This one is going to be a ramble; you've been warned.
I first learned the word "synchronicity" when I became obsessed with in the 6th grade.This one is going to be a ramble; you've been warned.
I first learned the word "synchronicity" when I became obsessed with in the 6th grade. It became one of my favorite concepts - the idea that our brains were finding patterns and linking related things, giving that relation meaning, even when there's really no discernable causal connection between them. Here are my synchronous events:
1) I recently went on a girl's trip with my friends (whom our husbands jokingly call our coven.) While talking one night about history, folklore, and folk music, I brought up , and how I always thought it was a folk song everyone knew, but had recently been made to feel creepy for knowing it. Then, lo and behold, Kristine ALSO learned it from her grandma! It's an old Ozarker Hillfolk thing! (This is what it feels like to find your people.)
Now, on to review the book. I think the Venn diagram of fans of horror, science fiction, mystery, gothic romance, dark academia, and all the creepiness that speculative fiction can hold is pretty darned close to a circle. Reading Monster, She Wrote naturally reinforced this biased opinion. However - and this is something I never expected myself to say - I think one can try too hard to include ALL of those elements in one book, which is what we have here. I liked this story. Really, really liked it. But it also became an albatross of a read at around 700 pages, which could have been two different books entirely, with the latter third undoing much of the magic created in the first 70%. The detailed precision used to craft the book's science fiction/horror elements contrasts sharply with the almost lazy adherence to gothic romance tropes used in the last 15-20% of the book. Look, I'm a Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, and Phyllis A. Whitney fan. I'm all for the tropey gothic romance! Just not with my Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley or Jules Verne. I think, in trying too hard to be all the things, Keri Lake wrote her way out of an excellent story into a mediocre one....more
Good lord, I thought this book would never end! I now understand why it was never reprinted. Full of satanic panic and dead, raped kids. I couldn't stGood lord, I thought this book would never end! I now understand why it was never reprinted. Full of satanic panic and dead, raped kids. I couldn't stand the main character, Cassie; Gibby's insta-love was nauseating; and the echoes of the crimes the were accused of enraged me. This is definitely a case of the memory being better than the reality. The one star is for that truly fantastic cover that stayed with me through the years.
Y'all, sometimes dreams do come true!
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When this was a newly printed book, and I was a middle schooler with permission to borrow books from the high school library, I ill-advisedly took this gem home with me. Unfortunately, it was the same weekend my mom decided to camp ON Beaver Lake on the Pontoon. I don't remember anything about the book or the trip other than laying on my pallet, staring at the boat railing, waiting for these three girls from the cover to come over the edge for me. I've wanted to reread it for YEARS, but the going rate on Amazon, eBay, and the like has averaged $60-$150, and I'm not paying that for a 90s paperback with a 3-star average rating. Enter the fantastic Canadian seller on AbeBooks who sold me this baby for twelve Canadian dollars after shipping! Please excuse me while I revisit my self-inflicted childhood trauma....more
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