that in the end will bring them to a new chapter in their lives and a chance for the ghosts of their past to be finally laid to rest in peace. A haunting tale that is surely a Canadian classic.
October 4, 2008
As with other books by this author, I found the writing to be lush and personal. I really enjoyed this story.
December 12, 2011
Absolute pleasure to read such a well written story....makes the small town Manitoba and BC girl in me very homesick as I recognize so much....
More please.
More please.
August 3, 2017
I've come to expect certain things from much of Canadian literature: depressing stories about homesteaders; depressing stories about busted relationships; depressing stories about fucked-up families; depressing stories about the war; nearly wholly inaccessible books about living in Toronto; and Margaret Atwood. One of the glimmering lights in the Canadian book scene, though, is Gail Anderson-Dargatz, whose books aren't always depressing and are always accessible. I first found her through The Cure For Death By Lightning, a book I remember thoroughly enjoying because it was something different. Different is good. Different is necessary. It was weird, it was funny.
Turtle Valley follows up with Beth Weekes, sorta, through her daughter, the mystery of her courtship, and the tumultuous, sometimes torturous relationship between her father and everything else. It's a story told by Beth's daughter, and it folds together mystery, romance, family bullshit, survival, and a little bit of a ghost story, set on a pressing timeline as the interior of BC burns in an out-of-control fire, forcing evacuation, even as Beth's husband lies dying in the home he's known for 60 years.
It's a good read. It's not a great read, but it's a good read.
Turtle Valley follows up with Beth Weekes, sorta, through her daughter, the mystery of her courtship, and the tumultuous, sometimes torturous relationship between her father and everything else. It's a story told by Beth's daughter, and it folds together mystery, romance, family bullshit, survival, and a little bit of a ghost story, set on a pressing timeline as the interior of BC burns in an out-of-control fire, forcing evacuation, even as Beth's husband lies dying in the home he's known for 60 years.
It's a good read. It's not a great read, but it's a good read.
November 19, 2024
I bought this at the R.J. Haney Heritage Village in Salmon Arm, BC, just a stone's throw from Turtle Valley, BC.
I'm always on the lookout for books by local authors, so when I saw this on display at the "general store" I had to have it. Sometimes local authors are wonderful, giving great insight into life in an unfamiliar area, but sometimes the storytelling misses the mark for me. Unfortunately, this is one such case. Don't get me wrong. This story isn't badly written. It's just that the layering of childhood traumas and abuse, one mentally ill parent, one dying parent, a husband who is suffering from stroke damage, two different ghosts in and around the house, PLUS a creepy child who seems to know what others are thinking and can see the ghosts when others can't… all of that was just too much. Too, too much! And yet, AND YET, it was also boring. I know that seems strange, but there was too much going on that didn't matter and it was all too drawn out. I was expecting a family drama surrounding escape from wildfires, but this was something not nearly as compelling to me.
In short, I did not enjoy this and cannot recommend it.
I'm always on the lookout for books by local authors, so when I saw this on display at the "general store" I had to have it. Sometimes local authors are wonderful, giving great insight into life in an unfamiliar area, but sometimes the storytelling misses the mark for me. Unfortunately, this is one such case. Don't get me wrong. This story isn't badly written. It's just that the layering of childhood traumas and abuse, one mentally ill parent, one dying parent, a husband who is suffering from stroke damage, two different ghosts in and around the house, PLUS a creepy child who seems to know what others are thinking and can see the ghosts when others can't… all of that was just too much. Too, too much! And yet, AND YET, it was also boring. I know that seems strange, but there was too much going on that didn't matter and it was all too drawn out. I was expecting a family drama surrounding escape from wildfires, but this was something not nearly as compelling to me.
In short, I did not enjoy this and cannot recommend it.
September 20, 2017
A surprisingly spooky book that made me feel a bit claustrophobic. How many more ways could Katrine be trapped? Let's see: Forest fire closing in on the entire town? Check. Add a sick elderly father, delusional mother, husband infantilized by a stroke...oh, and a child that sees dead people. A bit too much stress for anyone, including the reader at times. I'd recommend it though, and would place this on my e-bookshelf beside The Spawning Grounds, so similar in setting and tone.
August 24, 2020
I enjoyed this book. I like everything I've read by Gail Anderson-Dargatz. This was a quick read and a nice story, but I don't think it had that same depth that I've found in some of her other books. I read The Cure to Death by Lightening ages ago -- probably when it first came out -- and should have read it before I started this one. I know there were connections that I missed because of it.
Overall, it's a very solid, well-told story though and I love the way she writes Canadiana
Overall, it's a very solid, well-told story though and I love the way she writes Canadiana
February 10, 2020
Beautiful writing, real characters, magical tale. This was on my shelf for so long that I didn't even recall the characters that were in one of the author's previous books that I read years ago--although I did notice the similar reference to lightning. Enjoyable rainy-day read.
February 25, 2018
I enjoyed reading this, but it didn't surprise me. The story was capturing and terrible (in a good way) but it's not a book i'd need to read multiple times.
May 14, 2018
Not impressed. I had to get at least half way through the book before there was any progress in the story. The second half was an improvement, but still didn't impress me.
April 27, 2019
Loved this book! A touch of eeriness and full of family mystery which unravels tragically.
May 27, 2020
The Globe and Mail’s review states that this book creates “a strong sense of the complexities of life’ . I agree completely.
August 25, 2021
DNF-Not my cup of tea, too negative almost maybe I picked it up at the wrong time
June 5, 2022
Interesting and depressing story about a true fire in B.C. Also a bit of a mystery. Beautiful writing.
October 2, 2022
enjoyed this book.
August 14, 2023
Dark family secrets and rekindled love feature in this novel set against the backdrop of wildfires in BC's interior.
March 27, 2025
Felt famous reading a novel set in the Interior, as I too live in the Interior. A great mystery-drama with a hint of spookiness.
November 18, 2025
3 1/2. This book is about family, past relationships and marriage.
November 6, 2009
Set in the heart of Shuswap Lake B.C. during a raging forest fire, this fiction spins a magical tale of mystery and romance, one whose characters are haunted by ghostly memories.
The story starts slowly with Kat returning to her family's home to help her aging parents prepare in case of an evacuation order. To add to the stress she is accompanied by her young child Jeremy and her husband Ezra who is recovering from a stroke and can be very irritable at times. An added problem is the fact that her former lover Jude who she still has feelings for lives across the road from her mom and dad.
Tensions build when the out of control flames rush down the hillside posing an eminent threat to the valley and its inhabitants. Kat hurries to put the family's heirlooms in order and with the heighten adrenaline and stress everyone's mind starts to play tricks on them. The family house's haunted past comes to life, some see a creepy old man and the shadow of an old lady appear and disappear into thin air and no one can explain why the burners of the stove are on.
The eerie plot and the revelation of the family secrets are somewhat predictable. I found the torment between Kat and Ezra drawn out and that some of the scenes are hard to grasp no matter what dark secrets they may reveal. The writing gets magical when Turtle Valley catches fire and all hell breaks loose. The author's descriptive scenes of falling ash and trees turning into roman candles as the fire rages through are guarantied to leave a strong image in ones mind. In whole, the author's writing is quite engaging, the plot is unique and captivating, and the cast of characters is diversified and well developed.
With "Turtle Valley", I felt slowly plunged into the world of fantasy with a touch of realism. Well done Ms Anderson- Dargatz
The story starts slowly with Kat returning to her family's home to help her aging parents prepare in case of an evacuation order. To add to the stress she is accompanied by her young child Jeremy and her husband Ezra who is recovering from a stroke and can be very irritable at times. An added problem is the fact that her former lover Jude who she still has feelings for lives across the road from her mom and dad.
Tensions build when the out of control flames rush down the hillside posing an eminent threat to the valley and its inhabitants. Kat hurries to put the family's heirlooms in order and with the heighten adrenaline and stress everyone's mind starts to play tricks on them. The family house's haunted past comes to life, some see a creepy old man and the shadow of an old lady appear and disappear into thin air and no one can explain why the burners of the stove are on.
The eerie plot and the revelation of the family secrets are somewhat predictable. I found the torment between Kat and Ezra drawn out and that some of the scenes are hard to grasp no matter what dark secrets they may reveal. The writing gets magical when Turtle Valley catches fire and all hell breaks loose. The author's descriptive scenes of falling ash and trees turning into roman candles as the fire rages through are guarantied to leave a strong image in ones mind. In whole, the author's writing is quite engaging, the plot is unique and captivating, and the cast of characters is diversified and well developed.
With "Turtle Valley", I felt slowly plunged into the world of fantasy with a touch of realism. Well done Ms Anderson- Dargatz
October 28, 2024
I assume this book got on my to-read list because it's a bit of a gothic, except that the traditional British/New England mansion setting, this one is an old farm house in BC amid a wild fire. There's a lot going on in this story of a woman who's helping her parents pack up ahead of the expected fire evacuation notice. The protagonist's husband has a disability from a stroke and their marriage is very rocky; next door is a man with whom she once had an affair and is still interested in; her mom might be at the beginning of dementia; her father is dying of cancer; there's the wild fire approaching; they've had the house for a couple of generations and they're a bit on the pack-rat side, so there's a lot of sentimental "stuff" to sift through. Plus, it's a farm, so there are animals. Oh, and of course there are ghosts, both of the supernatural sort and the haunted past sort. As with all the books by this author (that I've read) there's also some difficult material in the characters' lives to deal with.
Despite all this drama, or perhaps because of it, the story moves forward at a good pace, with a bit of mystery, a lot of heart and heartache, emotions and struggles are real. It's a lot to deal with at once, for the characters, yet they just keep moving forward.
I was thoroughly engrossed.
Despite all this drama, or perhaps because of it, the story moves forward at a good pace, with a bit of mystery, a lot of heart and heartache, emotions and struggles are real. It's a lot to deal with at once, for the characters, yet they just keep moving forward.
I was thoroughly engrossed.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews