The Invited
by Jennifer McMahon
My Rating: ***** out of 5 stars
Published: April 30, 2019 by Doubleday
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 384
Buy it: Amazon
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What it’s about
Nate and Helen quit their day jobs and leave urban Connecticut for a quieter life in the Vermont countryside. They get a large, beautiful property for a song, and move in to a small trailer on the property while they build their dream house together. That’s when things start getting weird. Helen hears strange noises and she and Nate find that things are going missing from their trailer and from the construction site. Enter Olive, a 14 year old girl, determined to get these people off the land so that she can continue to conduct her hunt for Hattie Breckenridge’s lost treasure. Nate and Helen catch Olive trying to scare them and instead of turning her in, befriend the girl who is still grieving from her mother’s mysterious departure a year earlier.
Olive tells Helen all about Hattie Breckenridge, who owned the land that Nate and Helen are building on a hundred years ago. Hattie came to a violent end thanks to the prejudices of the local townspeople, and her ghost is said to haunt the place still. Helen, an ex-history teacher, becomes obsessed with Hattie’s story and begins to do research on her and her family. She finds that her descendants came to a violent end as well. Meanwhile, strange occurrences continue to happen on the land and Helen is sure that it is Hattie is speaking to her, asking her to help in some way. Helen’s research begins to reveal that Hattie still has living relatives and Helen becomes convinced that she has to find them before the pattern of violence continues.
What I liked about the book
I read the Winter People by Jennifer McMahon a long time ago and loved it. So when I saw this book on Netgalley, I immediately requested to review it. And I wasn’t disappointed!
McMahon does scary well – not overdone, but enough for me to leave the lights on at night. Her stories are based in Vermont, rich with history, and she uses this history to develop her plot. The setting was perfect for this ghost story – a small town, surrounded by a forest, and nearby the Breckenridge home, a swamp. Each area is well thought out and adds to the mood of the book.
She is a great story-teller. Besides the main plot line, this book told the story of 3 generations of the Breckenridge family. Each one was interesting and so developed that I felt they could have been their own novel. She packs so much into her books that they make for very quick reading; I finished both of her books in one day. And to boot, the book offers surprises along the way. I never thought it would end the way it did!
If you are a fan of mysteries, ghost stories or suspense/thrillers, I highly suggest you check this book out. You won’t be disappointed!
Other books like this one
If this book sounds like something you would like, you should also try The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. Another well-done ghost story that will make you want to sleep with the lights on!
I would like to thank Doubleday Books and Netgalley for this ARC, which I received in exchange for an honest review.
