BLURB:

West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter.
 
Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara’s farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that has weighty consequences when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished. In her search for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea’s diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother’s bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked into the historical mystery, she discovers that she’s not the only person looking for someone that they’ve lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself.

MY THOUGHTS:

I’ve been dying (no pun intended) to read a horror book and man, BookTok hit the jackpot with this one. This book is like, cozy and spooky, and can you believe it was published in 2014?! The fact that it’s from 2014 just adds to the spookiness, like finding Sara’s diary ten years later! I’m not sure if cozy and spooky should go together, but that’s exactly what this book is. Jennifer McMahon totally nailed the story and I was all about the historical fiction vibe. The witch element was awesome, and it’ll totally have you flipping pages and double-checking your closet at night, haha. I kept getting flashbacks to all the horror movies I’ve seen. When Sara wanted to bring back her daughter from the dead, I was like, “Nope, this is gonna get crazy.” I mean, everyone knows it’s a bad idea from all those movies, right? Sara was all caught up in her grief and everything, but dang, that was intense. And poor Martin got dragged into this whole mess at the end. Honestly, Sara really got on my nerves, I just couldn’t stand her, lol. McMahon did an amazing job at making that character so aggravating. I was also hoping for more of her niece in the book. It would’ve been so cool to have the story told from her perspective and then the flashbacks to 1908. Imagine having another book just following her niece, since she’s also into all that spooky stuff. Despite everything, I still think this book deserves five stars. The storytelling was top-notch. If you’re looking for a creepy read this fall, you gotta check out The Winter People.

Happy Reading Folks!