The Nesting

By: C. J. Cooke

Narrated by: Aysha Kala

Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

The woods are creeping in on a nanny and two young girls in this chilling modern Gothic thriller.

Architect Tom Faraday is determined to finish the high-concept, environmentally friendly home he's building in Norway - in the same place where he lost his wife, Aurelia, to suicide. It was their dream house, and he wants to honor her with it.

Lexi Ellis takes a job as his nanny and immediately falls in love with his two young daughters, especially Gaia. But something feels off in the isolated house nestled in the forest along the fjord. Lexi sees mysterious muddy footprints inside the home. Aurelia's diary appears in Lexi's room one day. And Gaia keeps telling her about seeing the terrifying Sad Lady....

Soon Lexi suspects that Aurelia didn't kill herself and that they are all in danger from something far more sinister lurking around them.

©2020 C. J. Cooke (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Just okay…

This was an interesting folklore story. However, the story does not ends without explaining the Prologue (the best part). Loose ends were not tied up, leaving lots of questions. The narrator had a lovely, but almost too strong, accent that it was difficult at times to understand what she was saying at times.

Would recommend, probably wouldn’t re-read

An interesting enough story, with just enough paranormal happenings and mystery to be ‘spooky’. I would recommend if you’re looking for something not-too scary to start off an October read-a-thon. Great performance by the reader.

It was ok

I mostly enjoyed the book. It was definitely a slow burn but, u was interested enough to at least finish it.

A Fantastic, Beautifully Crafted Tale

This is a riveting, gothic story poised between the mythical and the real, but, refreshingly, the author does not feel the need to privilege one type of world over the other. It’s clear Cooke did meticulous research, and this enriches the novel greatly. I highly recommend this lovely book!!

Really enjoyed this book

This story held a bit of supernatural, a bit of creepiness, and in the end, a very sweet story. I liked it more than I expected to.

Mysticism and Moody Atmosphere but meh

Meh. 3.5 stars for The Nesting by CJ Cooke, and I am really sad about that! First, I should mention - this book starts out pretty grim and I almost DNF'd it. I am glad I didn't, but trigger warnings about suicide should be noted. However, that dark beginning gives way to a clever story about a woman (Lexie) who, in desperation and out of options, takes another woman's identity (Sophie) and job as a a nanny in Norway. The dark, foggy fjords set the perfect melancholic atmosphere and the author gets high marks for that. The synopsis is also appropriately creepy - a haunted house with two little girls and their absent father mourning the recent loss of their mother presumably to postpartum depression/psychosis and an imposter of a nanny who arrives with her own baggage but determined to take care of the little girls as best she can and all sorts of scary little ghostly sightings and whispers in the night and stuff happening in the locked basement. There is also a supernatural theme and lots of references to mysticism and nature and cultural superstitions. Also, I loved the unreliable narrators - both Sophie and the mother and the way their timelines come together. But what I didn't love was the transitions between characters and narrators telling the story that were often completely out of nowhere and confusing - at least in the audio version. (For whatever reason the author used different person and tense throughout the story and I found that very distracting.) I also thought the author contradicted her own story on multiple occurrences. Supposedly the dad who is an architect is big into preserving nature and yet he diverts a river and cuts down trees like nobody's business. I enjoyed when the author alluded to the supernatural and mystical elements like the elk and the water witch but then somewhere about 3/4's into the story one of the characters pretty much just spells it all out and I was so disappointed. I truly hate when writers "tell" it all in a narrative especially in this genre where you want to not quite know what's going on. You want to have that feeling of unease. So, I detracted at least a star for that. And, then the ending was a bit surprising but not enough to save it. Definitely worth a read but could have been better if the author had transitioned scenes with a little more finesse and not spilled the whole story at the end. I did still like it, though, and think fans of mystery/thriller with a bit of supernatural elements thrown in would like this.

Best Book I’ve Read In A Long Time!!!

An incredible book! It is a very well written gothic mystery, set in several stunning locations and filled with well developed characters and performed by a true professional who knows her accents and voices.
The end of this book actually brought me to tears. It is all at once spooky, beautiful, scary as hell, poignant, and totally relatable.
Not one word out of place in this beautiful and creepy book.
It’s perfect.
My favorite read in several years…
Very, very well done ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️♥️♥️♥️

Enjoyable - not as good as Lighthouse Witches

I listened to Lighthouse Witches first and very much enjoyed it, and was hesitant to listen to The Nesting, especially because a review said it didn't explain the prologue and left a lot of loose ends. I'm guessing that person was doing activities while listening because the prologue was explained (albeit quickly and could have been missed) and I thought it was tied up nicely.

At first, it was hard for me to like the main character (which is generally important for me) but she grew on me. Thankfully her starting accent gets toned down, which is great because it could be hard to understand for these American ears, and I usually don't have many problems with accents.

One distracting thing about the narrator was the way she pronounced the word "says" --- she rhymes it with "raise" most of the time, but not all of the time. Never heard that pronunciation before. I loved how she distinguished male voices effectively without having to lower her pitch drastically. I think a sign of a good narrator is when you can tell who's speaking by tone/accent/inflection alone and she did a pretty good job with that.

captivating

the book was easy to follow, with different timelines taking place throughout. narrator was wonderful, i will be looking forward to her again. highly recommend

Wonderful original story

I love CJ Cooke and this book was one of the best! Great story that had an unexpected twist! The Narrator was exceptional as well. Don’t pass this one up