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The Night Strangers: A Novel
Unavailable
The Night Strangers: A Novel
Unavailable
The Night Strangers: A Novel
Audiobook14 hours

The Night Strangers: A Novel

Written by Chris Bohjalian

Narrated by Alison Fraser and Mark Bramhall

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

From the bestselling author of The Double Bind, Skeletons at the Feast, and Secrets of Eden, comes a riveting and dramatic ghost story.

In a dusty corner of a basement in a rambling Victorian house in northern New Hampshire, a door has long been sealed shut with 39 six-inch-long carriage bolts.

The home's new owners are Chip and Emily Linton and their twin ten-year-old daughters. Together they hope to rebuild their lives there after Chip, an airline pilot, has to ditch his 70-seat regional jet in Lake Champlain after double engine failure. Unlike the Miracle on the Hudson, however, most of the passengers aboard Flight 1611 die on impact or drown. The body count? Thirty-nine - a coincidence not lost on Chip when he discovers the number of bolts in that basement door. Meanwhile, Emily finds herself wondering about the women in this sparsely populated White Mountain village - self-proclaimed herbalists - and their interest in her fifth-grade daughters. Are the women mad? Or is it her husband, in the wake of the tragedy, whose grip on sanity has become desperately tenuous?

The result is a poignant and powerful ghost story with all the hallmarks readers have come to expect from bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian: a palpable sense of place, an unerring sense of the demons that drive us, and characters we care about deeply.

The difference this time? Some of those characters are dead.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 4, 2011
ISBN9780307940780
Unavailable
The Night Strangers: A Novel
Author

Chris Bohjalian

Chris Bohjalian is the author of twelve novels, including the New York Times bestsellers, Secrets of Eden, The Double Bind, Skeletons at the Feast, and Midwives.  His work has been translated into twenty-six languages.  He lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter.   Visit him at www.chrisbohjalian.com or www.facebook.com .

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Rating: 3.2656951031390133 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

446 ratings81 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Lesson learned: don't read reviews before reading the book. I know this; I just sort of forget sometimes. Don't do that. There's a lot of negativity out there about this book – and spoilers.Totally pointless note to start: I'm a little disappointed; when I kept hearing "carriage bolts" I pictured flat door bolts. In fact, they're just ("just") basically screws on steroids. I wish this had been purely and concentratedly the story of this little traumatized family and the big creepy house they relocated to, and the little door in the basement with the extraordinarily excessive thirty-nine carriage bolts securing it. The little door to, apparently, nowhere.I wish this had been the story of the voices the family – some of them – hear, and the subtle effect the house has on them. Of the investigation into what happened there, and of the axe and the knife and the crowbar, and the twins who had lived there years ago.I wish this had not been the story of the "herbalists" of the small Pennsylvania town. It felt in places like a 60's horror movie, for some reason, with this exclusive, evil club plotting terrible things for a child. It was incredibly creepy that just about everyone in the little town the family has moved to simply know everything about them. Chip or Emily meet someone for the first time, and that person will very casually reveal some piece of information about the family which they not only should have no way of knowing but have no business knowing. It's also deeply creepy that everyone – especially all of the flower-and-herb-named women – are so fixated on the twins. The prepubescent twin girls. It's extremely unsettling for everyone to know everything about them, and to engage them the way they did. I do wish, however, that the author didn't borrow a page from the mystery or fantasy novels that always annoy me by showing the villains' point of view. Here it is the herbalists who get POV's, pondering how useful prepubescent, traumatized twin girls would be in whatever creepy things they planned. Of course they don't perceive themselves as evil; after all, that other child who died wasn't supposed to die, and really if a child dies isn't it a fair price for all the benefits so many people derive? If anything, for me it canceled out a lot of the creepiness. I felt it would have been much more effective if point of view had stuck firmly to the family.And the ending – which I'm not going to talk about, don't worry – was almost exactly what I would not have chosen to do had I written this.The narrative used a typical omniscient third person past tense narration for the viewpoints of most of the characters, and a present-tense second person POV for Chip, the pilot. It worked well to emphasize his separation from his family and new neighbors in his grief and confusion and pain – and haunting. In the audiobook, everyone in the third person is read by Alison Fraser, who while not one of my very favorite narrators does a nice job; the little girls' voices are managed without being annoying, which is a coup. And Chip is read by Mark Bramhall. I was ambivalent about his narration for a while, as his inflections felt off now and then … but as the story developed I appreciated him more and more, and now I can't imagine anyone else doing it. The transition from affable Chip to the voice of the menacing ghost – a snarling growl that is quite possibly the very last thing I would ever want to hear in the dark – horrifying. Well done.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The sheer variety of subjects covered by this author is quite astonishing. In this one, we have a graphic plane crash juxtaposed with some full-on weird herb abuse in a small New England community. There is also a healthy dose of the supernatural at play. It was perhaps a mistake to read this book just a week or so before a transatlantic flight. The very impressive description of the air crash at the novel’s heart was very much on my mind as we took off, and it took me a while to shake myself free. This is quite an exciting read when all’s said and done; different, very original. But the ending won’t please many people. Me included!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I have read several Chris Bohjalian novels and loved all of them....but The Night Strangers...not so much. It took me much longer to get into the book than his other novels, but I stuck with it because he has proven to me that he can be a master storyteller and in order to tell a good story you need a lot of background. I thought it took too long to get to the point where I knew what the story was about...and The Night Strangers was one of the most disturbing books I have read because of the subject matter that involved children. There were two story lines that I expected to converge at some point, as far I was concerned, it was too convoluted to make sense. This book is a departure from his other novels and not what I expected, especially the ending. I don't need a nice tidy ending, but this was not something I expected and is part of the reason I find the book so disturbing.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5


    This is definitely not a typical Chris Bohjalian book. There are the typical CB twists, turns and unexpected characters. There is the typical uncertainty in what is going to happen next. HMMMMM, maybe it is a typical CB book after all?

    This was a good book and I will recommend this to anyone that likes a good suspense/mystery. Once again, I like the way CB tells his stories. He lets each character tell their story from their point of view and that even includes the cat! The ending comes from absolutely no where and may leave you feeling a bit put off. At least that is how it left me feeling. For that reason and that reason alone this one is only getting 3 instead of 4 stars.

    If you are a fan of Chris Bohjalian then you will want to read this!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Prolific storyteller Chris Bohjalian is not to be pigeonholed into one genre. When Chip Linton's plane is disabled by a flock of geese, he hopes to recreate "The Miracle on the Hudson," the successful landing by Sully Sullenberger. However, the plane cracks up and several passengers and crew are killed. Although found not culpable, he is seeing a psychiatrist for his "survivor's guilt" and PTSD. Therefore, when an opportunity to begin a new life for he, his wife and his twin daughters, he moves his family to the rambling Victorian house in rural upstate New Hampshire. The house and town is not without its mysteries. For example, why is their a room in the basement secured by a door with 39 bolts, the same number as the deceased on the doomed plane? Why does half the women in the town of Bethel with first names of herbs each have greenhouses? Why are these women enamored with the Linton twins? However, before Chip can explore these mysteries, he is visited by the first ghost - the ghost of the of young girl with the Dora the Explorer backpack who died on Chip's plane. This suspenseful novel is a Gothic ghost story reminiscent of Stephen King's The Shining or Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby. It's a real page turner with a visceral response ending.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Good but not great.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Disappointing!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Warning: DO NOT pick up this book to read on an airplane. It prominently features and keeps revisiting a tragic plane crash in incredible detail. This was one of those books that I couldn't put down. It centers around a family in the midst of tragedy that buys an old Victorian House in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. They are desperate for a fresh start, so it's not until they move in that they notice the strange door in the basement that's has been securely covered using 39 carriage bolts. The father, with PTSD and some features of depression and psychosis, is staying at home to fix up the house and becomes obsessed with knowing what's on the other side of this door. The town of Bethel seems a bit unusual as well. There's a large group of women that all have names that are flowers or herbs (Sage and Clary, for example) and they all own beautiful greenhouses teeming with exotic and domestic plants. Some say they are witches. The women take special interest in the children of this new family - twin girls - and take them under their wings to teach them their knowledge about the plants that they so carefully cultivate.This novel's plot is constantly moving forward and I found myself breathless in so many places. The description of the plane crash is so vivid, as are the thoughts and fears of the passengers and pilot aboard. As a new mother, my heart broke for some of the passengers and their stories, and I found myself tearful and hugging my babies a little closer. This was my first Bohjalian, and if his other novels are anything like this one, it won't be my last.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Chip Linton is an airline pilot who's airplane is struck by birds while in flight. Despite his and his crew's best efforts, nearly all of the people on board the craft, thirty nine, are killed. Crippled by PTSD and unable to contemplate flying again, Chip, his wife Emily and their twin daughters move to New Hampshire to start over. But their beautiful fixer upper isn't all it seems. In one corner of the basement is an oddly shaped door, sealed shut with thirty nine carriage bolts. Soon Chip starts to see and even speak with some of the dead passengers on the plane. Are they figments of his imagination or ghosts? As Chip struggles with this inner threat, an equally sinister threat from outside the house emerges to threaten his children. The Night Strangers should have been a better book. But in the end it feel apart because it was really two stories. On one hand there was a fairly spine tingling ghost story about an airline captain haunted by three souls from his doomed craft. Then somewhere in the middle of the that a second story started to emerge. A coven of witches, seemingly normal, who crave the blood of one of this twin daughters to use in a potion to keep them young. Both plots were interesting and would have made good books, separately. Together they seemed at odds with each other and bloated the entire novel. The worst part was the epilogue, which managed to unravel any character development readers had seen from Chip and Emily up to that point. I don't need a happy ending as a reader, but a reasonable one would at least be nice.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm not sure what I thought about this book. It certainly isn't what I usually expect from Mr Bojahlain.Part disaster story, part ghost story, part Rosemary's Baby...very confusing. Yet after a slow start I found I couldn't put it down.Interesting characters, that I couldn't decide which to trust. A book I'll continue to think about for a while.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Fitting to read a book involving a seemingly haunted house (and definitely haunted souls) in the lead-up to Halloween. Bohjalian, once again, created a story involving wounded souls working to make their world right. If I found him a little heavy handed at times with this, and the foreshadowing a little loud, that doesn't mean it's not a worthwhile book. I just usually adore his books, so I am a little disappointed that I merely liked this one.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    While I LOVED the storyline of this novel; the pilot being sucked into the haunted house, the carriage bolts matching up with the number of passengers who perished, Chips slow descent into depression and mental instability - I found parts of this book somewhat slow moving. I am always intrigued by Bohjalian's characters and their struggles to come to terms with their issues. Bohjalian rarely disappoints with his stories, but this one could have moved along a bit more quickly in spots. There was definitely a lot of "creep factor" in the book and I always enjoy that.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Really creepy. Plane captain crashes and kills almost everyone on board. Family moves so he can start to heal from his PTSD...except he sees ghosts...one of the ghosts is the father of a little girl who died on his flight and doesn't want his daughter to be alone. Meanwhile...the herbalists in town have taken a strange interest in the captain's daughters....While it may sound like a lot is going on, it all ties in beautifully. Super creepy from all sides. Excellent read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'd say more of a 3.5. The thing is some parts of this book bored me too tears. There is ALOT of repetition. I kept thinking I wouldn't finish the book but something kept making me pick it back up. There are lots of twists and turns once the story gets going and in the end I can't say that I didn't like the book. Interesting. I will try another Bohjalian book because if an author can keep you reading he must be worth keeping.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Having just finished THE NIGHT STRANGERS, I'm still turning the story over in my mind. Probably will for a while, just like THE DOUBLE BIND and SECRETS OF EDEN - Bohjalian's previous novels that you won't just read and forget. As they were, STRANGERS is a page-turner, can't put it down, engrossing read. It does have a more gothic, supernatural edge that always grabs me with a contemporary story line to balance it. As the story begins, you learn about a mysterious house that is the focal point of the action. We meet Captain Chip Linton, commercial airline pilot who tried to make a lake landing with horrendous results, devastating him and his career. He and his wife Emily relocate their twin daughters to Vermont to hopefully make a fresh start. Will their new home be a haven or a house of horrors ?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a very creepy, but good book. Totally different from the other booksby Chris Bohjalian books I've read. I definitely didn't expect it to end the way it did.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    What a horrible horrible book! I couldn't believe this was the same author that wrote Skeletons at the feast which was sick a good book. I had to finish this just to know what happened but man, this was bad. First of all, I hated the varying view points. They were distracting and hard to follow, not to mention pointless at times (like that of the cat). Secondly, the whole plot was just bad. SPOILER: bleeding and killing a child just to stay young? Just didn't make ANY sense to me. And killing off the psychiatrist? I didn't get why that was necessary for the plot to do forward. Ug, not a book I would recommend to ANYONE, which is sad because I loved Skeletons at the Feast.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book gets an ok from me.Perhaps I just wasn't interested in the themes devoloped-----------------My original comments above.It now is a reread for me....a book group selection.I felt like a combo read from the past...a feel of Harvest Home, Stepford Wives,The Shining (Redrum) and a failed Sully Sullenberger landing.---Mental aberrations, perverse herbalists, a spooky old house with a past.I will say you got the feel of things with the audio read.---I will try another Bohjalian.I'm just thinking this won't be my favorite.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Creepy. Awesome.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I thought the ending fell a bit flat but mostly really enjoyed it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Enjoyed it. Fairly creepy througout, including the epilogue. Well written, intelligent. Don't think it fully lived up to its positively electrifying prologue though; somehow the book added up to somewhat less than the sum of its parts. The character development was not overly thorough. Still, I don't want to give the impression I didn't enjoy the book - I did. It kept me interested throughout and it was a modestly satisfying Halloween read. I recommend reading that prologue if nothing else.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    So much of this book was good, probably because it was written by a very good author. But the story turned from a rather delicious haunted house story to a crazy-town-of-witches story, and not even one of the best of those. I was reminded of Thomas Tryon's Harvest Home, which was better. Bohjalian tries to stretch his boundaries; I appreciate that, though.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm not too sure about the ending but overall the book was a good read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I liked this story, but the ending was a let down.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A copy of this book was in the big haul from the Airplane Lady, but until I heard this author’s name recently in a podcast, I hadn’t even looked at the file or investigated what kind of books he writes. Evidently this is a weird one for him, but knowing that and that it was fraught and over-the-top, I think I enjoyed myself more than most people who come to the book after reading his other work. And let me get this out of the way - I LIKED THE ENDING.Let me deal with I didn’t like, then we head deep into spoilerville, so be warned.There are two threads to the book; Chip’s PTSD after crashing the plane and the herbalists and their fascination with his twins. They didn’t really mesh as well as they could have. I kept expecting them to, then whammo, right at the end, Bohjalian merges them in a way I found perfunctory and dismissive. Another thing that bugged me is the inclusion of people who didn’t matter; townspeople and the like. They’d pop up with some message of foreboding, then fade out of sight and out of the story. Not sure they were altogether necessary, but whatever. And I didn’t think moving to New Hampshire was at all plausible when Chip’s plane crashed next door in Vermont. Whut? Oh and Emily drove me a bit crazy with her attitude sometimes. Like thinking anything you do with an ax must be inherently violent. Again, whut? It’s a tool you simpleton. Like any other tool. Oy.So now let’s address the ending. If you haven’t read it STOP.I really did like the way the herbalists gradually and relentlessly isolated the family. One by one everyone else even remotely connected to their lives was removed or replaced. Personally I would have found their constant attentions smothering, but Emily repeatedly refers to them as a support system and uses that as a further reason to stay in Bethel (which doesn’t exist, btw, not in NH). A lot of the cryptic remarks between herbalists and their casual cruelty was also pretty chilling (like dithering over which girl will go under the blade). Some are set up as more villainous than others and yeah, it was pretty silly, but it’s a ghost story for crying out loud. With witches! So when people complain that the family didn’t notice what was happening to them - they were poisoned or hexed or whatever, so how could they realize? It’s all part of how the herbalists control their victims. And didn’t you just love it when another one would show up? Like when the cop came to the door for something and Emily notes her initial on her name badge. I wondered what it stood for and in a minute Emily asks. Celandine. Another little swirl of dread just reading it. Now I really will talk about the end. The reason I liked it is that the horror of the situation continues. All during the novel Bohjalian serves up tons and tons of creepy actions and atmosphere. From Reseda planting a wet one on Emily to Chip’s lower back pain being right in the spot where Ashley was cleaved in two (and he couldn’t have known), from Anise’s awful food to the herbalists manic pawing over the twins. Their real purpose with the twins is 12 shades of dreadful.Then there’s the cat. Creepy, creepy, creepy. Laid on thick, sure, but loads of fun. By the time everyone got renamed they were so totally dominated (and who could blame them considering what all was in their food) they couldn’t do anything but submit. It was like they were in some trance, inevitably marching on to their doom.I admit, I sort of longed for some payback now and again. That Chip would finally be able to save somebody after his struggle with the crash and then with the ghostly commands to make friends of his girls for Ashley (the dead can’t be friends with breathers, you know). Then when Garnet started to wake up and realize what was happening, I wanted she and Hallie to bond together like in Scooby Doo and go and rip off Sage’s mask and reveal some hokey scheme. Even Reseda would have done in a pinch, but when I read the epilogue, Chip calling Emily Verbena and little Cali off to botany school, the full flower of horror blossomed in my mind. No one escaped. No one would ever escape. The Lintons didn’t even realize what they had done because Anise’s horrid brownies just keep on coming. They are living the lies in near innocence. Near. And isn’t that more squirm-inducing?Another reason why the ending works is because you come to understand that probably all of them have sacrificed someone to be what they are and preserve the group. If that doesn’t make you feel at least a little sick, you have issues. Didn’t Reseda say she was a twin a couple of times, but that her sister is dead? All to further this little blood cult. The teacher. The cop. The psychiatrist. The lawyer. They all serve to watch for victims and trap them once they’ve been lured in. And it drove Tansy insane in the end. Her situation becomes truly horrifying in the light of this ending. Without it, her behavior is merely perplexing and unresolved. Without it the dread is nullified and meaningless. The evil needs to continue and to flower in the dark like one of their beloved plants. And I think that’s just fine. Can I make you some tea?
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Audiobook performed by Alison Fraser and Mark Bramhall

    Chip Linton suffers from PTSD after the plane he was piloting struck a flock of geese and went down in Lake Champlain, killing 39 people. In an effort to get a new start and escape the scrutiny of the press and public, he and his wife, Emily, move with their twin girls to a small town in New Hampshire. They’re welcomed by the small law firm Emily joins and the ladies of the town who all seem to be avid gardeners and herbalists. But an odd little door in a corner of the basement of their Victorian home puzzles Chip; it’s sealed shut with 39 carriage bolts. When he breaks through that door things quickly get very strange.

    I’ve read several of Bohjalian’s books and this was quite a departure from those. I’m not a big fan of the paranormal / horror genre, but this certainly captured me, held my attention and kept me off balance.

    That’s partly due to the author’s use of two distinct voices for the narration. Chip’s point of view is told in second person – a difficult voice to pull off – while his wife and daughters’ points of view are written in third person narrative style. One advantage of this device, of course, is that it makes it easy to tell when a point of view changes. But it is still somewhat off-putting.

    I had a few problems with the story arc, as well – in particular the ending / epilogue. Emily seemed not to notice the creepiness of her new neighbors, and ignored several warning signs. When she finally woke up to the real danger to her family, it was almost too late. Then there’s the issue of what’s behind that bolted shut basement door and how it affects Chip’s mental status. Apparently it’s not at all connected to the coven of witches (a/k/a herablists), other than their “encouraging” his mental deterioration with whatever they are feeding him in all those baked goods. Tension builds to a dramatic confrontation that really had me on the edge of my seat. And then we come to the epilogue … totally took me in a direction I did not see coming.

    As the novel progressed, I could not help but draw comparisons to Stephen King’s The Shining. There are distinct differences in the two works, but it does make me wonder if Bohjalian was inspired by King’s novel.

    Alison Fraser and Mark Bramhall did a fine job narrating the audio version. They have good pacing and Fraser uses a number of different voices for the various characters. Bramhall’s voice is appropriately “creepy” as he performs Chip’s point of view; I really got the sense of Chip’s slow deterioration into depression, paranoia and mental distress.

    All in all, a satisfying Halloween read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Chris Bohjalian has become one of my favorite writers. The Double Bind, The Sandcastle Girls, and Skeletons at the Feast were about topics as diverse as a horrible assault on a biker, the Armenian Genocide, and problems facing German citizens on the eastern side of their country as World War II ends. The latest one of his I've read is The Night Strangers published in 2011. This one takes another direction entirely. It's about Chip Linton, a commercial airplane pilot, whose jet crashes in Lake Champlain. Thirty-nine people die in the wreck, so his wife, Emily, and he decide to move with their twin daughters from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire to make a new start. The problem is they move to a place that has its own malevolent history.Bohjalian has shown he can write historical fiction and he's shown he can weave his characters into the plots of other classic writers without losing a sense of reality. So it should come as no surprise that he can bring ghosts and witches into this novel while still having his readers believe in and care about his characters.At its core this story is about Chip and Emily's relationship after they've suffered through a major trauma. It's about psychology as much as it's about paranormal events and that's what makes it a good novel. But there are some interesting aspects to their relationship with their new house as well:The items that left Emily troubled were the crowbar, the knife, and the ax. She found their presence alarming and was relieved that it was she who had come across them, rather than Hallie or Garnet. She found the crowbar in the back of the closet of the second-floor bedroom that once had belonged to one of the Dunmore boys, a room that was going to be a guest bedroom now. It was upright in a corner and might merely have been there for years, forgotten. The knife was a carving knife with a pearl handle, and while the handle was discolored with age, the blade, though rusted, was sharp as new. Emily found it underneath a wrought-iron heating grate in the master bedroom – what was now her and Chip's bedroom – and she only noticed it because she was considering replacing the dingy black grille with something more attractive from a home restoration catalog And so she happened to spin the grate and there it was. Some of the metal latticework had been sawed off, allowing the knife to be slipped into place – and quickly removed. And, finally, there was that ax – a hatchet, really. She found it behind some ancient (and scarily toxic) cleaning supplies that Hewitt Dunmore had left underneath the kitchen sink. It was the length of her arm from her elbow to the tip of her finger.Steve Lindahl – author of White Horse Regressions and Motherless Soul
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    From the book decription: “In a dusty corner of a basement in a rambling Victorian house in northern New Hampshire, a door has long been sealed shut with 39 six-inch-long carriage bolts. The home's new owners are Chip and Emily Linton and their twin ten-year-old daughters. Together they hope to rebuild their lives there after Chip, an airline pilot, has to ditch his 70-seat regional jet in Lake Champlain due to double engine failure. The body count? Thirty-nine. What follow is a riveting ghost story with all the hallmarks readers have come to expect from bestselling, award-winning novelist Chris Bohjalian: a palpable sense of place, meticulous research, an unerring sense of the demons that drive us, and characters we care about deeply. The difference this time? Some of those characters are dead.”

    Again, all the best potential for a good, frightening haunting, and yes, there were definitely ghosts in this book and a creepy house. However, I felt it was more a case of a man haunted by his own guilt. Throw in some witches, the power of being born twins and a secret plan and the book deviates from being a great ghost story.

    Don’t get me wrong, this was a good book, but not what I was looking for.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A commercial airline pilot with a planeload of passengers and an in-flight emergency tries to emulate Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and the Miracle on the Hudson with his own water landing on Vermont's Lake Champlain. But this time around, there is no miracle. A change of pace for Bohjalian, and one that comes with mixed results. If you like his past work but don't like supernatural tales, steer clear of this one, but if you don't mind a bit of THE SHINING mixed in with your fiction, you'll probably find this one enjoyable enough as you see how the accident affects the lives of those impacted by it, both directly and indirectly.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Please excuse me while I pick up my jaw that dropped to the floor. Ok, now I can begin. Where do I begin? Well, this book isn't the typical ghost/horror book, it starts off slow, but pulls you in to the lives of Chip and Emily Linton, their twins Hallie and Garnet; and those "herbalists" of Bethel, New Hampshire that welcome the Linton family with open arms (or are they?). First off, I'd recommend NOT reading this book while traveling on a plane. I do recommend this book to Chris Bohjalian fans, and they will not be disappointed. As always, Bohjalian drops a bombshell of a plot twist at the end, which is why my jaw dropped to the floor. This book has everything: endearing characters, suspense, ghostly thrills, and just a well-written story to keep you up at night. Highly recommend this one!

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