Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 8/21/2008 + 1223 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

Haunting story. I really enjoyed this rich story about secrets, ghosts, winter, books, and family. This is a book lover's book with frequent references to some of the great gothic novels from the past like Jane Eyre, The Woman in White, and probably the story that most resembles this novel, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James as described in Hester's diary as "a story about a governess and two haunted children." This book also reminded me a lot of Daphne DuMaurier's novels such as Rebecca and The House on the Strand. In fact, this novel is a homage to these and other great works of literature. The power of books, stories, and writers is foremost in the novel. I loved the passage on page 17 where Margaret is describing how an author's writing lives on long after the writer is dead:

"People disappear when they die. Their voice, their laughter, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living memory of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this annihilation. For in the books they write they continue to exist. We can rediscover them. Their humor, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you. They can perplex you. They can alter you. All this, even though they are dead. Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is, by the miracle of ink on paper, preserved. It is a kind of magic."

All in all, this was "a good story written by a very good writer about a good story told by a very good writer." I thoroughly enjoyed it!

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