Lullaby

by Diane Guest

At her dying mothers request, Rachel returns to Land's End - the lonely and isolated mansion where she grew up. It is a painful homecoming resurrecting the bitter memories of her childhood.
Rachel is accompanied by her new husband Judd and his two daughters Emma and Addy. At first the girls love the huge rambling house but Emma can sense evil there. Desperate cries of a lost child linger in the rooms of the estate.
And something is happening to Addy. Sometimes her skin is so cold - her eyes empty and her voice distant. The secrets of Land's End cannot remain hidden, the past returns and the nightmare begins

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Supernatural

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 26, 1990

Reviews

[Arancha Ch. Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es de esas novelas rápidas y fáciles de leer en las que te pasas el tiempo mirando por encima del hombro “porsiaca” y cuando tienes que levantarte, enciendes las luces “no vaya a ser que”. Predecible, más o menos. Pero perfecta para quienes gustamos del género de terror de tanto en cuanto para salir de un parón lector.

[Ilse Bielen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Niet echt mijn genre en vond het langdradig. Blij dat hij uit is.

[Dollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to make it through this horror story. A widower with two daughters goes with his new wife from New York City to her family home in Land’s End, Maine. She's really very rich. Once the widower and his daughters are there, strange things begin to happen and one of the little girls starts talking about a ghost child named Lilith. Everyone in the family seems to be freaked out but won’t tell the man why. He is thinking that his daughters are just having a very hard time with his former wife dying. Well, once he finds out that his current wife is already married to someone else, he decides he is going to leave her. That’s when she tries to murder his younger daughter. She had murdered her own daughter, Lilith, by filling up her coat with rocks and then throwing her overboard. She was going to do the same to the little girl, Addy, but Lilith showed up and Rachel ended up drowning instead. It was very slow getting started but it picked up at the end.

[Charlita]

This was a really good story. I loved the relationship between the sisters but was quite confounded as to why the adults are always so late to the party. Why was it almost to late before anyone picked up on the malevolence of the kids step mom? The kids in this book were much smarter than the adults when it came to seeing how much a witch that women was. Really good plot and would definitely recommend it to my friends to read. I would however suggest that they do away with the 80's book art if they ever release this book again. It has another version but it is just as bad as that one.

[Manuel CV · Rating 3 out of 5]

Valla esperaba más de este libro creo que la historia está bien pero la autora a mi punto de vista da muchos giros inesperados a la trama y cierra capitulos muy rapido, pero me gusto, me conmvió y me preocupo, mi personaje favorito es Addy por su ternura y no saber que esta pasando a su alrededor asi como Rachel que esta medio lurias.

[Amber Hathaway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lullaby by Diane Guest is a gripping and suspenseful ghost story.

Patricia Daimler, the matriarch of the Daimler clan, is dying. Judd Palmer accompanies his new wife Rachel to her ancestral home in Maine to attend to her estranged mother. After a terrible tragedy, his two young daughters, Emma and Addy, join Judd at Land’s End. Emma starts hearing a mysterious lullaby, while Addy begins acting out, saying and doing things that make new sense. Is the girls’ distress a manifestation of grief, or are the happenings tied to the house and Rachel’s mysterious past.

I’m so glad I happened upon this book. It reeled me in within the first few pages, and from then on, it was hard to put down. The setting and atmosphere were fantastic. I love stories set in creepy, sprawling manors. The mystery angle had me on the edge of my seat. It was a little frustrating how long Guest held out on the reader before she actually started dropping breadcrumbs, but ultimately it worked. It kept me turning the pages. The last few chapters had me so tense. I needed to know how it all worked out. The ending is satisfying, a nice wrap up to the story.

I don’t have a lot of negative things to say about this one. I’m sure if I tried, I could come up with some, but it was such an enjoyable read that I don’t feel like dissecting it.

If you’re looking for a chilling ghost story, you may want to check out Lullaby.

cw: death, death of a child, murder, death of a parent, mental illness, psychiatric institution, involuntary hospitalization, possession, physical violence, emotional abuse, child abuse

[Irving Ulises · Rating 4 out of 5]

Canción de Cuna de Diane Guest, es sin duda un clásico libro de misterio y fantasmas, todo se desenvuelve en Fin del mundo, donde esta una gran casa de una familia muy acomodada , la de Rachel, al principio todo parece muy normal, ella acude con su marido Judd , quien es padre de dos pequeñas, Emma y Ady , que recientemente perdieron a su madre biológica, entonces Judd con su nueva esposa Rachel, deciden emprender un viaje en compañía de las niñas a fin del mundo para acompañar a la madre de Rachel que ha enfermado por su avanzada edad, desde el principio la atmósfera ya nos parece tetrica y siniestra, algo no cuadra bien, pero es cuando a Ady, la mas pequeña de las hijas, comienza a tener un comportamiento muy raro fuera de si misma, donde empieza el verdadero misterio y a revelarse esas capas del pasado, que son huellas intangibles de una vida atormentada por la salud mental y acciones mas oscuras.

Un libro muy fácil de leer, el ritmo se mantiene, los personajes son muy ágiles, la trama no es para nada compleja.

Lo puedes pasar genial con esta novela 4 ⭐️

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

The TL;DR - It was a quick burn lasting just over 200 pages, and I'm not really sure what to say about it other than 'it was okay'. It's definitely not the descent into terror the dust jacket claims it is - more mild concern, followed by a brief panic, and capped off with sunshine through a haze of clouds.

The characters are passable on a surface level, but the book is over before we get much chance to get to know and care about them. Where there were some great opportunities for interpersonal drama (new relationships beginning, and old ones turning out to not be as ironclad as we thought) they felt squandered, and the keynote event (the haunting) felt tacked-on.

Basically, if you're looking for a strong haunted-house story, look elsewhere. The ghost is just set-dressing until the end. If you're looking for a deep character piece about a family with a toxic relationship, this isn't it either, but it hews closer to that genre than a haunt.

It's a long, cyclical lead up with poor foreshadowing of the final twist. Though I do give props to the twist itself, and the finale, while not groundbreaking, did give me the one actual chill of the book.

I dunno what else to say about it. I got it for free, so all I've lost is a few hours. And it certainly wasn't the worst thing I've read all year. But I don't think there were really any big revelations to be had here, even with the plot twist at the end.

I think for my haunted house fix I'll stick to Darcy Coates. This was Guest's best-rated book, and it just didn't land a hit for me.

[Elena K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know, but maybe this book should have 3 stars instead of 4.

Plot is interesting in common, but the main hero , Judd, stupid imbecile, who thinks more about what’s inside his pants than about his daughters.

And, of course, Rachel. The hateful heroine.

They are both stupid.

[Stephen Fodor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This ghost story was NUTS! very very good!

[Juan Carlos malik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aquí les dejo mi opinión de esta gran novela de horror y posesiones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j8FR...

[Paula Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Low-key but spooky ghost story. Suspenseful and atmospheric!

I think the girls' dad should have picked up a bit sooner on how messed up the family he'd married into was.

But if he took off with his daughters too early, we probably wouldn't have this creepy book well-suited to Halloween reading!