Review by Booklist Review
One stormy night on Marrowstone Island, a sinister house washes up on the beach, elderly Mrs. Culpepper keels over, and her grandson, Simon, disappears after messaging his childhood friend Melissa that his grandmother died of fright. Melissa and their other old friend, Leo, head to Marrowstone to look for Simon, only to find that a long-buried horror is awakening, and they are the only ones who can stop it. Smartly paced, with plenty of action, this genre-bending novel moves between past summers of the trio as kids and teens and the present as Melissa and Leo navigate their uneasy friendship, search for the man they both love, and try to stop the apocalypse. It features stellar characterization, particularly of ambitious Leo, who can see ghosts following a near-death experience as a child, and some fun plot twists that wouldn't be out of place in the soap operas Mrs. Culpepper famously loved. Though the horror elements drive the plot, genuinely scary moments are few and far between, making this a good choice for the horror-curious thriller reader. Recommend to readers who enjoyed The Good House (2003), by Tananarive Due, The Shining Girls (2013), by Lauren Beukes, or Mexican Gothic (2020), by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
During a stormy night on an island off the coast of Washington, an elderly woman sees that a house has washed up on the beach. She recognizes it from her nightmares, and seeing it scares her to death. When Melissa tries to return a late-night message from the woman's grandson and caregiver Simon, a police officer answers his phone because Simon is nowhere to be found. This creepy open introduces an unforgettable place where Simon, Melissa, and Leo first met in 1985, spending their summers together. The narrative moves back and forth between those many summers and the present, building on the characters, their relationships, and the odd occurrences that happen around them. Back on the island, Melissa and Leo, mostly estranged now but desperate to find Simon, work together to decipher dangerous secrets. The stakes are high, and these two old friends might be the island's only hope. VERDICT Priest (Cinderwich) is popular with library audiences from teen to adult, and her latest will appeal to both. A great suspenseful and twisty story, reminiscent of Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher, and The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon.
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