The Invited, by Jennifer McMahon
Random House Audio - 2019
Horror
Audiobook
Narrated by Amanda Carlin, and Justine Eyre
Horror
Audiobook
Narrated by Amanda Carlin, and Justine Eyre
11 Hours, 50 Minutes
A ghost story, this book fulfills item #14 - Books
That Go Bump In The Night -
Read a Horror or Ghost story, on my 20 for 2020 Reading Challenge. Click HERE for the full challenge
Can you build a haunted house?
When Helen and Nate decide to give up city life for a simpler country life, they spend some time shopping for their new country home. Not finding the right one, they strap on tool belts, grab their hammers, and build their own. They find a plot of land in rural Vermont with a motivated seller and set to work. Their vision is to blend simple historic design and appearance with modern efficiency.
Helen, a former history teacher, becomes enamored with the local lore and learns the plot of land they bought once belonged to Hattie Breckenridge, a woman hung for witchcraft a hundred years earlier but long after the end of the famous witch hunts, after being blamed for a fire that killed several local children. Helen becomes obsessed with the story of Hattie and other local tragedies.
While shopping for recycled building materials to aid in the historic look and feel of the house, Helen finds items attached to these events and buys them to incorporate into their home - the stunning hand-hewn main beam, a mantle, old bricks. There is a common thread running through each of the horrible tragedies - Hattie and her descendants. After a series strange events, it becomes clear to Nate and Helen that they are building a haunted house.
Most ghost stories require the reader to suspend reality to a certain degree, and that is to be expected, but the story should still have a realistic "feel" to it. On the whole, this story's concept was very good and I definitely enjoyed it, but it was in the close quarters of the "here and now-real world" part of the story where I felt that the fine line between suspending reality and keeping a realistic feel was really being tested, and kept it from being the really great story I thought it had the potential to be. For me, it was easier to suspend reality for the otherworldly aspects of the story and they had a more realistic feel to them than the parts that were actually supposed to be more realistic. I had issues with two school teachers with limited construction experience building a house from the ground up by themselves, and also with with Olive's lack of school attendance and failure by every single adult to address it, but the basic plot was good enough to support the story for me, so overall I still see this as a good book.
Narration was provided by Amanda Carlin, and Justine Eyre who both performed well. Clear, with pleasant tones and cadence, and good character differentiation and range of emotion.
The Invited by Jennifer McMahon is a ghost story with a unique and well thought out concept, but a story that may have fallen slightly shy of its potential.
Helen, a former history teacher, becomes enamored with the local lore and learns the plot of land they bought once belonged to Hattie Breckenridge, a woman hung for witchcraft a hundred years earlier but long after the end of the famous witch hunts, after being blamed for a fire that killed several local children. Helen becomes obsessed with the story of Hattie and other local tragedies.
While shopping for recycled building materials to aid in the historic look and feel of the house, Helen finds items attached to these events and buys them to incorporate into their home - the stunning hand-hewn main beam, a mantle, old bricks. There is a common thread running through each of the horrible tragedies - Hattie and her descendants. After a series strange events, it becomes clear to Nate and Helen that they are building a haunted house.
Most ghost stories require the reader to suspend reality to a certain degree, and that is to be expected, but the story should still have a realistic "feel" to it. On the whole, this story's concept was very good and I definitely enjoyed it, but it was in the close quarters of the "here and now-real world" part of the story where I felt that the fine line between suspending reality and keeping a realistic feel was really being tested, and kept it from being the really great story I thought it had the potential to be. For me, it was easier to suspend reality for the otherworldly aspects of the story and they had a more realistic feel to them than the parts that were actually supposed to be more realistic. I had issues with two school teachers with limited construction experience building a house from the ground up by themselves, and also with with Olive's lack of school attendance and failure by every single adult to address it, but the basic plot was good enough to support the story for me, so overall I still see this as a good book.
Narration was provided by Amanda Carlin, and Justine Eyre who both performed well. Clear, with pleasant tones and cadence, and good character differentiation and range of emotion.
The Invited by Jennifer McMahon is a ghost story with a unique and well thought out concept, but a story that may have fallen slightly shy of its potential.
Happy Reading,
Christine
Thank you Christine
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