Review by Booklist Review
After numerous accolades for her first novel Tinfoil Butterfly (2019), Moulton returns, channeling classic Shirley Jackson with a guest appearance by H. P. Lovecraft. B.B. and Henrie, the Volt Sisters, are the last in the line of the founding family of Fowler Island on Lake Erie, infamous for the mysterious disappearance of its female visitors, including B.B.'s own mother. Opening in 2000, B.B. contacts Henrie about the death of their father. Henrie agrees to return home, bringing her mother, Carrie. The story is told in two time frames, 2000 and 1989, the year Henrie and her mother escaped the island. Encountering the perspectives of four realistically flawed women, B.B., Henrie, Carrie, and the island's museum curator, Sonia, readers will be hooked by the place and its dark history. As details are slowly unveiled, this weird tale morphs from unsettling to terrifying until a monstrous explosion erupts from its core, propelling the story to its satisfying finish. A timely, haunting fable about women fighting back and uniting to defeat their demons, this is a perfect suggestion for fans of Rachel Harrison, Gwendolyn Kiste, and Lucy Snyder.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This vivid and masterful domestic horror novel from Moulton (Tinfoil Butterfly) centers on generations of women locked in loving mortal combat. First introduced are the eponymous Volt sisters, Beatrice (or "B.B.") and Henrietta ("Henrie"), who, in the 1980s, grow up together on Lake Erie's tiny, wild Fowler Island. Then their parents separate, and Henrie's mother, B.B.'s stepmother, snatches her away to the mainland to save her from the island's malevolent influence. Ten years later, Henrie is reluctantly drawn back by news of their father's death--and she soon rediscovers the island's many forgotten secrets. The Volt family has ostensibly dominated Fowler's since ancestor Seth carved out a massive stone quarry and built his eccentric mansion, Quarry Hollow--but really, the island dominates them. Myriad young Volt women have died in the quarry, devoured by a shape-shifting devil that lives under the island and exerts his influence over the Volts, compelling the men in the family to clean up his mess. As Henrie and B.B. struggle against this fate--and each other--they seek guidance from Henrie's mother, Carrie; island historian Ms. Sonia; and the many ghosts trapped within Quarry Hollow's walls. Moulton expertly balances hope and dread as the tension builds to a fever pitch. Readers will be hooked. (Apr.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Family trauma, secrets, and a potentially haunted house coalesce in the latest from Moulton (after the Shirley Jackson Award--shortlisted Tinfoil Butterfly). Stepsisters Henrie and B.B. haven't been together on their Lake Erie island home in 10 years. Henrie was forced to leave the island with her mother after her and B.B.'s parents divorced. She left her memories of that place behind, while B.B. stayed on the island with father. Now Henrie has returned for her stepfather's funeral after he suddenly died. It becomes clear that there might have been a reason for the sisters to be separated for that long, however, and the island seems to have missed them. The sisters prove that some homes are not places of comfort or places one longs to return to. This is a powerful supernatural horror novel about strong women and the pain that shapes them. VERDICT Twists and turns keep readers riveted through the entire novel, and the ending will stick with them for days. Fans of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House will appreciate it.--Victoria Kiszka
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Fowler Island seems like a quaint getaway off the coast of Ohio in Lake Erie, but something sinister lurks beneath its surface--literally. Henrietta Volt, 24, hasn't been back to her childhood home in a decade when Beatrice Bethany, her older half sister, calls in the year 2000 with the news that their father, James, has died and she must return to the island for the funeral. Henrie loved growing up as an island kid alongside B.B., but her memories are fuzzy, especially the circumstances under which she left at age 14 with her mother, Carrie, while B.B. stayed behind with their father. When Henrie and Carrie return for the funeral, their memories, and a whole lot more, take shape, revealing secrets that go back generations. This book has all the elements you could want in a thriller--missing women, a mysterious mansion, monsters, ghosts, and, at its center, a pair of sisters as unsettling as the Blackwoods of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Moulton juggles these pieces well as she moves the story between 2000 and 1989, when the sisters were teenagers. She delivers many delicious moments of suspense and sheer terror. The scope is so ambitious, though, that the story can feel convoluted in some places, while it's oddly thin in others. The island, including the family house and the quarry where some pivotal action takes place, is described in minute detail many times over, while certain subplots remain unexplored. Some aspects of the Fowler and Volt family mythology are revisited to the point of redundancy, while others go unaddressed. Moulton builds a fascinating world but never quite establishes its rules. Still, each point-of-view character who narrates the story--Henrie, B.B., Carrie, and Sonia, the island archivist and a family friend of sorts--pulls off her piece to tell an engrossing tale. A wonderfully weird novel about powerful women, inheritance, and desire. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
