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Performance
Overall
Excellent, Unforgettable, Best of the nest
Very good, thoroughly enjoyed,
Good, Solid, Enjoyed many aspects
STAR RATINGS GUIDE
Good Story Not Supported By Performance.
THE BIRDICT
💛 A fantastic (and fantastical) supernatural tale fuelled by betrayal, deceit and regret.
💚 McMahon is so good at making me invest in characters. That, coupled with twists and turns, makes for a phenomenal read.
💜 I have one quibble. I don’t like Olive. I know I should forgive her because she’s young and has been through so much, but I cannot.
🧡 Usually I try to offer similar stories or styles, but this time, I’m warning against comparison. If you’re like me or the majority of other readers who’ve reviewed this book, this is the second McMahon book you’ve read. My advice? Don’t go into this expecting The Winter People. No, it’s not quite as brilliant, but it is very very good. A bit Salem Witch Trials, a bit Sleepy Hollow.
SQUAWKING THE TALK
🎧 Some strange choices really detract from the audiobook version. For starters, the main narrator, Amanda Carlin, speaks with very distracting intonations. I think they were going for a sort of breathy, bohemian feel, but it doesn’t work. It has a strangled quality. It’s a shame Carlin didn’t stick to her natural voice, which is smoother.
🎧 Without giving away plot, one voice Carlin nails is the scary one. Freaked me out good and proper.
🎧 Another oddity was the later addition of a second voice, Justine Eyre reading another character, Ann Whitcomb Gray. I say strange because Carlin reads as various characters. In fact, this is the only exception and was a bit jarring, even though Eyre was very good.
🎧 A big plus point goes to the chapter listings, which are comprehensive and easy to navigate.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER: SIMILAR AUDIOBOOKS
No spoilers for this one. Maybe next time!
Click For Spoilers
The Invited
THE BLURB
A chilling ghost story with a twist: The New York Times best-selling author of The Winter People returns to the woods of Vermont to tell the story of a husband and wife who don't simply move into a haunted house - they build one....
In a quest for a simpler life, Helen and Nate have abandoned the comforts of suburbia to take up residence on 44 acres of rural land where they will begin the ultimate, aspirational do-it-yourself project: building the house of their dreams.
When they discover that this beautiful property has a dark and violent past, Helen, a former history teacher, becomes consumed by the local legend of Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who lived and died there a century ago. With her passion for artefacts, Helen finds special materials to incorporate into the house - a beam from an old schoolroom, bricks from a mill, a mantel from a farmhouse - objects that draw her deeper into the story of Hattie and her descendants, three generations of Breckenridge women, each of whom died suspiciously.
As the building project progresses, the house will become a place of menace and unfinished business: a new home, now haunted, that beckons its owners and their neighbours toward unimaginable danger.
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