Aaron and Bridge Quinlan's father has died and they are now traveling to meet their mother and sister Franny at a huge property in the Pacific Northwest to participate in the reading of his will. All of them are confused when they learn that to claim their inheritance, they have to stay on the property for thirty days without any contact with the outside world. They find this strange, but ultimately they agree to this. However, they will soon learn that the family has a lot of secrets...

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Aaron and Bridge Quinlan's father has died and they are now traveling to meet their mother and sister Franny at a huge property in the Pacific Northwest to participate in the reading of his will. All of them are confused when they learn that to claim their inheritance, they have to stay on the property for thirty days without any contact with the outside world. They find this strange, but ultimately they agree to this. However, they will soon learn that the family has a lot of secrets...

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!
( )

Pyper's writing sucked me in yet again, and I found it hard to put down this book for the duration of it. I'm not sure it lived up to the other novel I read by him (The Demonologist), but the eerie concept, setting, and build of this book was entrancing. It did feel a bit rushed in some of the scenes/beats leading up to the final climax, but then again, that might have partly been my urge to keep turning pages as fast as I could so that I could figure out what was coming. Regardless, this is a fascinating novel that I'd say lands on the horror side of thrillers, and I can't wait to read more by him.

Absolutely recommended. ( )

3.5 stars

Aaron, his mother, and his two sisters, Bridge and Fanny, are brought together at an isolated lodge/acreage(?) to be read the will of their father/husband, who had a fairly secret life, of which neither his kids, nor his wife knew much about. It turns out he was worth millions, but to be able to inherit this fortune, all four must stay at this lodge/acreage for 30 days with no contact with the outside world. They agree, but there are more surprises (and scares) to come.

I was reading this often while distracted. I really feel like I would have “enjoyed” the scary atmosphere of it more, had those distractions not been there. One thing I didn’t like, though, was that not everything was revealed to the reader at the end (unless I was distracted when it was?). Not everything I read needs to be tidied up at the end, but it seemed Aaron knew about it - it just wasn’t revealed to the reader, and I would have liked to have known what that little tidbit was. There were definitely some surprises I would not have guessed at. ( )

Damn you, Andrew Pyper. I've read all your novels, I've met you several times, even taken a writing class or two that you lead. My point is, I've been a fan pretty much since the beginning.

I discovered you through your first, incredible novel, [b:Lost Girls|1681118|Lost Girls|Andrew Pyper|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1360618432l/1681118._SY75_.jpg|1677689], and, to be perfectly honest, I feel like I've been chasing that first high I got reading you like an addict chases that first high that they'll never find.

And this was absolutely not the book to get that high with. I'm not going to spoil anything here, so these next few paragraphs will be necessarily vague.

It started out with a ton of promise. In fact, when the lawyer drops that first bombshell, I actually said, "Okay, Pyper, you got me. This is gonna be fun!"

With the addition of the second bombshell and more characters, I was taken aback, but felt it just added to the mystery of who Daddy Quinlan really was.

But then, we got a couple of more characters, and, while the train hadn't yet jumped the rails, it was trembling a lot.

As soon as the secret at the base of the stairs is introduced, I realized right then and there that this was not going to be a slow reveal of characters, and their interconnected relationships with each other, as was promised in the first half of the novel. It turned into Lost meets the Big Brother reality TV show, with small whiffs of Friday the 13th and Black Mirror.

Which could have been good. But it wasn't.

Instead, it turned into a big ol' bucket fulla dumb. There's so many logistical questions that weren't answered, and simply need to be for me to even consider suspending my disbelief for this entire venture. And it jumped the rails.

If you choose to ignore my warning and ignore this book, just ask yourself two questions throughout the entire novel.

What was the point of all this? What did the one(s) running this whole thing hope would be achieved?

You will read all the pages, and you won't be able to answer those questions.

I love you, Andrew Pyper, but your last three novels have felt more like movie/series pitches than they have well-built stories. ( )