House of Echoes
"A young New York City couple with a boy and a baby in tow, Ben and Caroline Tierney had it all, until Ben's second novel missed the mark, Caroline lost her lucrative banking job, and something went wrong with 8-year-old Charlie. When Ben inherits land way upstate from his grandmother, the two of them began to believe in second chances. But upon arriving in Swannhaven, a town that seems to have been forgotten by time, they're beset by strange sights and disconcerting developments and they begin to realize they might have made their worst mistake yet. But what dark secret is buried in this odd place? And will Ben and Caroline figure it out soon enough to save their young family?"--
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
[bc:House of Echoes 22716451 House of Echoes Brendan Duffy https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1409602353s/22716451.jpg 42243704] [b:House of Echoes 22716451 House of Echoes Brendan Duffy https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1409602353s/22716451.jpg 42243704] by [a:Brendan Duffy 5142469 Brendan Duffy https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]
Depressive former-banker mother, passive-aggressive novelist father, Charlie the odd child who get's a “tightening” when something bad is about to happen and the baby, Bub, move to upstate New York to refurbish the run down family estate after Charlie is bullied at his former New York school. Fundamentalist religious sect welcomes them, integrates them, and then demands adherence to their religious laws. Hilarity does not ensue.
To me this is somewhat of a mashup between Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon and The Shining by Stephen King. Duffy moves the action along and throws in some intriguing plot twists. This one kept me up past my bedtime reading and then kept me awake. Super satisfying read.
Top Hats Reviews
I thought about giving it two stars. But then I decided, ‘Whyever would I?'
Can we say trite? If you think of every single trope in a stupid rich people lose jobs and move to a creepy small town to start over, you will have an idea of this book. If you make every single trope stupidly done by annoying characters, you will have this book.
I may be extra harsh here. But this author is a freaking EDITOR. He should know better. And his writing is nothing to write home about. It's serviceable, but I wouldn't say it's that great. There really is nothing outstanding about it.
I mean, I wasn't so bored I quit. But this was more pathetic than Winter People, which I really didn't like at all.
The kid is precocious. The townspeople are all weird and crazy religious nutjobs. The wife is bipolar, which is supposed to excuse her annoyingness (it doesn't, and it makes me angry that she's so annoying and that her mental illness is just a plot device). The dad is, of course, a pretentious writer. There is a red herring of a mountain man who brutally kills animals, but he's a GOOD GUY. There's child sacrifice too. La la la.
And I am SOOO tired of this trope: Family hard up on cash move from the Big City to Podunk Town and dump ALL their remaining money into a complete fixer upper, and they are surprised when they–GASP!–
RUN OUT OF MONEY QUICKLY!!! Especially in the Northeast. I mean, come ON. It is expensive. Why don't people in crap novels like this ever move to–I dunno–the MIDWEST, where you might actually be able to survive? And how about you don't buy a money trap?
No, everything about this book was nonsensical and stupid.
Oh, yeah! There is a needlessly brutal dog death.
He's apparently working on his next book. How about we don't, pal?
Apparently, I harbor angry feelings toward this book.
