Auntie was portrayed as a stern woman, who was sometimes brusque with Sara, but clearly loved her despite her gruff exterior. Sara, whose daughter’s death is the catalyst for this whole novel, was raised by Auntie, a Native American woman, and her father’s partner for many years. Spoilers ahead, but this is a 1 star review, so I’m not recommending this book anyway, but if you plan on reading it despite my warning maybe skip ahead a few paragraphs. The past segments were far more interesting than the present, but also where my biggest issue with this book lay - it was straight up racist. It was told from four different points of view, two in the past and two in the present. It was atmospheric, and eerie, and it was set in a frozen winter landscape, which I always appreciate in horror books, and in every kind of book if I’m being completely honest. Where to even start with this book? Nothing really worked, it wasn’t scary, even though it included paranormal elements that sort of, tentatively, inched ever that way. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself. As Ruthie gets sucked into the historical mystery, she discovers that she’s not the only person looking for someone that they’ve lost. In her search for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea’s diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother’s bedroom. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that has weighty consequences when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished. Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara’s farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter.

West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. In that sense, and perhaps ironically, the book I liked the most was the one where the horror elements were most vague. At this point I’m going to stop expecting horror books to scare me, and just focus on whether the story is interesting or not. I read three very different horror books recently, and had different expectations for each of them, and in one way or another none of them managed to live up to them. I’ve had the worst luck with horror books lately.

Kill creek novel