The Lioness

Title:  The Lioness

Author:  Chris Bohjalian

Publication Information:  Doubleday. 2022. 336 pages.

ISBN:  0385544820 / 978-0385544825

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "Oh, I can't speak for the dead."

Favorite Quote:  "We all look forward - at least, I suppose, until you get to be my age - but how we see tomorrow is grounded so deeply in what lived through just yesterday."

The best thing about a Chris Bohjalian's book is that you never quite know what you will get. Each one is unique - setting, characters, era, plot. Each one is unpredictable. Hour of the Witch is the accusation of witchcraft in Puritan Boston. The Red Lotus takes us to a mystery in Vietnam. The Flight Attendant is about waking up in a hotel next to a dead body and having no idea how you got there. The Sleepwalker enters the world of parasomnia. The Guest Room takes on the issue of sex trafficking. Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is a terrifying look at a school shooting. These are just some of the ones I have read. Some I have enjoyed more than others, but I look forward to each and every one. 

The Lioness takes us to Tanzania and an African safari. Unfortunately, the safari goes very wrong with a kidnapping and carnage on the savannah. The question is, in this group of the rich and famous, who is the target and why. The book begins somewhat at the end. Some survive. Who? That is unclear. The setting of the book in the 1960s brings in elements of the politics of the area at the time and the era of the Cold War.

The story then winds back and forth - to the end, to the safari and kidnapping, and back into individual lives to see what leads each person to be on that safari at that time. Relationships are revealed, and new ones are formed. At the heart of the story is star actress Katie Barslow. She is newly married to David Hill. This trip is actually their honeymoon. Interestingly, they have decided to share their honeymoon with a group of their Hollywood friends (entourage?).

The main cast of characters numbers 13 - nine safari guests and four team leaders. However, even as the story focuses on the events on safari, it reaches back into their individual lives and sees in the future to the survivors. Even as the safari and its events are only a few days, this reach covers so much more. 

With the back stories, the characters themselves come to life. Much of the book I spend wondering who the survivor who begins the book is and why. Why this safari? Why this group? Why the kidnapping? Who survives? How? Is there one within this group who betrays the others? More importantly, for a fictional group, I care about the answers and keep reading until the very end for to know. From African politics and history to Hollywood drama, from relationships to breakups to betrayals, this book weaves together a story in a way I have come to expect from Chris Bohjalian. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Hour of the Witch

Title:  Hour of the Witch

Author:  Chris Bohjalian

Publication Information:  Doubleday. 2021. 416 pages.

ISBN:  0385542437 / 978-0385542432

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "It was always possible that the Devil was present."

Favorite Quote:  "There were  people in the world who were good and people who were evil, but most of them were some mixture of both and did what they did simply because they were mortal. And her Lord? ... He knew it all and had known it all and always would know it all."

A young woman. An only daughter. An educated woman. An abusive marriage. No children. An appeal for divorce. A Puritan town looking for signs of anyone breaking tradition and anyone different. A charge of witchcraft.

This is Mary Deerfield's life in 1600s Boston. She and her family arrive in Boston when Mary is a teenager. Her father is a respected and wealthy businessman - a shipper and an importer of goods. Mary tries to play by the rules. She is a dutiful daughter. She is dutiful wife, hiding evidence of her husband's abuse. Yet, her power of independent thinking does not go well in this town. That combined with Mary's supposed friendship with suspicious persons - a supposed witch and a man who is not her husband - lead to suspicions about Mary herself. She pushes the boundary even further when escalating abuse causes her to file a petition of divorce from her husband. The issue escalates even more so when a series of circumstances lead to an accusation of witchcraft.

This book has all the elements I love about Chris Bohjalian's books. The history is researched and real. According to author interviews, the idea for this book originated in the case of Katherine Nanny Naylor in front of the Boston Court of Assistants in 1672. The case stands out because Nanny Naylor filed for and was able to win a divorce from her husband. She spend the rest of her life living independently. The records of the case can still be found in the Massachusetts Archives Collection. Interestingly, in 1992, archeologists discovered the privy of her home in Boston. Because of the wealth of artifacts found in the privy, the discovery is considered one of the most significant ones from the early colonial period.

Fascinating history aside, the book is at the same time fiction and tells a story that keeps me rapidly turning pages from beginning to the end. The characters - especially Mary herself - are well drawn and the history is so brought to life through them that I think surely, they must be real themselves. The one thing I could have done without is Mary's repeated thoughts about men and about sexual pleasure. For me, that distracts from the story about Mary's rise as a woman.

What I might expect of this book is the story of Puritan New England and a male dominated society. Yet, this book is really the story of the women. It is about the individual strength of Mary herself. It is also about the women who surround her - those who would tear each other down and those who would lift each other up.

By the nature of the time and place, the men play key, visible roles. "This may be the hour of the witch. But the Devil? He most definitely wears breeches. The Devil can only be a man." However, it is the women on whom the story and its final conclusion rests.

The epilogue ending was what I expected given the times. However, I do wish the book had ended with the strength of the women without that add on.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Red Lotus

Title:  The Red Lotus

Author:  Chris Bohjalian

Publication Information:  Doubleday. 2020. 400 pages.

ISBN:  0385544804 / 978-0385544801

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "The opposite of a hospice?"

Favorite Quote:  "But he felt a deep, numinous stitch within him as he recalled the deaths he had seen and the one he'd never get over, and the sad truth that no matter how many or how few people are with you at the end, you really do die alone."

Alexis works in an Emergency Department in New York City. That is, in fact, where she meets Austin. He comes in with a bullet wound, which is deemed a random act of a drunk individual in a bar. But was it? The story reveals that Austin may not be who or what he seems to be on the surface. At the beginning, though, he seems to be Alexis's dream and their meeting seems meant to be.

Months later, the two go on a tour of Vietnam around the Hoi An area. It is a bike tour for Austin who is an avid bicyclist. It is a bike tour in Vietnam so he can pay homage to the places his father and uncle fought in the war. During the course of the tour, Austin disappears.

Then, the mystery begins. Who was Austin? What really brought him to Vietnam? The story itself returns to New York with Alexis. Unwittingly, Alexis steps into the middle of a global thriller involving scientific research, its uses to save lives, and its potential uses for far more dangerous and lethal purposes.

Interestingly, the book title makes its way into the book in two diametrically opposite ways. One is a nod to Vietnamese belief about the red lotus:

"'My grandmother won't eat them.'

'Lotus flowers.'

'She thinks they're sacred. Especially the red lotus ... The heart. They heart a broken heart - but not medicinally. Spiritually.'"

The other is a nickname given to a lab conducting research into disease transmission and the ability to use certain rats as carriers. "They'd christened that one the red lotus, because their transgenic label rats had genes from their Vietnamese counterparts."

The book has a limited number of characters. The "who" of the good guys and the bad guys in the story is made clear early on. The "what" of the enterprise is not a surprise. The "why" of course is money. Even the "how" is easily guessed as the only clue found at the site of Austin's disappearance is a energy gel pack found in the road. The book hold true to its reference to "Occam's razor:  the most likely explanation is probably the correct explanation."

This book came out before the intensity of COVID pandemic became a reality. Reading it at this point through the lens of an actual global pandemic seems prescient. The mystery of this book is not really a mystery. It is more about following Alexis on her journey as she discovers who Austin was and what happened to him. Unfortunately, she is not always a character that I invest in or begin to care about. My favorite character of the book is the private detective for his story has the emotion that seems to be lacking in Alexis's story.

The information about how a contagion might be developed and spread is frighteningly fascinating. The details about rats, I could do without! At the same time, a book about a possible fictional pandemic becomes an escape from the real one.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Flight Attendant

Title:  The Flight Attendant

Author:  Chris Bohjalian

Publication Information:  Doubleday. 2018. 368 pages.

ISBN:  0385542410 / 978-0385542418

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "She was aware first of the scent of the hotel shampoo, a  Middle Easter aroma reminiscent of anise, and then - when she opened her eyes - the way the light from the windows was different from the light in the rooms in the hotel where the crew usually stayed."

Favorite Quote:  "A smart girl is nobody's pushover and nobody's foe. A smart girl is both sword and smile."

Cassandra "Cassie" Bowden is a flight attendant. She is an orphan with a traumatic childhood. She is a party girl. She is promiscuous in her dealings with the men she meets. She is an alcoholic, drinking to the the point of black outs. She is a thief. However, is she a murderer? She doesn't think so, but she is not sure.

A flight from New York to Dubai brings Cassie in contact with Alex Sokolov. A seemingly casual hook-up leads to upending Cassie's life. She wakes up the next morning in Alex's bed in his hotel room. Next to her is Alex, dead with his throat slashed end to end. Cassie remembers her night with Alex up to a point; she has no idea how he ends up dead and how she is alive and still in the room.

So begins this page turner by Chris Bohjalian. I am a fan of Chris Bohjalian's books. I look forward to a new one for a couple of reasons. One because each book that I have read takes on a completely different topic meticulously researched. The ones I have read in recent years dealt with sex trafficking, nuclear disaster, World War II, Armenian genocide, herbalists, and parasomnia. The author's note to this book addresses Mr. Bohjalian's knack for taking on unique topics. "I rarely write what I know. But I always do my homework, and I have come to love the research that goes into my books - partly because of what I learn, and also because of the new friends I make." I look forward to what he decides to take on next.

My second reason for picking up his books are that they are page turners. Usually tasks go undone and sleep gets forsaken as the books draw me and keep me avidly reading page by page until the very end.  I have liked the books to varying degrees but always appreciated the thoughtfulness with which the topic is handled. This one is no different.

The flight attendant's plot line reads like an espionage thriller. However, the book is unlike others in the genre because it is character driven more so than plot driven. The reason behind the execution and the players involved are there to provide sufficient background, but this book is very much the story of two women - Cassie and Elena. One is an alcoholic on a path of self destruction; the other is a trained assassin with principles. Not the most original or thouht provoking of setups but nevertheless entertaining.  It's more like Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train in that regard.

Neither woman makes likable choices, but both are sympathetic characters. The book presents glimpses of the their childhoods, very different in circumstances but very similar in the indelible, traumatic scars that forever change the lives of these two women. It is this character development that keeps me reading. The question for me is not why Alex Sokolov is killed but rather what is to become of these two women.

The ending, when it comes, answers exactly that question. Mind you, the ending is somewhat anticlimactic. The epilogue pushes the boundaries of believability, most markedly skipping over the challenges of dealing with alcoholism. However, until that point, the book is a page turner and an entertaining read. It's not my favorite of his books, but I will continue to look for what Mr. Bohjalian writes next.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Sleepwalker

Title:  The Sleepwalker

Author:  Chris Bohjalian

Publication Information:  Doubleday. 2017. 304 pages.

ISBN:  038553891X / 978-0385538916

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "It makes all the sense in the world."

Favorite Quote:  "Sometimes I'm not sure which hits us harder ... that relief when we wake up from a nightmare and realize it was just a dream, or the sadness when we wake up from a good dream - a really god dream - and realize that nothing was real. And then there are moments like this: you're wide awake and wish you weren't. You wish it was just a dream. That is the worst, I agree."

I am a fan of Chris Bohjalian's books. I look forward to each new one for two reasons. One because usually tasks go undone and sleep gets forsaken as the books draw me and keep me avidly reading page by page until the very end. Second because each book that I have read takes on a completely different topic meticulously researched. The ones I have read in recent years dealt with sex trafficking, nuclear disaster, World War II, Armenian genocide, and herbalists. I have liked the books to varying degrees but always appreciated the thoughtfulness with which the topic is handled.

This book is no different. It centers around parasomnia, which is defined by the dictionary defines parasomnia as any of a group of sleep disorders characterized by unwanted behaviors or perceptions that occur during sleep or partial arousal from sleep. This book also narrowly focuses on the devastation - the guilt and the anguish of one family because of a disappearance.

Annalee Ahlberg and her family live in a small town in Vermont. She is an architect; her husband Warren is a professor. Their older daughter Lianna is twenty-one and a college student at Amherst. Their younger daughter Paige is twelve and on her way to becoming star athlete. Annalee suffers from parasomnia. One night, she disappears. An investigation ensues, and a family is left to cope. The story is told from Lianna's perspective as she attempts to step into her mother's role as homemaker, as she attempts to process her own grief, and as she attempts to investigate what happened.

Two things rankle a bit in this book. One is topic itself - parasomnia. The "unwanted behavior" described in this book is sexual activity; the medical term is sexsomnia. The condition is medically documented and has even been used as a defense in assault and rape cases. However, it leads to some graphic descriptions and makes for uncomfortable reading. So, reader beware. The other jarring note in this book is a relationship that develops that given the circumstances is completely inappropriate and, for me, unnecessary to the story.

This book reminds me of The Double Bind, the first Chirs Bohjalian book I read years ago. Both books narrate a story and in between present short snippets of another narration. In The Double Bind, the interludes were doctor's notes. In this book, they are excerpts from a journal. The big question in The Double Bind was the identity of the patient. The big question in this book is the identity of the journal writer. Is is Annalee whose sleepwalking is at the base of this book? Is it Lianna from whose perspective the main story is told? Is it Paige who is only twelve years old? Is it Gavin, the detective who is Annalee's friend and who is a sleepwalker? Is it perhaps even Warren with an unrevealed secret still to come? Is it another character yet to be introduced? The correct answer to this question is also answers the mystery of Annalee's disappearance.

Given the small number of characters in the book, I do guess the ending. However, I am not sure until the very end when the mystery is finally solved.That is mostly because with Chris Bohjalian's books, I expect a twist. The ending of The Double Bind came as a complete surprise such that I found myself re-reading that book to see if I could have seen this coming. This ending is not a surprise, but the book engrosses me regardless. The plight of this family and the voice of Lianna telling this story involves me into the story. Such is the magic of Chris Bohjalian's writing in most of his books. I find myself completely immersed in the story until the very last page.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Guest Room

Title:  The Guest Room

Author:  Chris Bohjalian

Publication Information:  Doubleday. 2016. 336 pages.

ISBN:  0385538898 / 978-0385538893

Book Source:  I received this book as a publisher's galley through Edelweiss free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "Richard Chapman presumed there would be a stripper at his brother Philip's bachelor party."

Favorite Quote:  "Options. Such a word. Such an idea. Try having options when you have never had options before. Very difficult."

You know a book is a gripping story when you read the last words, still turn the page to make sure there's no more, and then remain wondering, "What happens to these characters next? Are they okay? Will they be okay?"

That is my reaction to The Guest Room, which takes on the very important, very disturbing issue of sex trafficking -  young girls kidnapped or sold into slavery and then marketed as objects. The sadness is the necessity of this book and other fiction and nonfiction books on this issue:

• A Walk Across the Sun touches on this horrific trade in Indian, Europe, and the United States.
• All Woman and Springtime begins the story in North Korea.
• Half the Sky is nonfiction that addresses this topic in the broader view of oppression of women.
• Prayers for the Stolen is a story set in Mexico.
• This is No Ordinary Joy is a memoir of helping survivors of human trafficking in Nepal and India.

Chris Bohjalian brings the story of this terror to Russia and to the United States.  He looks at the situations from many different facets - a young girl caught in the system, a "customer" of the system, and a family with a daughter of their own.

It all stars with a bachelor party gone very very wrong. Richard and Kristin have been married over a decade and are parents to Melissa. Richard hosts a bachelor party for his younger brother Philip. Philip's friend Spencer is in charge of the "entertainment" which turns out to be two young women and their guards.

Philip and his friends are apparently repeat customers of this trade and willing participants. Richard knows but does not object or stop it because "he didn't want to be a prig." Kristin knows but does not put a stop to it; she takes her daughter and plans to be away for the evening. By not objecting, this clean cut suburban couple with a daughter of their own become participants to the prostitution and slavery of young women.

At this bachelor party, things go wrong. The book deals with the fallout from this disaster. The two guards end up dead. The two girls end up on the run. Richard finds his family and his career in shambles. He finds himself at risk for legal implications. He finds himself seeing - truly seeing - the young woman that he met as the "entertainment." Kristin and Melissa are left devastated by Richard's choices. Kristin attempts to recover from this betrayal, protect her own daughter, and determine if her marriage will survive. Melissa finds the very foundations of her world shaken.

We see Richard's perspective and Kristin's. The book also shows the world through Alexandra's eyes. She is one of the two young women. Alexandra's story is the only one that reaches into the path. It traces the trajectory of how an innocent child is turned into a sex slave on the run for her life. She is on the run both from her captors and from the authorities.  Who, or where, can she possibly turn for help?

The parallels between Alexandra and Melissa are striking. The repeated references to the collection of Barbie dolls they both at one time played with touch on the innocence of childhood. They are both dancers and speak of dance studios and ballerina dreams. The implication is clear - the young women caught in this system are the victims. The subtle similarities create that message more strongly than any direct statement. Even Richard sees it. For any "customer" of the trade, the message is clear. These young girls could be your daughter, your sister, your wife - someone you love. Without a spoiler, I will say that the book and the end, though a bit contrived, make sense in light of this message.

Human trafficking and the loss of innocent lives is a global concern. Chris Bohjalian brings this important conversation to light once again in this heartbreaking book.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands: A Novel

Title:  Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands: A Novel

Author:  Chris Bohjalian

Publication Information:  Doubleday. 2014. 288 pages.

ISBN:  0385534833 / 978-0385534833

Book Source:  I read this book because I enjoy the author's work (The Light in the Ruins, The Night Strangers, The Sandcastle Girls). I haven't liked all the books, but I always seek out the new ones.

Favorite Quote:  "I was homesick and sad - and you don't know homesick until you think you will never, ever see your home again. But sometimes I think I was at my best when the world seemed to be at its worst."

The books explains its title, "Close you eyes, hold hands." The reference is to the school shooting in Newtown Connecticut in 2012. The adults in the school had to walk the surviving students out of the school. Yet, in their path lay the bodies of their fellow students who were killed in the shooting. To prevent the children from witnessing that, the students were instructed, "Close your eyes, hold hands."

A powerful reference and image for a powerful book.

Vermont is nicknamed the "Green Mountain State" and is known for its rustic and natural beauty and its spectacular fall colors. In this beautiful setting, Chris Bohjalian places the Cape Abenaki nuclear power plant. The term "abenaki" comes from the tribe name of one of the Algonquin Native American tribes of the Northeast. Disaster in the middle of nature's paradise. "The foliage the autumn after Reactor One exploded was phantasmagorically beautiful ... What every understands but no one this about is that the leaves are spectacular because they're dying ... That beautiful red leaf, in other words, is slowly starving to death."

This book is Emily Shepard's journal. It is sometimes lost and scattered like her. It is sometimes confused and sad like her. The book acknowledges that as well. "Someday I should rewrite this whole mess. Try to put it in some kind of order. Someday I should probably do lots of things."

Emily is a teenager and the daughter of two people who work in the power plant. An accident occurs. One reactor explodes, creating a huge disaster for the plant and a huge surrounding area. Emily's parents die in the explosion, and her father is held responsible for the accident. Emily survives, and she runs. She runs from the disaster. She runs from the notoriety. She runs from the grief. She runs from the shock.

That is where the book begins. Shock, grief, and mental illness all play a role in this book. Emily ends up homeless, living on the streets of Burlington, Vermont. "Life on the streets is f***ing exhausting. It really is. There's nothing harder."

She ends up alone, until she finds Cameron, a little boy running from abuse at a foster home. That humans connection and feeling of responsibility keeps Emily herself safer and away from destruction. "There were times when I was a totally unfit guardian (I almost wrote "big sister"), but not those nights."

Another loss occurs, and Emily runs again. She runs from who she cares about and from people who care about her. "I couldn't do anything right. I didn't belong ... I had betrayed him, and now I was deserting him."

The emotion of this book is vivid and evident on every page. As with other recent books with young protagonists and narrators (Land of Love and Drowning and The Goldfinch), I want to reach out and protect Emily. Emily uses bad language. She is self-destructive. She chooses a path of drugs and prostitution at times to survive. Yet, on the flip side, she is intelligent. She spends hours at the library reading. She is passionate about the poetry of Emily Dickinson. She is all of these things together, and she is still a child who has lost all she holds dear in the world. Through all her bad choices and means of survival, I care and wonder who can help her and how. I wish that I could.

The book is dark and sad. Emily's has her flaws, and her decisions not always likable. Yet, Emily's character becomes so real through the book that I care deeply about her fate. The best recommendation for the book is that as it ends, my reaction is, "But no. I want to make sure she is going to be okay. What happens to her? What happens next?"

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Light in the Ruins

Title:  The Light in the Ruins

Author:  Chris Bohjalian

Publication Information:  DoubleDay. 2013. 320 pages.

Book Source:  I read this book because I have read other books by the author and enjoyed some of them (The Night Strangers and The Sandcastle Girls).

Favorite Quote:  "We make compromises. We look the other way. Then, when it's over, we can't look at ourselves in the mirror."

The Light in the Ruins is a story of World War II as it comes to Italy and a story of a war vendetta carried out about ten year later. The story moves back and forth between the two time periods, slowly revealing bits and pieces about the characters and the events that transpired.

The story centers around the Rosati family. During the war, the Rosatis live on their estate, the Villa Chimera near Florence. Two brothers, Vittore and Marco, serve in the war. Eighteen year old Cristina, along with her parents and Marco's wife and children, live at Villa Chimera. The hope is that the war will end before it truly reaches them. Unfortunately, that is not to be. Italy becomes a battleground, as the Allies reach near, Germany makes a stand, and the Italian partisans fight in the nearby hills. The Rosatis are caught up in the fighting, becoming host to both the Nazis and the partisans.

Ten years later, Francesca, Marco's wife is found brutally murdered in Florence. The police investigate. One of the investigators, Serafina Bettina, was one of the partisans during the war and discovers her own link to the Rosatis.

The book continues with the story from both time periods. Interspersed throughout the thoughts or words of the killer, possibly to provide hints as to the killer's identity and motive. The suspense builds in both time periods throughout the book as the killings and the investigation continue, and as the war comes closer and touches Villa Chimera. Chris Bohjalian's writing brings both time periods and the characters to life.

Most of Chris Bohjalian's books have an unexpected ending, one that makes you look back through the book to see if you could have seen it coming. With this book, the unfortunate thing is that you could not have seen it coming. The ending and the resolution was almost tangential to the main story built throughout the book. As a reader, that takes some of the fun out of it. It's one thing to be surprised. It's quite another to feel that it was almost unrelated. Still, the writing is enjoyable.

The Sandcastle Girls

Title:  The Sandcastle Girls

Author:  Chris Bohjalian

Publication Information:  Knoph Doubleday, Random House. 2012. 334 pages.

Book Source:  I read this book based on enjoying some of the author's other books.

Favorite Quote:  "There are times when exotic is good and times when it isn't."

The Sandcastle Girls is a story blending the present and the past. The present is   the story of Laura Petrosian. She is a writer living with her family in New York. She is of Armenian descent, and a photograph in the newspaper sets her off on a journey through her family's past. The past is Elizabeth Endicott, a young woman who travels to Syria on a mission of mercy and falls in love with Armen, an Armenian man who has lost his family. The setting and background is the history of the Armenian genocide in the early 1900s.

I really wanted to like this book. The history it presents is not one often written about or talked about. Yet, it should be remembered.

Unfortunately, the book is difficult to get involved with. The story weaves back and forth across time, place, and point of view. The differences in the times, places, and points of view are so great that it makes it difficult to maintain the continuity of the story and especially the continuity of the building emotions.

Also, without giving a spoiler, I will say this. The ending was disappointing. It seemed somewhat related to the history being presented in that without these events, this story would not happened. However, it seemed more to be about timing and an individual decision. It made me sad, but it detracted from what the emotions of the book were all about.

I am glad for this book for the history it brings to light. I wish it had been in a more engaging way.

The Night Strangers

Title:  The Night Strangers

Author:  Chris Bohjalian

Publication Information:  Crown Publishers. 2011. 378 pages.

Book Source:  I read this book based on how much I enjoyed reading Double Bind by the same author.

Favorite Quote:  But my mother used to talk about passages and, once in a while, about ordeals. We all have them; we are all shaped by them. She thought the key was to find the healing in the hurt.

The Night Strangers is the story of the Linton family - Chip, Emily, and their twin daughters, Hallie and Garnet. Chip is an airline pilot whose life changed when the plane he is flying crashes, killing 39 people. To rebuild their lives, the family moves from Pennsylvania to a small town in New Hampshire. They buy a house with a past, not the least of which is the door in the basement with 39 bolts. The book deals with recovering from the trauma of the crash and the strange happenings they find in their new home town - from the "herbalists" to the history of the house to the other townspeople with a fear of the herbalists.

The book is part ghost story, part psychological thriller, party mystery, and part family story. Both Chris Bohjalian books I have read were very unpredictable. The endings made me want to re-read the books to see if I saw it coming. This book does have hints throughout as to what is coming and the reason behind the actions of certain characters. Or perhaps, these signs are more visible now that the ending is clear. I won't say more for fear of a spoiler.

Two-fold reaction to this book. The resolution of the story was not one I expected and not one that made me happy. For that reason, the book was unsatisfying. The story did keep me completely engrossed, waiting to see what happened. I left tasks undone and stayed up late to finish it. Certainly, the signs of a satisfying reading experience.