In search of a simpler life, Helen and Nate decide to sell their home and move to the Vermont countryside. After purchasing forty-four acres of rural land and drawing up blueprints, the two set out to build their dream home. But the couple soon learns that there’s a reason the land they purchased is so cheap – it has a sinister past. Local legend says that a witch named Hattie Breckenridge lived on the land who was hanged after a murderous crime was committed on the townspeople. Locals say that Hattie still haunts the land.
Meanwhile, a local girl named Olive is not happy that Helen and Nate have moved on to the land. Convinced that Hattie buried treasure on the land before she died, she has been searching for the treasure. Olive knows that if she can find the buried loot her mother, who disappeared a year ago, will come home. The arrival of Helen and Nate has thrown a wrench into Olive’s plans and she’ll do whatever she has to to get them off the land.
Helen and Nate are soon drawn into the ghost stories and become obsessed with their projects – Helen becomes obsessed with decorating the house with morbid artifacts all connected to Hattie. Nate becomes fixated on a white deer he sees on land, a deer that Helen doesn’t believe is real, a deer that only Nate can see. But the real ghost story may only be told after their house is built.
I liked this book a lot and thought it was a great thriller. I wouldn’t necessarily classify this book as scary but it was definitely creepy. There are a lot of supernatural elements that occur in the book and it’s not clear in the beginning what is real and what is fake. The book basically asks a whole new question – what if you didn’t move into a haunted house but built one from the ground up?
The past and the present are blended together in this book and the story is told from multiple points of view. We mainly hear from Helen and Olive but in between their stories, we get snippets of the past and of other characters. What seem to be random narratives from other characters, we soon learn the storylines are all connected in one way or another to Hattie.
The way that both Helen and Nate spiral into obsession was interesting. Was it supernatural induced or not? Helen becomes obsessed with purchasing things for the house that are connected to Hattie, but is that her desire or Hattie’s since the more items Helen fills the house with, the stronger the ghost of Hattie becomes. Similarly, Nate becomes obsessed with a white deer he sees in the forest but is that his will or is Hattie somehow influencing him?
I did figure out a couple of the plot details early on but I don’t think that anything was overly obvious. I feel that the author did a great job of answering any lingering questions and wrapping up all the loose ends.
I thought this was a great ghost story with a twist.
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