Scan barcode
beastreader's review against another edition
3.0
I was very intrigued by the premise of this book. I thought it would be paranormal. It is but not in the way that some readers and even I had had originally expected. When I think paranormal, I think werewolves, vampires, etc. This book is none of that just so that you are not disappointed.
I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand I liked this book but on the other hand, I did almost give up on it. This is what happened when I read this book. I read and got to about chapter 4 and then I was done with the book. I was disappointed. What I did than was to flip to the last three chapters of the book and started to read from there. I wanted to know how the book ended. It was from here that I got the whole picture which I would have soon had I kept reading from the beginning. It was just that Michael's wife was getting on my nerves. I thought she was really mean towards Michael, who was just trying to get to know his new baby. What I read in the last few chapters got my interested again to pick up from where I left off at chapter 4 and finish the book. Harrowgate is a haunting story about love and loss.
I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand I liked this book but on the other hand, I did almost give up on it. This is what happened when I read this book. I read and got to about chapter 4 and then I was done with the book. I was disappointed. What I did than was to flip to the last three chapters of the book and started to read from there. I wanted to know how the book ended. It was from here that I got the whole picture which I would have soon had I kept reading from the beginning. It was just that Michael's wife was getting on my nerves. I thought she was really mean towards Michael, who was just trying to get to know his new baby. What I read in the last few chapters got my interested again to pick up from where I left off at chapter 4 and finish the book. Harrowgate is a haunting story about love and loss.
lisathepoetlibrarian's review against another edition
5.0
For me, this book is a allegory for grief and loss. As Elizabeth Bishop writes in her poem "The Art of Losing," our lives are riddled with loss, yet we go on. She writes, "it's not disaster," though her final line belies this, reveals that loss always feels disastrous. Maruyama ingeniously captures what happens when one who loses is stuck in the disaster of loss through the tale of Michael who returns home to his dead wife and child though they remain vividly alive to him. Maruyama's deftness with dialogue and description brings us into this life between lives as we watch and, in some kitchen scenes, smell, the decay of the illusion that we can hold on to what is no longer ours (or just no longer is), no matter how much we love. Reading this book I felt much like Sarah, trapped in a nameless place where time at once stands still and moves more quickly, the place of being immersed in a well-crafted and smartly imagined novel.
lisawreading's review against another edition
4.0
A horror story that is really a tale of love and loss, Harrowgate surprised me with its deep emotional impact and sheer hypnotic pull.
As Harrowgate opens, geologist Michael is rushing home to his pregnant wife Sarah. He'd been out in the field on a remote assignment, and after receiving a cryptic message about an emergency, it has taken him close to two weeks to navigate the Jeep rides and multiple airplane transfers that finally bring him to his New York apartment building. Unable to reach his wife or anyone else, Michael is unsure what to expect. It's early for the baby to arrive, but surely not so early as to be dangerous. Or is it? Michael is relieved to arrive home and find his wife and healthy son waiting for him -- but his bliss is tempered by the presence of an odd stranger, a doula named Greta, who seems to have some sort of hold over Sarah.
At first, Sarah insists that Michael shouldn't touch the baby -- but soon after, Greta urges Michael to be with Sarah and baby Tim as much as possible, to not leave the apartment for any reason, not even to pick up diapers or groceries. Greta's encouragement sounds more like a warning or a threat, though, and there's something not quite right about this person who just keeps showing up.
Questions begin to pile up: Why doesn't Sarah want Michael to answer the phone or go out? Why does the doorman give him such pitying looks? Is Sarah so exhausted by new motherhood that she hasn't noticed the refrigerator full of spoiled food?
The answers, as they come, are chilling and awful. Michael uncovers the truth about his family's tenuous grip on happiness -- but knows too that this happiness has a dark side, and that his ability to hold onto his family may be slipping away.
To go into any further plot details would be a huge disservice, as Harrowgate is a book to be explored and savored, best enjoyed without any advance knowledge of what is really going on. Looming dread and dismay permeate the book, and while this isn't a gore-filled horror novel, it does leave the reader thoroughly spooked.
There's something so creepy about horror stories revolving around birth and babies. Perhaps it's the contrast of joy and innocence with the darkness looming on the other side. I've heard this book compared to Rosemary's Baby or Breed, but beyond the New York setting and the strange events around a birth, the storylines have little in common.
What Harrowgate actually put me in mind of the most, while reading, was The Silent Land by Graham Joyce, one of my very favorite books. In both, there's a central story of love that should be perfect -- except the reader can feel the edge of something wrong surrounding everything joyful that happens.
And there is quite a lot of joy in Harrowgate, despite the fact that it's also very, very sad. At its core, Harrowgate is a love story. The love between Michael and Sarah, and the love they both feel for their baby Tim, creates a power in the little haven inside their apartment that keeps the rest of the world at bay.
While I wish the ending has explained things a little more clearly, I was mostly satisfied with the wrap-up. The emotional depths explored in this book carry such strong notes of tragedy and relentless loss, and yet the journey Michael takes in exploring how very much he loves his wife and child is also quite lovely to read.
You don't have to be a horror fan to enjoy Harrowgate. For anyone who enjoys a touch of creepy gothic mystery set within a familiar landscape, I'd recommend giving Harrowgate a try. Well-written and compelling, this brief novel sucked me in and made it impossible to quit reading before the end.
This review also posted at Bookshelf Fantasies.
As Harrowgate opens, geologist Michael is rushing home to his pregnant wife Sarah. He'd been out in the field on a remote assignment, and after receiving a cryptic message about an emergency, it has taken him close to two weeks to navigate the Jeep rides and multiple airplane transfers that finally bring him to his New York apartment building. Unable to reach his wife or anyone else, Michael is unsure what to expect. It's early for the baby to arrive, but surely not so early as to be dangerous. Or is it? Michael is relieved to arrive home and find his wife and healthy son waiting for him -- but his bliss is tempered by the presence of an odd stranger, a doula named Greta, who seems to have some sort of hold over Sarah.
At first, Sarah insists that Michael shouldn't touch the baby -- but soon after, Greta urges Michael to be with Sarah and baby Tim as much as possible, to not leave the apartment for any reason, not even to pick up diapers or groceries. Greta's encouragement sounds more like a warning or a threat, though, and there's something not quite right about this person who just keeps showing up.
Questions begin to pile up: Why doesn't Sarah want Michael to answer the phone or go out? Why does the doorman give him such pitying looks? Is Sarah so exhausted by new motherhood that she hasn't noticed the refrigerator full of spoiled food?
The answers, as they come, are chilling and awful. Michael uncovers the truth about his family's tenuous grip on happiness -- but knows too that this happiness has a dark side, and that his ability to hold onto his family may be slipping away.
To go into any further plot details would be a huge disservice, as Harrowgate is a book to be explored and savored, best enjoyed without any advance knowledge of what is really going on. Looming dread and dismay permeate the book, and while this isn't a gore-filled horror novel, it does leave the reader thoroughly spooked.
There's something so creepy about horror stories revolving around birth and babies. Perhaps it's the contrast of joy and innocence with the darkness looming on the other side. I've heard this book compared to Rosemary's Baby or Breed, but beyond the New York setting and the strange events around a birth, the storylines have little in common.
What Harrowgate actually put me in mind of the most, while reading, was The Silent Land by Graham Joyce, one of my very favorite books. In both, there's a central story of love that should be perfect -- except the reader can feel the edge of something wrong surrounding everything joyful that happens.
And there is quite a lot of joy in Harrowgate, despite the fact that it's also very, very sad. At its core, Harrowgate is a love story. The love between Michael and Sarah, and the love they both feel for their baby Tim, creates a power in the little haven inside their apartment that keeps the rest of the world at bay.
While I wish the ending has explained things a little more clearly, I was mostly satisfied with the wrap-up. The emotional depths explored in this book carry such strong notes of tragedy and relentless loss, and yet the journey Michael takes in exploring how very much he loves his wife and child is also quite lovely to read.
You don't have to be a horror fan to enjoy Harrowgate. For anyone who enjoys a touch of creepy gothic mystery set within a familiar landscape, I'd recommend giving Harrowgate a try. Well-written and compelling, this brief novel sucked me in and made it impossible to quit reading before the end.
This review also posted at Bookshelf Fantasies.
londysaurus's review against another edition
5.0
Weird. Creepy. Funny. Heartbreaking. Honest. Insightful. Moving and pitch perfect depiction of grief and losses of all sorts. Appropriately mysterious: there are few definitive answers. I loved it. YMMV.
bunnieslikediamonds's review against another edition
2.0
This would have made a great short story, I think. At nearly 300 pages, it was repetitive. The same scenarios kept playing over and over, and the idea, while intriguing, couldn't sustain an entire novel. I wouldn't mind reading something else by the author though.
ninjabunneh's review against another edition
2.0
When I saw Harrowgate while stalking NetGalley, I knew I had to have it. I mean, just look at that synopsis. It sounds creepy, thrilling, dark, everything my little heart desires in a book. And it was all those things, for about 15% of the book.
You're pretty much given all the secrets immediately. Within a few pages, you know what the creepy part is, who the villain is, and the story pretty much deflates like a suicidal balloon.
Page after page it was the same routine. The same things happen, the same pattern of events repeated. Wash, rinse, fall asleep from boredom, repeat.
I kept reading waiting for something more. That something never came.
Now, because I always tend to enjoy the villain in the books I covet, I must discuss Greta. She's our resident evil doer. Greta huffs and puffs and blows bits of black smoke around, but she is about as scary as a unicorn plush toy. If you're going to have a villain your novel, have a villian, not some half-assed shell of one.
I kept waiting for her to do something remotely disturbing. Anything.
I got nothing.
I also have to add that the ending to this book is perhaps the worst I've encountered in the past few months. Pretty much everything is conveniently tied up in a pretty little bow with puppies playing and unicorns frolicking. Not my cuppa.
This book would have been better as a simple short story.
2 Ninja-Bunnehs-Kicking-Your-Shabby-Villian's-Ass stars
(Arc received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)
You're pretty much given all the secrets immediately. Within a few pages, you know what the creepy part is, who the villain is, and the story pretty much deflates like a suicidal balloon.
Page after page it was the same routine. The same things happen, the same pattern of events repeated. Wash, rinse, fall asleep from boredom, repeat.
I kept reading waiting for something more. That something never came.
Now, because I always tend to enjoy the villain in the books I covet, I must discuss Greta. She's our resident evil doer. Greta huffs and puffs and blows bits of black smoke around, but she is about as scary as a unicorn plush toy. If you're going to have a villain your novel, have a villian, not some half-assed shell of one.
I kept waiting for her to do something remotely disturbing. Anything.
I got nothing.
I also have to add that the ending to this book is perhaps the worst I've encountered in the past few months. Pretty much everything is conveniently tied up in a pretty little bow with puppies playing and unicorns frolicking. Not my cuppa.
This book would have been better as a simple short story.
2 Ninja-Bunnehs-Kicking-Your-Shabby-Villian's-Ass stars
(Arc received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)
austinstorm's review against another edition
4.0
The bond between mothers and their newborn children has been mined for horror before - most famously with Rosemary's Baby - but there's plenty more creeping horror to be found.
This book is kind-spirited, and straightforward. The first 3rd is the most plot-heavy and moved very quickly. The middle dragged a bit, and the ending was somewhat underwhelming. But the characters and writing are very good, and the atmosphere is top-notch. I hope she writes more genre.
Feels like a 'writers workshop' kind of book - like Before I Go to Sleep or Gone Girl. It felt workshopped, if you know what I mean. Not a bad thing, I don't think.
This book is kind-spirited, and straightforward. The first 3rd is the most plot-heavy and moved very quickly. The middle dragged a bit, and the ending was somewhat underwhelming. But the characters and writing are very good, and the atmosphere is top-notch. I hope she writes more genre.
Feels like a 'writers workshop' kind of book - like Before I Go to Sleep or Gone Girl. It felt workshopped, if you know what I mean. Not a bad thing, I don't think.
batcountry's review against another edition
3.0
I like this book, but after reflecting on it a few days, there were a few things that were either wrapped up 1)badly or 2)not at all at the end of the book, so I had to knock it down from 4 to 3 stars. The writing is solid except for that problem, and it's a good, weird, sad story, but the holes in the end bug me.
patrisias's review
5.0
Well done! It was particularly successful in creating a creepy and disconnected atmosphere.
seddso's review against another edition
5.0
Having abandoned three books due to the plot being unacceptably close to my own bereavements this year , I thought I was safe with this book. 45% in, turns out bereavement is a major component. But , this book is good.
I bought it because I felt like a scary read , and this book delivers - not shocking but menacing. And the ending wouldn't be out of place on the big screen.
Some parts were difficult for me ie reading about someone getting through a funeral for someone very close was too close for comfort.
Then I thought about the afterlife - a question this book forces you to think about. Is it true ? Does this happen ? Will that make me sad or happy?
Does the author need to think about this as she writes , for fear of upsetting your reader or making them put the book down? I think not. The ending made me cry in two ways - one with worry for Tim, and the other with relief for them all.
Superb.
I bought it because I felt like a scary read , and this book delivers - not shocking but menacing. And the ending wouldn't be out of place on the big screen.
Some parts were difficult for me ie reading about someone getting through a funeral for someone very close was too close for comfort.
Then I thought about the afterlife - a question this book forces you to think about. Is it true ? Does this happen ? Will that make me sad or happy?
Does the author need to think about this as she writes , for fear of upsetting your reader or making them put the book down? I think not. The ending made me cry in two ways - one with worry for Tim, and the other with relief for them all.
Superb.